* It's exclusive, it's expensive, but as I'm sure you're seeing now, I think it's well worth it every time I pull out that damn shiny thing.
Jon Lax
· 1 year ago
Rogers has the keys to the kingdom by being the only GSM carrier. Apple has to come through them to get to the Canadian market so until Apple is ready to play ball with Rogers there isn't much business incentive.
As you noted Rogers is benefiting from the data plans now with unlocked phones. They don't need to give any of it to Apple further disincenting them to 'officially' sell it.
If TELUS moves to GSM, as they have suggested they may, the iPhone would become an important differentiator in the market.
As for the CRTC, they are as ineffective and irrelevant as always. RIM probably has enough pull in government to make this a non issue.
David Crow
· 1 year ago
Does this fall under the auspices of the CRTC or the Competition Bureau ?
'The CRTC will continue to deal with issues related to interconnection and access.'
'The Bureau will deal with price fixing, bid rigging and price maintenance.'
So it depends, is this an access issue or one of pricing?
James Blair
· 1 year ago
As ridiculous as I think the situation is at the moment (Thomas Purves' mobile data graph is just enraging), it is only getting worse. It is clear that the Internet/web is going mobile. When it does, where will Canada be? Behind.
Les Muise
· 1 year ago
Wireless on any level is not where the market wants it to be in Canada. The reality of business travel in this country is that even in the small territories its impossible to function without a cell phone and any corporate system that relies on its sales force having real time on the road access is paying ridiculous rates for mediocre service.
Reliability & access in rural areas is questionable at best. In Atlantic Canada the main corridor (better know as the Trans Canada Highway) connecting the key cities is not bad but if you have to travel off the beaten path you better by a client of Bell Aliant if you want any connection.
We have a way to go before the concept of wireless everywhere is a reality.
As far as the iPhone & Rogers . its time for Rogers (hear me Bill Linton, CFO Rogers) to get off their ass and get on with making that deal.
Scott
· 1 year ago
I didn't see any mention of Comwave here which is another stumbling block for Apple since they own the legal rights to the name 'iPhone' in Canada. If there's any real movement coming on bringing the iPhone (the real one) to us Canucks, Apple needs to get that sorted out first. Any deals they make with Rogers are essentially meaningless until that issue is resolved.
Personally, I'm tired of having to hack my iPhone and deal with the hassles involved in keeping it sync'd up in terms of software releases. I've got better things to do with my time & like writing apps for the platform now that the SDK is out, not monkeying around with keeping my phone working. It would be nice to be able to use the data part of my monthly plan without the fear of unreasonable bills too.
Farhan Thawar
· 1 year ago
Why are you paying $80 for 200MB when you can be paying $65 for a gig?
Thomas Purves
· 1 year ago
My theory for the iPhone in canada here: <a href="http://wirelessnorth.ca/2008/02/28/i-phone-in-canada-expect-it-as-early-as-this-summer/
Canada will come after iPhone2 is out. No Canadian carrier has much clout with global equipment makers, our National carriers are too small. China Mobile or even T-mobile globally, moves more devices in a week than Rogers does in a year.
It all comes down to high prices, low competition, low penetration.
In the UK average penetration is 1.6 phones per consumer, in Italy 2.0, in Canada more like 0.7
Jim Murphy
· 1 year ago
Imagine yourself as the guy @ apple responsible for rolling out iPhone globally. Even Apple has limited resources which means planning needs to be prioritized.
After the US you make a quick list of international markets:
China India EU UK Russia/Eastern Europe Brazil Chile Mexico Rest of South America South East Asia Japan Australia .. .. Canada
Point is & we're small and we're complicated. Thast makes making a deal here a pain in the ass. Why bother. I'd go after other markets first too. Its our loss. There should be MUCH more discontent about status quo. But I get the feeling Canadians like the abuse.
P Kayne
· 1 year ago
Congrats on finally getting an iPhone. I have had one since October and have been happily been using it at home and around the city. I use Bell’s $35/service wifi service while I am out and about and my own wifi at home.
