Rogers and the iPhone

For all you followers of the iPhone and the eventual arrival of Rogers and the magic phone in Rupert, here’s a story from the Globe and Mail with some interesting details…

The iPhone comes with a cost for Rogers
CATHERINE MCLEAN

Globe and Mail Update

November 5, 2007 at 10:47 PM EST

The iPhone will hit Europe this week, and at prices that are likely to put pressure on Rogers Communications Inc. to cut its cellphone rates if it wants to be the carrier that eventually brings the popular device to Canada

European carriers will offer service plans that start at the equivalent of $70 a month. A rough calculation based on Rogers’ current fees for its existing cellphone services indicates that similar features are more than double the price here, based on the cheapest plan. With some other data plans for Rogers’ cellphones, customers could rack up bills of hundreds, or conceivably thousands, of dollars.

The data price gap could set the stage for intense negotiations between Toronto-based Rogers and Apple Inc., which designed and markets the popular multimedia phone. Apple was able to wring substantial changes from carriers in the United States and Europe.

Apple wants to see the iPhone reach millions of consumers, and high rates in Canada could interfere with that goal. Speaking from the point of view of users, Dawood Khan, a partner at wireless management consulting firm Kazam Technologies Inc., said: “You can’t be counting in the back of your mind how many megabytes you use.â€