Derek Abma
Province
Rogers Wireless says the price of its basic voice-and-data combo for iPhones, which become available in Canada on July 11, will start at $60 a month.
Customers must commit themselves to a three-year contract under this and all other plans.
The $60 service will get a person 150 minutes of voice time with unlimited evenings and weekends, allow-ance for 75 outgoing text messages, and, as with all plans, unlimited incoming text messages and voice mail. Rogers said the 400 megabytes of data customers get with the package will allow a person to transmit up to 200,000 text e-mails or 3,100 web pages or 1,360 photo attachments.
The plans come with unlimited Wi-Fi access at Rogers or Fido hot spots.
At $115 a month, the highest-end service gets you 800 minutes of voice, permission to send 300 text messages, and two gigabytes of data transmission. Rogers says that’s equal to more than one million text e-mails or 16,000 web pages or 7,000 photo attachments.
Rogers spokeswoman Liz Hamilton said the iPhone itself will cost $199 for the eight-gigabyte model or $299 for the 16-gigabyte version.
Asked about the three-year contract, she said: “Our business model is not unique in Canada.
“It is a subsidized one that takes many factors into account.”
The iPhone 3G is what Rogers will make available. It is promoted as being twice as fast as the first iPhone launched by Apple Inc. last year.
Rogers said data-less plans for the iPhone, with just voice and basic text, will start at $15 a month.
© The Vancouver Province 2008