So I am sitting here on a wonderful Thursday wishing I had returned from Cuba about 3 months ago. This is because that would mean I am about to leave for Bonaire. I tell you October will never arrive quick enough. It helps that I am now diving locally so at least now I can look forward to every weekend that I am diving in the cold Ontario waters and this will distract me from my Bonaire issues.
CELL PHONE EXCITEMENT
There seems to be a MINOR victory before us with Rogers Communications and the iPhone. They have agreed to lower the plan rates initially. They are calling this a “promotion” and have stated that their rates will go back up to the stupid level that they first put forward to the public after a short period. This article implies that Apple is short-shipping Rogers as punishment for their gouging of their consumers.
Apple stands to lose a lot when the 45,000+ Canadian would be iPhone buyers choose not to get raped by Rogers and choose another phone with another carrier. Just do some simple math on what this could mean….Rogers is selling this 3G unit for around $200 each…..this makes it a $9,000,000 hit to their pocket book if everybody stands tough and denies them the sale. That should nudge them. On top of this, assume that each buyer would have signed up for plans averaging in cost at $70 per month ($840 per year). Again the math….this means $3,150,000 per month or $37,800,000 annually. I know these are numbers based on assumptions but you see the order of magnitude….Rogers would stand to lose $9,000,000 (purchases) plus $37,800,000 (first year plans)…..for a whopping loss (if we all went elsewhere) of ($46,800,000). How would you like ‘DEM APPLES Rogers?
On top of this, with all of the rising public outcry against Rogers, Bell Canada and Telus are being stupid and actually attracting “government intervention”. They are mere weeks away from starting to charge their customers for Text Messages RECEIVED. There are a number of articles on this and although it seems to be getting less up-front bad press, it is a ridiculous thought. The user would be charged for both incoming AND outgoing messages. And this is whether they asked for the message or not. SPAM….this is a curse word for everybody in today’s environment. And cell phone text message SPAM is just as real as the hundreds of spam emails I get to my Rogers email accounts (gee I wonder if Rogers SOLD MY ADDRESS – YES they did). My cell phone spam is not a volumous however the thought that a consumer would have to pay for that…give me a break. This is just good old fashioned GREED!! I understand that text messaging has increased exponentially since the introduction of “inter-carrier service” in 2002…..from 369,000 messages per day in 2002 to 45,400,000 per day today. That is a huge jump and I agree that infrastructure is required to support those levels. THAT IS WHY YOU CHARGE TO SEND THEM!! You greedy buggers want to charge for both to capitalize on those where your system is used to receive a message from another carrier. Ever hear of the law of averages? You get yours….be happy and do not try to spank your customer harder. Perhaps you will push them all to go to Rogers where they are currently stating they have no intentions of charging for text messages received. At least not until this whole iPhone abuse passes.
