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Sep 01
Monday
BlackBerry General
New Rogers Data Pricing and Features for 1 October
Comments September 1, 2008 – 11:12 | Permalink | Print This Post |

rogerslogo
rogerslogo

Thanks a recent internal evaluation of data usage statistics, Rogers has decided to revamp their entire mobile data price plan options effective 1 October.

The new plans — which range from $15 to $80 — will allow users to choose from as little as 2MB or as much as 8GB data with a very generous overage protection policy.

More Data for Less

While people will continue to debate whether or not Rogers is giving their customers enough data for their money, all can agree that Rogers has been extremely proactive in the last year at improving their data offerings. (Remember paying $40 for 7MB of BIS data in October 2007?)

rogers-october-data-pricing
rogers-october-data-pricing

Brushing aside the $15/2MB option designed for light email users, Rogers will be offering 500MB of data for $25. And while this may seem to light for some, 95% of Rogers customers who use the data-hungry iPhone 3G use less than 500MB of data. (Surprisingly, 91.2% used less than 200MB of data.)

But since tethering is allowed on all of the data plans, most people will opt for the $30/1GB plan feeling that the $60/3GB or $80/8GB option is far too rich. (This will be especially true when one considers that the $30/6GB promotional plan will still be available until 1 October.)

3 Months “Freedom of Data”

Many customers will find themselves being advised to try out the $15/2MB plan first as all of the new plans come with 3 months of unlimited data so that users can accurately gauge how much data they use per month.

SMS Data Alerts

Customers will be notified by SMS when they have exceeded their monthly data limit. This is designed to give the customer the chance to switch to plan with more data.

Overage Costs Capped at a Max of $100 (!!!)

No longer will users be shocked to find themselves owing Rogers hundreds to thousands of dollars in data overages during a very data-intensive month. Come 1 October, the most a data plan subscriber will be charged for overages is $100. That’s it.

Excited? Dissapointed? Jealous? Please feel free to leave us a comment and let us know below. We’re sure Rogers is reading.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Hamilon at Rogers Wireless.
Written by BlackBerryForums.com user MikeyPants (Previous BlackBerryNews Writer)

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  • james
    i think thats great about the 100 dollar max overage charge, but the data pricing is still a little expensive

    im glad i got the 6 gig 30 dollar plan on my bold.. its almost imposible to use more than 6 gigs in a month
  • dan
    Hey, ROGERS, what happened with keeping up with market trends? This is a huge disapointment (and what will get 4 cell contracts to Bell)

    Doesnt Bell and Telus offer unlim data plans for WAY LESS? Granted, they dont offer tethering with their data plans, but from what I understand, smartphones (aka blackberries, new LG's, iPhone and co) are media intensive and using the bulk of the bandwidth use for the majority of users.

    ROGERS, I would've thought you would have learnt something from the iPhone (data plan) fiasco, but this is the final straw that proves otherwise.
  • RedNightHawk
    @ Dan
    Bell and Telus offer unlimited e-mail and text for $15 month, but my understanding is that doesn't include data for stuff like surfing the web or BB maps, etc.
  • Dan, as the iPhone 3G data statistics show, the overwhelming majority of smartphone users will not exceed 500MB let alone 200MB.

    When one takes into consideration that all data that passes through blackberry.net is highly compressed one begins to realise that for nothing more than on-device data 500MB is more than enough. In fact, I challenge you to use over 200MB on device with non-stop internet usage. I have only done this once and I am always using data.

    Yes, both Bell and Telus offer unlimited on-device data for $30 a month, but as you said, this does not include tethering. For the majority of the people that I know the ability to tether is a very important need while on the go.

    If you want the best BlackBerry data plan in Canada, I would advise you to sign up today for the Rogers $30/6GB promotional plan. The 3-year data contract has a minuscule cancellation fee of $100 which surely will be recuperated from occasional tethering. (And this is not to mention the fact that it is highly unlikely that you are going to be cancelling your data plan.)
  • dan
    re: RedNightHawk

    Check again my friend...30$ for either company gets you unlim data including browsing, watching YouTube, emails and update your BB with all that Crackberry has to offer (the only exception is tethering)
  • cobald75
    30 Bucks still sounds cheap, but you can only benefit from Rogers 3 G in the Cities.
    The Evil Empire Telus has their EVDO-A in more places than Rogers has the HSPA.
    If you work in Alberta's Oilpatch guess what Telus is their Empire of choice.
  • RFA
    What I don't get is the $15-2Mb plan. What can you do with 2mb? The jump from 2mb to 500Mb is so big, everyone will be told to get the 500Mb after the trial is over. Why not a $15 for 250Mb?
  • Usman
    Yes sadly no tethring its like giving you a ferrari and then telling u "u get a ticket for going over 60" pretty crappy the CSRs will tell u that tethring is part of the data plan get u all excited only to find out when u talk to BB support that it will be billed at 2 cents per kb


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