Chris Blackwell’s Domain

Two weeks today I should have a nice new shinny 3G iPhone in my hands, Yah! Yesterday rogers released the pricing details on the iPhone voice and data plans. Unfortunately there is no unlimited data plan like previously rumored, and the plans seem to price themselves right out of the student market which is the iPhone’s biggest market in the US.

The lowest price plan starts at $60 and includes 150 minutes of talk time, unlimited evenings and weekends (Rogers starts the evening at 9:00pm), and 400MB of data transfer. Add on that annoying $8 network charge plus the $15 “value pack” and you are up at $100+ a month for the smallest plan. These plans are a far cry away from what we saw from AT&T in the US with last year’s iPhone.

I know the pricing for the iPhone plans is going up in the US because of the 3G option. However, is badly as the US 3G coverage is, it is much worse here in Canada. Only a few select cities have the 3G network and the vast majority of the country is still on the EDGE network. I don’t think I’ll have to line up in a couple weeks time for my iPhone, with this pricing structure, Rogers will have kept the demand WAY down.

Apple today officially announced the iPhone will launch later this month in Canada on the Rogers Wireless network. This comes as some surprising news, as we reported earlier that the iPhone was not due to launch in Canada until September 8. Apple has announced that the 16GB iPhone will be available for $499 with a 3-year contract. The data rate plans are said to be along the same lines as the AT&T plans that are currently offered with the iPhone. Sorry to everyone out there who is currently giving their hopes up. Hope you all have a good April Fools Day!

Andy Walker from Cyberwalker.com seems to have the inside scoop on the iPhone coming to Canada this September. Andy’s source claims that the iPhone will launch in Canada on September 8 with Rogers Wireless. The post also hints that new data plans will be coming with the iPhone that are more along the lines of the data plan rates that are currently available in the US. This will be great for both iPhone fans and anyone else who currently has a data plan with Rogers.