Rogers Removing System Access Fee? Cheaper iPhone Bill Soon?

By Gary Ng on November 4th, 2008 70

For those that signed up for an iPhone 3G, your bill statement after calculating your monthly plan, data plan, taxes, 911 emergency fee, and the dreaded System Access Fee (SAF) could be close to almost $100 per month. Owning an iPhone 3G can be expensive if you’re on a data plan and subscribed to a value pack. It all adds up right?

Rumor: Rogers to Relaunch Fido Next Week New Plans, but NO SAF!

Well, believe it or not folks but a cheaper iPhone bill could be heading your way. How? It turns out that Rogers is going to relaunch the Fido brand on Tuesday with a new logo and monthly plans, along with the removal of the…get ready…SYSTEM ACCESS FEE! At the same time, Rogers will also remove the fee for its postpaid subscribers as well. If this is indeed confirmed true in the next week, it will mean fantastic news for all monthly cellphone subscribers.

Will Canadians Ever See an End to the System Access Fee?

Could it really be true? Will Canadians get to rejoice in having this long overdue “fee” removed? Currently Rogers, Telus, Bell, MTS AllStream, and SaskTel are all involved in a massive $20 billion dollar class action lawsuit over the so called SAF. From the CBC:

The fee began as a government licensing charge in the 1980s to cellphone providers for using public airwaves. In 1986, the government transferred the collection of the fee to cellphone providers, who were to incorporate them into their monthly charges. Instead, the carriers opted to keep them separate.

So that’s where we are today. As consumers we’ve been paying for a charge that’s supposed to be included in our monthly plans, yet we are the ones that have been footing the bill all these years. I’ve been paying a monthly plan for roughly ten years. Let’s say it’s been 10 years so that’s 120 months. 120 x $6.95 = $834 before taxes! Talk about paying the price to “access” the wireless networks, huh (and some spectacular profits for Rogers)?

If the SAF is indeed eliminated by Rogers, Bell, and Telus, it’s not because they are trying to be nice to us consumers. The fact of the matter is new competitors will soon be entering the cellphone marketplace after the conclusion of this summer’s wireless spectrum auction. Newcomer BMW, recently announced they are going to offer an unlimited talk/text plan for $40 with no additional charges. All I can say is competition is a good thing!

Rogers, as of Dec.31/07 had 7.3 million retail voice and data subscribers. I can only imagine how many of these are on monthly plans, paying $6.95/month to Rogers. If 7 million were on monthly plans, that equates to just under $49 million dollars a month collected in SAF charges! Hmm…maybe I should start a cellphone company and get a piece of the pie!

RogersEmployee from HowardForums Leaks Upcoming Fido iPhone Plans

Here are the following revised Fido iPhone plans that will be coming into effect. Take a gander at what has been changed:

$60 iPhone Plan – 250 Weekday Minutes, Unlimited Evenings and Weekends at 7, Unlimited SMS in Canada, 500MB of Data in Canada, Fido / Rogers Hotspot Access, Visual Voicemail

$75 iPhone Plan – 500 Weekday Minutes, Unlimited Evenings and Weekends at 7, Unlimited SMS in Canada, 1GB of Data in Canada, Fido / Rogers Hotspot Access, Visual Voicemail

Per Second Billing, No device eligibility worries, Minute Tracker auto-added, All customers can sign-up to these plans, call waiting and conference calling included, 35cents / min overage, LD 35cents / min, 15cents per SMS above package, 50cents per MMS, Employee / Ambassador Accounts eligible!

No more charge for Expanded Network. iPhone plans still require 3 year agreement. No SAF/911 charges.

There are a whole wack of other changes as well. You can take a look at these changes by checking out the link to HoFo after the break. What do you think of all this? Eliminate the SAF or keep it? ;)

[CBC,HoFo]

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We had another successful contest this Saturday! The winners of the contest are…

…SK13 for the 3G PhantomSkin
…fawkes for the first gen PhantomSkin!

Congrats to both for winning! Expect an email soon! Thanks to everyone who entered and look forward to another contest coming up this Saturday!

PS – If you’re American, GO VOTE today!!!

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  • Guest

    Soooo…existing customers must still pay the SAF? Have we verified this information?

  • Michael Bellegarde

    Soooo…existing customers must still pay the SAF? Have we verified this information?

  • kamran

    i think u meant BMV – not BMW. :)

  • kamran

    i think u meant BMV – not BMW. :)

  • kamran

    i think u meant BMV – not BMW. :)

  • http://www.brokepencil.com/ boogiedrama

    i just called fido and inquired as to why existing customers have to pay the SAF still..the service rep had no response but she did work out something with me giving me a lower price over all…im still paying the fee but the discount i got is less then the SAF…so if youre upset about it call and see what they can do..youd be surprised

  • http://www.brokepencil.com/ boogiedrama

    i just called fido and inquired as to why existing customers have to pay the SAF still..the service rep had no response but she did work out something with me giving me a lower price over all…im still paying the fee but the discount i got is less then the SAF…so if youre upset about it call and see what they can do..youd be surprised

  • http://www.brokepencil.com boogiedrama

    i just called fido and inquired as to why existing customers have to pay the SAF still..the service rep had no response but she did work out something with me giving me a lower price over all…im still paying the fee but the discount i got is less then the SAF…so if youre upset about it call and see what they can do..youd be surprised

  • Susan

    The new Fido website is hideous and incredibly difficult to navigate. In fact I did not think it was the real site until I did several searches and they all pointed there. Whoever approved this should get fired.

