iPhone in Canada: What are the Terms?

Posted by Wayde || 05/09/2008 - 07:46 || 2 comments

iPhone Beaver Rogers has a deal with Apple to bring iPhone to Canada but has been tight-lipped about the details. What are the terms of the deal and what will the iPhone cost Canadians?

These are the sorts of questions that industry analysts have been poring over since the iPhone announcement first came from Rogers. But there are a few good reasons that Rogers hasn’t been forthcoming with details.

It’s no secret why iPhone’s is so late coming to Canada. Our wireless companies have been soaking customers for years with higher rates than any in the industrial world. Apple’s demands for a reasonable unlimited data plan to carry iPhone falls on the overfed and apathetic ears of Rogers. But Rogers suddenly has good reason to change its way.

A government auction is about to sell available wireless frequencies and this means competition for Rogers in GSM wireless spectrum for the very first time. The auction is seen as the only hope for breaking the rate-gridlock suffered in Canada.

Rogers had to secure a deal quickly or see a new carrier get the iPhone contract. Now that the deal is done many assume it could mean the first unlimited GSM data plans in Canada.

So, it’s likely that Rogers has an unlimited data plan up its sleeve for its future iPhone customers. But the exact price is probably still up in the air.

Remember that Rogers only said it has a deal with Apple. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an exclusive deal. We’ve already seen how Apple is willing to break its traditional iPhone release strategy of inking a deal with only one carrier per country.

In Italy the iPhone will be carried by two telecoms, Vodaphone and Telecom Italia. A similar non-exclusive deal could be in the works for Rogers, and it has little motive to divulge this wrinkle.

Another good reason for the iPhone-Canada deal’s secrecy – Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June. The Apple party kicks off June 9th with another important keynote by Steve Jobs. It's widely expected he’ll unveil the new 3G iPhone to the Apple faithful's many oohs and aahs. A new version of Apple’s long sought after hardware is likely to revolutionize its pricing model.

Image borrowed from Ian Andrews Blog post on iPhone Canada, Thanks Ian.

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Comments

cbowers writes:

Competition for the first time? Are our memories short? We've been down this road before. Spectrum was auctioned for Clearnet on the CDMA side, and Fido on the GSM side. They both got squeezed out and bought up (Clearnet by Telus, Fido by Rogers). It means nothing for Industry Canada to carve out spectrum for new competition if they don't do anything to change the environment that let's the big three keep the status quo. Industry Canada is either in cahoots, or a toothless non-entity that needs a shakeup. But the consumer seems to be a missing metric from their industry health algorithms. There's no such thing as an unlocked phone in Canada. On the CDMA side it's a foreign concept, and on the GSM side you can choose any network you want as long as it's Rogers. So while we've had no real choice of carrier with GSM phones, at least we've had our choice of phones. That too seems destined to go out the window with reasonable data plans being tied to IMEI/ESN (serialization). If you didn't buy it from Rogers, you don't get the special data rate. Anything Apple can do to apply pressure, or foreign ownership entrants allowed into the market seem to be the only way out.

Editor writes:

great comment Cbowers and you're right. Thanks for that. I seem to recall now Fido and Telus were outright buyouts, so first time is innacurate. But I'm still hopeful we'll get different results when the new spectrums are sold.

Ciao!

Portable