I also have it unlocked with AnySim. So when I am travelling for work, I just get a sim card at the airport when I land and I am instantly up and running. I certainly can’t go back to life without my little buddy.
The State of wireless and communications in Canada has sucked since its inception and most notably since the proliferation of mobile phones.
The problem is that Canadians don’t stand up for their rights and don’t complain. I have been in Europe, across North America and even in Latin America and the Caribbean. Everywhere else rates are competitive and when you ask how they are so low, the answer is most often that the local public demand is very vocal and have demanded that regulators open up the market to allow more local and international competition.
CRTC can not be changed if Canadians don’t demand change. CRTC protecting these Canadian monopolies has done nothing for us. And frankly, now with these prohibitive rates, they are now starting to inhibit the growth of mobile technologies and the mobile internet.
One other thing, I don’t agree with the view that owning an iPhone is an exclusive club. Because of the nature of the technology, this is type of device that can and will be readily adopted by all. And associating a cache or being an iPhone flasher is somewhat pathetic. Save that for the Crackberry cowboys.
Ken Seto
· 1 year ago
I've had an email conversation with someone from the Competition Bureau about how they let Rogers buy FIDO to effectively create a monopoly in the GSM market.
I was basically told they felt there wasn't a need to distinguish between CDMA and GSM service providers so according to them, there was no monopoly.
I also had an iPhone but my unwillingness to pay Rogers through the nose for data rendered it useless.
Now I use a wannabe iPhone, the HTC Touch. But through Bell, it came with a $7/mth unlimited internet plan. Opera Mini works nicely on it. The phone part ain't so great though.
My hopes are for Telus to bring the iPhone when/if they go GSM.
Chris Taggart
· 1 year ago
I've heard from some Rogers' employees that Rogers actually has the iPhones (3G) in hand already. They just can't sell them yet, due, likely in part to the Comwave trademark.
ray
· 1 year ago
Hi, I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too; BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run <a href="http://www.rambhai.comwhere" target="_blank">www.rambhai.comwhere you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage! This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :) Cheers,
edison
· 11 months ago
very nice and informative site.. keep it up... reply
mirc
· 8 months ago
very nice and informative site
deni
· 5 months ago
thansk (writes a standard ASP.NET application, and then separately configures)
sağlik videoları
· 5 months ago
saglik videoları
pursaklargencleri
· 5 months ago
koskos thankyou
Photomania
· 5 months ago
Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics
All Comments
Welcome to the club!*
* It's exclusive, it's expensive, but as I'm sure you're seeing now, I think it's well worth it every time I pull out that damn shiny thing.
Rogers has the keys to the kingdom by being the only GSM carrier. Apple has to come through them to get to the Canadian market so until Apple is ready to play ball with Rogers there isn't much business incentive.
As you noted Rogers is benefiting from the data plans now with unlocked phones. They don't need to give any of it to Apple further disincenting them to 'officially' sell it.
If TELUS moves to GSM, as they have suggested they may, the iPhone would become an important differentiator in the market.
As for the CRTC, they are as ineffective and irrelevant as always. RIM probably has enough pull in government to make this a non issue.
Does this fall under the auspices of the CRTC or the Competition Bureau ?
I don't know and apparently it's a little unclear depending on legal arguments.
So it depends, is this an access issue or one of pricing?
As ridiculous as I think the situation is at the moment (Thomas Purves' mobile data graph is just enraging), it is only getting worse. It is clear that the Internet/web is going mobile. When it does, where will Canada be? Behind.
Wireless on any level is not where the market wants it to be in Canada. The reality of business travel in this country is that even in the small territories its impossible to function without a cell phone and any corporate system that relies on its sales force having real time on the road access is paying ridiculous rates for mediocre service.
Reliability & access in rural areas is questionable at best. In Atlantic Canada the main corridor (better know as the Trans Canada Highway) connecting the key cities is not bad but if you have to travel off the beaten path you better by a client of Bell Aliant if you want any connection.
