Potential iPhone customers in Sweden were not impressed with rate plans initially announced by Telia Sonera, the local cell phone carrier. Here are the Swedish plans as initially announced1:
| iMini | iMidi | iMaxi | |
| Voice minutes | 100 | 250 | 1000 |
| Data | 100 MB | 250 MB | 1000 MB |
| Plan cost per month (CDN)2 | $ 51.04 | $ 83.48 | $ 146.64 |
Customers were also given the option of upgrading to unlimited data for an additional $ 33.97 per month.
As you can see in the table, buckets for voice minutes and data minutes, especially on the less expensive plans, were very small.
So the Swedes complained. Quite a bit, it seems. Telia Sonera then revised the offering, making their existing voice plans available to customers, and keeping the unlimited data option intact.
On July 11, Swedish customers will be able to pick up an iPhone with a voice plan that costs as little as $16.90, and still add on the unlimited data option for $33.97.
We need to keep up the pressure, folks. If the Swedish telco changed their plans for the better, Rogers can too.
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What about the other Rogers voice and data plans? Here in Canada it's worth noting that the combined voice/data plans for iPhone announced by Rogers are not the only ones available. As mentioned on their site, there are other data plans that can be tacked on to other voice plans. It's not clear exactly what voice plans are eligible to be combined with the "a la carte" data plans. The selection of voice plans is mind-boggling, and the plans available apparently vary depending on where you live in Canada. Here are a few voice plans available to a buyer in Toronto, Ontario. Note that the least expensive plan, highlighted in green, is $30 for 150 minutes. Sound familiar? Now if we look again at the "a la carte" data plans, we'll see that we could buy a $15 plan and receive a measly 2 MB data allowance. Or, we could pick the $30 data plan, and receive 300 MB of data. Let's go with that -- $30 for the least expensive individual voice plan, and $30 for 300 MB of data. Great! We've now equalled the cost of the least expensive combined plan, and we have 100 MB less data available to be used. It seems that Rogers, having received complaints regarding the combined plans, is responding with an offer to take even worse "a la carte" voice and data plans. It's just not good enough. If you agree, keep making your voice heard to Rogers, spread the word to family and friends, and do not buy the iPhone on July 11 (or afterward, for that matter). |
1 Source: Macworld
2 All prices in Canadian dollars using conversion rates posted at www.xe.com/ucc on Saturday, July 5, 2008. Taxes not included.
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Je remercie Iaroslav Timofeev pour la traduction française.