    The site is also very confusing. It is not clear whether the iphone plan includes the system access fee. Also, I am a Fido customer and can’t access my account now. Great improvement!

    My husband is a Rogers subscriber, looking to buy an iphone and I am trying to figure whether it is better to switch to Fido. They have per second billing and longer “night” hours. I assume the network is the same.

    Is there any disadvantage to using Fido for iphone over Rogers?

  • Susan

    The new Fido website is hideous and incredibly difficult to navigate. In fact I did not think it was the real site until I did several searches and they all pointed there. Whoever approved this should get fired.

    The site is also very confusing. It is not clear whether the iphone plan includes the system access fee. Also, I am a Fido customer and can’t access my account now. Great improvement!

    My husband is a Rogers subscriber, looking to buy an iphone and I am trying to figure whether it is better to switch to Fido. They have per second billing and longer “night” hours. I assume the network is the same.

    Is there any disadvantage to using Fido for iphone over Rogers?

  • Susan

    The new Fido website is hideous and incredibly difficult to navigate. In fact I did not think it was the real site until I did several searches and they all pointed there. Whoever approved this should get fired.

    The site is also very confusing. It is not clear whether the iphone plan includes the system access fee. Also, I am a Fido customer and can’t access my account now. Great improvement!

    My husband is a Rogers subscriber, looking to buy an iphone and I am trying to figure whether it is better to switch to Fido. They have per second billing and longer “night” hours. I assume the network is the same.

    Is there any disadvantage to using Fido for iphone over Rogers?

  • Samuel

    I switched to an iphone with 16G after one year using a Blackberry. When the order was placed, I was told that the phone would cost me $299.00. The first bill came in (with automatic credit card debit) I found that Rogers charged me $449 for the phone. My numerous enquiries and complaints to Rogers customer service were absolutely frustrating. I was told then that the cummulated billing of the last Blackberry was under $1,000, therefore, I was not qualified for the $299 offer. Rogers practice amounts to misleading advertising. Where can I go from here to get back the $150 that I was overcharged through automatic credit card debit?

  • Samuel

    I switched to an iphone with 16G after one year using a Blackberry. When the order was placed, I was told that the phone would cost me $299.00. The first bill came in (with automatic credit card debit) I found that Rogers charged me $449 for the phone. My numerous enquiries and complaints to Rogers customer service were absolutely frustrating. I was told then that the cummulated billing of the last Blackberry was under $1,000, therefore, I was not qualified for the $299 offer. Rogers practice amounts to misleading advertising. Where can I go from here to get back the $150 that I was overcharged through automatic credit card debit?

  • Samuel

    I switched to an iphone with 16G after one year using a Blackberry. When the order was placed, I was told that the phone would cost me $299.00. The first bill came in (with automatic credit card debit) I found that Rogers charged me $449 for the phone. My numerous enquiries and complaints to Rogers customer service were absolutely frustrating. I was told then that the cummulated billing of the last Blackberry was under $1,000, therefore, I was not qualified for the $299 offer. Rogers practice amounts to misleading advertising. Where can I go from here to get back the $150 that I was overcharged through automatic credit card debit?

  • Senor

    The SAF is still applicable for the iPhone, and dara rates are still out of whack.
    $60 for 3GB? Meanwhile BELL has unlimied data for their Blackberries at $30/mo.

  • Senor

    The SAF is still applicable for the iPhone, and dara rates are still out of whack.
    $60 for 3GB? Meanwhile BELL has unlimied data for their Blackberries at $30/mo.

  • Senor

    The SAF is still applicable for the iPhone, and dara rates are still out of whack.
    $60 for 3GB? Meanwhile BELL has unlimied data for their Blackberries at $30/mo.

  • HotDoggable

    $6.95 SAF will always remain on Rogers. Fido has done without SAF because they are now a discount carrier. Which means less choice in Phones. The iPhone is impressive to see on Fido, but thats it. No good BlackBerrys or the new Google phone, HTC DREAM, etc.. So you have to pay up with Rogers if you like gadgets other then iPhone. This is why Rogers won’t drop the $6.95. They know people with still pay up for the fancy phones.

  • HotDoggable

    $6.95 SAF will always remain on Rogers. Fido has done without SAF because they are now a discount carrier. Which means less choice in Phones. The iPhone is impressive to see on Fido, but thats it. No good BlackBerrys or the new Google phone, HTC DREAM, etc.. So you have to pay up with Rogers if you like gadgets other then iPhone. This is why Rogers won’t drop the $6.95. They know people with still pay up for the fancy phones.

  • HotDoggable

    $6.95 SAF will always remain on Rogers. Fido has done without SAF because they are now a discount carrier. Which means less choice in Phones. The iPhone is impressive to see on Fido, but thats it. No good BlackBerrys or the new Google phone, HTC DREAM, etc.. So you have to pay up with Rogers if you like gadgets other then iPhone. This is why Rogers won’t drop the $6.95. They know people with still pay up for the fancy phones.

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