New iPhone purchasers are pleased Rogers Communications has cut how much it costs to buy a plan for the device.
Richard Nowak, a Townehouse Tavern employee and movie producer, lined up at 7 a.m. Friday outside the New Sudbury Centre Rogers store. Though he already had an iPhone from the U.S., he decided to upgrade his device with the new product now on the market.
“I paid $65 and then took the $20 value pack which gives me all the text messaging and all the visual voice mail so my bill will be about $85 per month. That is really really good,” said Nowak.
At a later date, Nowak said he could add a long-distance plan.
Nowak is an iPhone pioneer, having purchased a U.S. phone last October.
“I just really had to have it. It is the best phone I ever had,” said Nowak.
The new iPhone offers fast 3G wireless technology, GPS maps, support for features like Microsoft Exchange, a wide screen iPod, full web browsing and rich HTML e-mail.
“I was really upset with the original rate by Rogers. I looked at it and I said what the heck is going on. Today this is much better,” said Nowak.
Originally, the Rogers rates were really high, he said.
“There was like a 40,000 person petition which went to Apple. I signed it myself,” he said.
Under that plan, the cheapest plan offered only 400 megabytes of data, 150 minutes of weekly talk time and unlimited evenings and weekends for $60 per month plus fees and taxes, said a Friday Toronto Star article by Chris Sorensen, business reporter.
“Rogers got a lot of media heat - front page news about how the rates were too high. Two days ago, they released a six gigabyte data plan for $30 per month. That is pretty close to unlimited as you are going to get. That makes it really good,” said Nowak.
Rogers buckled under the pressure, said Nowak. The new rate is good until Aug. 31, 2008.
“Of interest is that the iPhone will not be available in Apple stores today. They are being sold only through Rogers stores because Apple and Rogers have had this disagreement over the original rates,” he said.
This is a step in the right direction, said Nowak.
New Sudbury Centre store Wireless Wave manager Jamie R. Lajeunesse said he only had one iPhone left at 11 a.m. due to lineups earlier in the morning.
“Business has been brisk. I expect to get more phones shortly,” said Lajeunesse.
