Changes Coming to Rogers Data Plans?

There has been some buzz lately that changes are coming to Rogers’ data plans. This includes prices and features, according to some of the online forums out there. Could this be a hint that they are preparing for the launch of the iPhone? It is an interesting theory, but I’m not going to get into the “what ifs” here. If the iPhone is coming, then it will come and we will just have to wait. The speculation does nothing for us all. But it sure is fun to have hope, right? 😉

Anyways, according to O_ssie from HowardForums, on Feb. 5, 2008…the following changes will occur to Rogers data plans:

Value Packs Update:
$5 Community Value Pack
500 SMS, 50 MMS
3 months unlimited SMS and MMS

$20 Updated Communicate Pack
Caller ID, Name Display, Voicemail, Who Called
2500 SMS, 1000 MMS
Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing

$7 Vision Internet Package
50 Video Calling mins
Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing
Unlimited Video calling for 12 months

New Data Plans
$7 – Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing
$15 – 2MB Blackberry Package

Whoa! By now you probably noticed the $7 unlimited mobile browsing plan! This plan, if true would rival Bell’s $7 unlimited data plan, and Telus’ $15 unlimited plan. However, there are some restrictions. Apparently this new data plan with be IMEI (the identifying # on every GSM cell phone) driven, which means that Rogers will be tracking which phones will be allowed to access these data plans. So for example, if you pop your SIM card from your HTC Touch into your SE W580i, the system will recognize your device and charge your accordingly. The W580i would be under “unlimited WAP”, while the HTC Touch would be charged for data.

It would be very interesting if this is going to come true. Could a decrease in data prices actually be coming from a country that has some of the highest prices in the world? All I know is that if there was an unlimited data plan with Rogers, it would make a lot of iPhone users in Canada (including myself) very, very happy.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed, so you won’t miss any updates!