This week Rogers revealed that, while they have no plan to lower their iPhone rates regardless of how many people sign an online petition or join a Facebook Group, they will be allowing their customers to ignore the iPhone-specific voice-and-data plans being offered and choose to use Apple’s handset with their existing smartphone data plans which are designed for slower data speeds and uses limited to e-mail and web surfing.
Correction/Update I asked Rogers to provide me with a link to the plans they recommend as an option to their iPhone-Specific rates and have changed the below links and information to reflect their answer. The Windows Mobile Data Plans can be used with the iPhone and are found under the Business Packages section of their rates. These can be added to a voice plan to make your own package.
Rogers offers a selection of smartphone plans ranging from $15 to $100 that include unlimited use of e-mail and web surfing to a specific list of websites. Beyond that, other data use will be limited to a ceiling of between 2MB and 6GB per month.
Let me make this very clear – all iPhones, regardless of plans, will be activated for data use, and according to my briefings with Apple, the iPhone uses far, far, far more data than any other phone on the market.
There is a long list of features that make use of a data connection – text messaging, e-mail, web browsing, GPS navigation, YouTube streaming, accessing both the iTunes and Apps Store, the Apps themselves, even the Push Notifications that will be used by the Apps, they can all contribute to your data usage.
Even if you take steps to try to limit your use of such features, you can try to use Wi-Fi) if your smartphone limit allows you to only use 2MB - 4MB of data transfer per month, you can accidentally blow through that in just a few days.
Those who make that mistake will then be on the hook for a penalty per MB overage (varies according to plan) and that’s only if you sign up for their Overage Protection plans which themselves range between $15 to $60 depending upon the smartphone rate.
Yes you can sign up for the basic $15 or $25 Windows Data plan and try to limit yourself just to e-mail, but it won’t take much to suffer overage penalties that will make it more expansive than the basic $60 iPhone voice-and-data plan.
The only way to find a balance would be to go for one of the higher-end Smartphone plans, $30 for 300 MB as that I believe would be manageable, but when you add that to a voice plan, it's still an expensive option.
You can ignore the data plans completely and go with just a voice plan with the aim of using the iPhone for basic talking and iPod features, but again, make the mistake of accidentally using a data feature and you will be charged five cents per kilobyte.
Since Rogers first announced their data rates last Friday I have been investigating the data consumption of the new iPhone 3G and have yet to find anyone within the industry who can give me an average user rate. This is partly because the use is different between one user and another, and partly because the upcoming Apps make it hard to predict what the demand of data will be of those new programs. The only solid answer I have been given so far, is to expect that iPhone users will go through more data than those of other Smartphones on the market.
There will be options for users to try to limit their usages to keep it under the minimum $60, 450 MB Rogers voice-and-data plan, the iPhone is designed to choose a wi-fi signal over a cellular one for data if the option is there, but to try to fit the iPhone to a 4MB or even a 300 MB monthly limit may prove to be a balancing act without a net and a steep financial drop.
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