New Tethering Policy For Rogers and Fido

Effective June 8, 2009, Rogers and Fido are now including tethering on applicable handsets for customers on data plans of 1GB or higher until December 31, 2009.

500MB data plan owners, this is relevant to you too, so please read on.

You can take a look at the new policy below:

To use tethering or wireless modem functionality you require the new iPhone 3GS, or an iPhone 3G that has been upgraded with the new iPhone OS 3.0 software. Until December 31, 2009, if you have subscribed to a data plan which includes at least 1GB of data you may use tethering as part of the volume of data included in your plan at no additional charge. Tethering cannot be used with data plans of less than 1GB.

So what does this mean for you and I?

New/Existing customers signing up on a 1GB or higher data plan on or after June 8, 2009 but before December 31, 2009

Well, this means that if you are running OS 3.0 and sign up on a data plan that includes atleast 1GB of data between the dates of June 8, 2009 and December 31, 2009, then you can tether all you want using the amount of data you have in your data option, up until December 31, 2009. To enable tethering, if its blocked on your 3.0 iPhone, call in to Rogers.

However, if you get a data plan that is less than 1GB, then presumably this means that either A.) You cannot tether or B.) You will be charged extra when using your device to tether. But as you will soon read, this is not true.

Existing customers already signed up on any data plan prior to June 8, 2009

As for all those people that already have data plans of all different sizes prior to June 8, 2009, you seem unaffected. That presumably means you can tether all you want using the amount of data you have in your data option, even after December 31, 2009, and have no worries about extra charges. But time will tell. If you happen to have a 1GB or higher data plan and the tethering is blocked on your 3.0 iPhone, call in to Rogers to enable it.

If you have less than a 1GB Data plan and are running a 3.0 iPhone where the tethering is blocked, do not call in to Rogers because they will not enable tethering for you. What you want to do, is read here.

After December 31, 2009?

Also, for those wondering what is happening after December 31, 2009…well, not so good news.

New/Existing customers signing up on any data plan after December 31, 2009

After December 31, 2009, you as a Rogers or Fido customer will have the option to subscribe to various tethering plans. This means that after December 31, 2009, somehow Rogers and Fido will make it either impossible for you to tether your mobile device without the add-on of one of these “tethering plans” or just charge you extra for any “tethering data” used.

This scenario only applies to new/existing customers that by January 1, 2010 do not have a data plan or are just getting a data plan on January 1, 2010 or later.

Existing customers already signed up a 1GB or higher data plan on or after June 8, 2009 but before December 31, 2009

In this scenario, as long as you have a 1GB or higher data plan that was setup between the two dates, you can tether all you want using the amount of data you have in your data option, up until December 31, 2009 when the “tethering plans” come into play, and have no worries about extra charges. To enable tethering, if its blocked on your 3.0 iPhone, call in to Rogers.

But remember, if you have less than a 1GB Data plan and are running a 3.0 iPhone where the tethering is blocked, do not call in to Rogers because they will not enable tethering for you. What you want to do, is read here.

Existing customers already signed up on any data plan prior to June 8, 2009

As for all those people that already have data plans of all different sizes prior to June 8, 2009, you seem unaffected. That presumably means you can tether all you want using the amount of data you have in your data option, even beyond December 31, 2009, and have no worries about extra charges. But again, time will tell. If you happen to have a 1GB or higher data plan and the tethering is blocked on your 3.0 iPhone, call in to Rogers to enable it.

If you have less than a 1GB Data plan and are running a 3.0 iPhone where the tethering is blocked, do not call in to Rogers because they will not enable tethering for you. What you want to do, is read here.

Device Support

As for devices, currently this applies to all Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian devices that have tethering functionality but the tethering will only be enabled if the customer is subscribed to a data plan of 1GB or higher between the dates of June 8, 2009 and December 31, 2009.

As for iPhone devices, those are being excluded until further notice because “they do not offer tethering functionality at this time”. However, you can bet that it will kick in on June 17, 2009 when 3.0 is released.

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