We have a way to go before the concept of wireless everywhere is a reality.
As far as the iPhone & Rogers . its time for Rogers (hear me Bill Linton, CFO Rogers) to get off their ass and get on with making that deal.
I didn't see any mention of Comwave here which is another stumbling block for Apple since they own the legal rights to the name 'iPhone' in Canada. If there's any real movement coming on bringing the iPhone (the real one) to us Canucks, Apple needs to get that sorted out first. Any deals they make with Rogers are essentially meaningless until that issue is resolved.
Personally, I'm tired of having to hack my iPhone and deal with the hassles involved in keeping it sync'd up in terms of software releases. I've got better things to do with my time & like writing apps for the platform now that the SDK is out, not monkeying around with keeping my phone working. It would be nice to be able to use the data part of my monthly plan without the fear of unreasonable bills too.
Why are you paying $80 for 200MB when you can be paying $65 for a gig?
My theory for the iPhone in canada here: <a href="http://wirelessnorth.ca/2008/02/28/i-phone-in-canada-expect-it-as-early-as-this-summer/
" target="_blank"><a href="http://wirelessnorth.ca/2008/02/28/i-phone-in-canada-expect-it-as-early-as-this-summer/" target="_blank">http://wirelessnorth.ca/2008/02/28/i-phone-in-canada-expect-it-as-early-as-this-summer/
Canada will come after iPhone2 is out. No Canadian carrier has much clout with global equipment makers, our National carriers are too small. China Mobile or even T-mobile globally, moves more devices in a week than Rogers does in a year.
It all comes down to high prices, low competition, low penetration.
In the UK average penetration is 1.6 phones per consumer, in Italy 2.0, in Canada more like 0.7
Imagine yourself as the guy @ apple responsible for rolling out iPhone globally. Even Apple has limited resources which means planning needs to be prioritized.
After the US you make a quick list of international markets:
China
India
EU
UK
Russia/Eastern Europe
Brazil
Chile
Mexico
Rest of South America
South East Asia
Japan
Australia
..
..
Canada
Point is & we're small and we're complicated. Thast makes making a deal here a pain in the ass. Why bother. I'd go after other markets first too. Its our loss. There should be MUCH more discontent about status quo. But I get the feeling Canadians like the abuse.
Congrats on finally getting an iPhone. I have had one since October and have been happily been using it at home and around the city. I use Bell’s $35/service wifi service while I am out and about and my own wifi at home.
I also have it unlocked with AnySim. So when I am travelling for work, I just get a sim card at the airport when I land and I am instantly up and running. I certainly can’t go back to life without my little buddy.
The State of wireless and communications in Canada has sucked since its inception and most notably since the proliferation of mobile phones.
The problem is that Canadians don’t stand up for their rights and don’t complain. I have been in Europe, across North America and even in Latin America and the Caribbean. Everywhere else rates are competitive and when you ask how they are so low, the answer is most often that the local public demand is very vocal and have demanded that regulators open up the market to allow more local and international competition.
CRTC can not be changed if Canadians don’t demand change. CRTC protecting these Canadian monopolies has done nothing for us. And frankly, now with these prohibitive rates, they are now starting to inhibit the growth of mobile technologies and the mobile internet.
One other thing, I don’t agree with the view that owning an iPhone is an exclusive club. Because of the nature of the technology, this
is type of device that can and will be readily adopted by all. And associating a cache or being an iPhone flasher is somewhat pathetic. Save that for the Crackberry cowboys.
I was basically told they felt there wasn't a need to distinguish between CDMA and GSM service providers so according to them, there was no monopoly.
I also had an iPhone but my unwillingness to pay Rogers through the nose for data rendered it useless.
Now I use a wannabe iPhone, the HTC Touch. But through Bell, it came with a $7/mth unlimited internet plan. Opera Mini works nicely on it. The phone part ain't so great though.
My hopes are for Telus to bring the iPhone when/if they go GSM.