Fido yanking unlimited data plans?
Ouch! According to Alex, Fido is going to get rid of their unlimited data plan:
29 days into my love affair with an unlocked Treo and I have discovered why it’s nice not to be married to any one cell phone carrier. I made the leap into wireless, thinking that Fido’s unlimited data plan offered a net; they’ve since pulled the plan, though existing subscribers are grandfathered in — for now. One of Fido’s customer service reps told me today that Fido is planning to scrap its unlimited plan altogether once it migrates to the Rogers network as of September 15th.alexandrasamuel.com: Scratching at Fido’s door
I'm one of the "grandfathered" subscribers, as is Roland. I can't help but wonder where this will end. Competition is rapidly going out the window in the Canadian cell service market. I've complained before that our lack of adoption of advanced services is putting us at a disadvantage to places like Europe and the US.
I had previously looked into perhaps getting a US plan. The "fine print" apparently says that a certain percentage of time has to be spent on network, but I have anecdotal reports that this isn't enforced. In any case, I'll be watching to see future Fido/Rogers plans.
Update: Think I'm exaggerating how ridiculous this is? Om reports that Verizon is turning on 3G -- about 10x faster than the GPRS that Fido/Rogers offers -- for $60US/month.
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Japanese wireless
Yegads,
Here in Japan, we have a choice of three major carriers (NTT DoCoMo, KDDI Au, and Vodaphone). All three offer decent unlimited packet plans for a price, but my 3000 Yen/month (about $32 CDN) plan is more than enough to cover my needs. That is, I use it primarily for email and web browsing (mostly querying what the fastest route from one train station to another is and using an online dictionary) plus maybe 300 minutes of talk time a month. I probably use about 2000 Yen of that, so am thinking of swtiching to the equivalent 2000 Yen plan. The unused portion of your bill is carried over for two months, and usage information (+ history) is available up to the moment in both tabular and graph form.
My phone and many others here have smartcard built-in and you can use them as a credit card and train pass. In my case, my phone has a built-in fingerprint scanner that unlocks features when you need them (eg. credit card). Found some specs in English, a press release, and an engadget article for it.
Not sure what the state of mobile is in Canada anymore, but I'm pretty shocked to hear that it takes $60 to cover all your data + phone needs given that you can get 3G here for 1/2 the price. Plus most phones run you 1 yen (1.08 cents CAD) when you first sign up.
Actually...
The $50/$60 per month only covers *data*...voice services are another $40/$50 per month.
Yes, the state of cellular in Canada is crazy. Thanks for asking :P
Monopoly in Canada?
It sure smells like Monopoly in Canada with the current Cell systems. And yes it's all spearheaded by Rogers! They really have a narrow vision of customer service and needs.. Unlike most of Canada they are far behind. They rather nickle and dime you to death. Damn Shame! Data plans specially!
Unsatisfied Rogers Customer