For Rogers customers that are not on rate plans that include U.S. long distance, it’s going to get more expensive for pay-per-use calls from Canada to down south.
Rogers recently noted on its Long Distance website, “New standard US long distance pay-per-use rate of $1/min is going into effect on April 19, 2023.”
Currently, Rogers charges pay-per-use U.S. long distance at $0.55/minute for the standard rate, but this will soon increase by 81% to $1/minute.
But if you subscribe to a U.S. & International add-on for $7/month, the U.S. calling rate goes down to $0.05/minute.
“Are your loved ones far away? Don’t worry. We have a long distance and messaging add-ons as well as standard long distance rates to help keep them close,” says the Rogers website.
The change was spotted by Paul Andersen, who said, “Hey @RogersHelps. The 80s called. They want their [long distance] rates back. Rogers raising for some customers the cost to call the US from Canada to $1/min. Wholesale cost is a penny or less.”
Recently, Telus and Bell increased their daily U.S. and international roaming options to $14 and $16 per day respectively, but Rogers has yet to match that change (many suspect that will happen soon).
Update March 24, 2024: A Rogers spokesperson reached out to iPhone in Canada to say there are no plans to increase prices of their international roaming rates.
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The mobile companies really don’t seem to care about the optics at all, raising long distance rates to absurd levels and many of them raising daily roaming fees. A dollar a minute to call the USA certainly looks punitive to me, trying to force people to get a plan instead. It isn’t realistic to expect this is based upon cost at all.
Carriers do care about the optics, but not for their customers or the general population, just for their investors; this increase only lines the pockets of the latter while squeezing it out of the former.
The CRTC will likely need to start regulating these (they are now investigating roaming rates, maybe these rates should be investigated as well) by setting a maximum percentage that carriers can earn over the wholesale rate (maybe with leeway for general interconnect costs) that doesn’t bleed their customers dry.
It was 0.25/min 10 years ago. Costs have gone down since then, not up. This is merely being done to gouge Canadians in response to newer regulations capping prices for the scams they were pulling on us before.
Canada needs to nationalize the phone companies and set prices based on what people can afford. Everyone needs a cell phone to have a job or exist in our society. It’s a necessity just like heat or electricity.
Use FB/IG Messenger, WhatsApp, or FaceTime Audio to call friends/family, problem solved!
Yeah, with voice being transported over data now, using any reliable OTT VoIP solution to avoid these exorbitant carrier rates is worthwhile.
All Canada really needs is unobstructed foreign investment in the wireless space. We all saw the Big 3 crying and even spending money on advertising to dissuade the Gov’t and Canadians of allowing the possibility of Verizon coming to market.