iPhone in Canada


Why did this never happen?
Is the iPhone available in Canada? Well, don't believe the misinformed reporters in the Toronto media who say it isn't because it certainly is. Check out the computer stores around College and Spadina or the electronics shops on Yonge St. near the Eatons Centre and you'll find stacks of unlocked iPhones you can use with either Fido or Rogers. I've also seen them on sale at the Pacific Mall. And typing in "iPhone" into the Toronto section of Craigslist, I found 1231 ads with a going rate of about $500. Ironically, the only places that don't seem to sell them are the Apple, Fido and Rogers stores. Now, why is that? Well, I think I just might have an answer to that: The astronomical cost of wireless data in Canada after Rogers bought out Fido has resulted in an offical Candian release to be totally out of the question. Let me explain. Before Rogers bought Fido, I was paying Fido $50/month for unlimited data. That seemed like a lot at the time, but I found it useful as I could use it on my phone, laptop or Palm PDA all for one price, so I paid it. If I watched 10 youtube videos a month on my laptop, or 50 - I always paid $50/month (voice plans are extra). This is also the same price T-mobile currently charges for unlimited data in the US.

But, when Rogers bought Fido, they took away the unlimited plan so that now data costs 5 cents per KB. To put that in perspective, watching youtube uses about 25KB per SECOND. In other words, $1.25 per second! Plus tax! So if you watched 10 youtube videos of 5 minutes each in one month, and did not check email, use or MSN or facebook or anything else, it would cost you $3750. Throw in some picture viewing on Facebook and you're talking about a 5 grand cell phone bill. That's nuts. OK, so let's dig deeper on the Fido website and see if we can get a better deal. Is there still a $50 plan? Nope. The cheapest is now $60 and, of course, it's no longer unlimited, it's now for just 25MB plus $6 per additional MB. So, going back to our example - 10 youtube videos of 5 minutes each per month comes out to 75MB, which would cost you $60+($6*50)=$375 - which happens to be 10 times less than without a plan, but still way more expensive than the $50 it would cost you in the US or the Pre-Rogers Fido. Fido also has a $100 plan for 200MB plus $5/MB, but if you used the internet like most people - downloading just one typical DIVX movie to your laptop with their best plan would cost you $100+($5*550)=$2850. So, let's say you bought yourself a nice shiny new iPhone and you wanted to fill up your 8GB of memory with music from iTunes. Your choice of cell phone providers is limited to just Rogers and Fido as they are the only GSM choices in Canada and the iPhone is a GSM phone. Since Fido and Rogers charge about the same for data because, as we know, they are the same company, the cost would be about $100+($5*7800)=$39,100.00 to fill it up with music and videos under their best plan. Um, did I mention this used to cost $50? Talk about inflation! I think I'll just buy a car instead.

So, I'm not sure what is happening behind the scenes, but I'm sure Apple would like to sell the iPhone in Canada in such a way that it doesn't cost thousands of dollars a month for users to do so. In the US, instead of $39,100.00 it costs just $US59.99/month. And it's UNLIMITED. And you get 450 daytime minutes. And you get 200 text messages. And you get 5000 Nights and Weekend minutes. And you get unlimited Mobile to Moblle. So if I can picture Steve Jobs talking with Ted Rogers I can imagine an incredulous Steve Jobs saying "What!??? Ted, let me get this straight, you want to charge people the price of a Buick every month to use my iPhone???" And Ted, the tough negotiator that he is, must have said Yes. With a straight face. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the US and Europe have iPhones and we don't.
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