Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Over dinner last night, Jonathan Greene remarked how fast Rogers 3G network seemed.  He lives in New York City.  Hmmm… how fast is it, I wondered?  This morning I tethered a phone to my PC, and ran the tests at speedtest.net, targeting the Toronto test server.

As you can see, while it’s not yet the same as DSL or Cable broadband at home, you can achieve a very respectable 1 megabit/s download and over 300 kilobit/s up.  The ping time is a little stinky at 240 ms.  However you look at it, though, Rogers 3G service delivers a pretty respectable mobile broadband experience.

Why does Speedtest label the ISP as Verizon business, however?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Image via Wikipedia

I’ll give Rogers some credit for having responded positively to public outrage over iPhone data plan pricing earlier in July.  I’m surprised at some of their latest moves, however.  There’s a class of early adopter users that they’ve decided to screw over on iPhone pricing, because those users have existing and relatively new contracts.

Basically, if you’ve upgraded a phone in the last 12 months, you’re on a three year contract.  As Scott Annan found out,  the only way Rogers will let you buy an iPhone from them is to cancel your existing contract (cost $450), and sign up for a new three year contract.  That’s a $700 bill.

You’d think the geniuses at Rogers would have jumped on the iPhone craze and ridden it hard for all it’s worth. It’s their single biggest weapon in the war to lock consumers into long term contracts.  And, shortly Telus will have BlackBerry Thunder.

More to the point, this is a terrific illustration of why carriers should be prohibited from demanding abusive three year contracts, and should be required to unlock phones on demand for consumers.  At minimum, the customer should be able to unlock an old phone, sell it on eBay, and use that to recoup the cost of buying the iPhone without having to extend the service contract.

While I was on vacation, Rogers blinked. In response to a massive outcry, they revised their iPhone data pricing temporarily, offering a discounted $30 for 6G of data plan for all customers who sign up before the end of August.  It gets better than that, too.  The plan is being offered for all smartphones, including the Nokia N95 and apparently the Blackberry Bold, if it launches before the end of August.  All indications are that Bold is coming very soon.

Jim Courtney also informed me last night that Rogers accounts currently not under contract are eligible for an additional $50 rebate, bringing the cost of the iPhone down to just $149 for the 8G model.

This is excellent news.  At least for now, Canadians aren’t getting screwed by Rogers… much.  There are still several more consumer abuses that we need to continue to focus on, however:

• Arbitrary fees. All of the major carriers in this country charge a “system access fee”.  Although it’s non-negotiable, and the inference is that it’s some kind of government mandated tax, it is in fact simply another way to abuse the the consumer.  Customers should have simple, clear and unambiguous language from carriers about what each of the fees on the bill represent.
• Contract lengths. At this point contracts in Canada are 50% longer than anywhere else in the world.  Three years is a long time at the rate that technology changes.  It’s an abuse of the customer to demand such a long commitment.
• Arbitrary contracts. Service contracts were originally designed to lock a consumer into a minimum agreed upon usage term in return for a subsidy on the handset.  Increasingly consumers are choosing to supply their own handsets — either through purchasing them second hand, or by paying full price for handsets that aren’t locked to a particular carrier.  Even so, carriers demand that consumers who own unsubsidized handsets sign up for long service contracts.  For example, in order to get Rogers $30/month plan on my existing Nokia handsets, I would have to agree to a three year contract with Rogers.  When carriers aren’t subsidizing the handset, it’s abusive to demand that the customer sign up for an extended contract.
• Locked phones. When a consumer has paid out the term of the contract, then the handset belongs to that person.  When a consumer travels outside of Canada, and doesn’t wish to pay roaming charges to the Canadian carrier, then the handset must be unlocked so that a foreign carrier’s SIM can be inserted.  It’s an abuse of the customer to refuse to unlock that handset so that it can be used on another carrier network. In most countries, other than Canada, carriers are required to unlock handsets or sell unlocked handsets if requested.

A good starting point to address these issues is David McGuinty’s private members bill, the C-555 Get Connected Fairly Act.  His bill addresses the accuracy and locking issues, but not the contracting issue.  If you wish to support it, sign the petition.  In addition, continue to let your own MP know your views on this issue.

Canadian consumers have won a skirmish with Rogers, but the battle to be treated fairly is far from over.

Oddball combinations are sometimes the most serendipitous.  Celebrity author, and editor of Wired Magazine, Chris Anderson will be speaking at the Ottawa Tulip Festival on the topic of the Long Tail.  Tickets are $75 for reserved seats or $50 for the general area.

I think I’ll go.  Perhaps I’ll bring my N95.

Squawk Box took a remarkable new direction this afternoon, with a special edition focused on the issue of fair taxation of stock options in Canada. The heart of the issue is simply this: in Canada the gain on a stock option is taxed as employment income, not capital gain, which means that any losses from that stock should you choose to exercise and hold the stock, cannot be written off against the gain. In practical terms, this has led to a litany of hardship for ordinary Canadians.

Our guest Ragui Kamel explained the issue, and then how it is affecting many ordinary people who are being forced to mortgage or sell homes, and liquidate RRSPs in order to pay tax on income they never received. Ragui and his group have met with MPs, ordinary people affected by the situation, business leaders and more.

 

 Squawk Box April 4 - Special Edition [40:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Once you’ve listened to this podcast, then please visit:

CFET - the site of the organization Canadians for Fair and Equitable Taxation. Read the impact statements, check out the slide presentation, and sign the petition.

The CFET Facebook Group - join the group, and contribute to the discussion.

And stay tuned. We’ll do another call to talk about the progress on this issue in the future.