Rogers Wireless has announced that they are extending its “limited time” 6 GB of data for $30 a month plan until the end of September instead of the previously planned August 31st end date. The claimed reason is last week’s introduction of the BlackBerry Bold. Once this ends Rogers states there will be two replacement plans offered. Both offer less than the current plan. The CBC states that:
Rogers will introduce a $25-a-month data plan for the iPhone and other smartphones on Oct. 1 that will allow 500 megabytes of downloading per month, which will be bundled with a three-month promotion of unlimited usage. Another plan will allow one gigabyte of usage for $30. Customers must also take a voice plan, which start at $20, and pay a system access fee of $6.95.
Rogers claims that this drop in data limits from 6 GB to 1 GB a month for $30 will not affect many people as they have found that “just over one per cent of iPhone owners used more than one gigabyte of data in their first month, while about 95 per cent of owners used less than 500MB”. In fact Rogers claims that only one person has exceeded the 6 GB limit.
Hopefully as Telus introduces the BlackBerry Thunder touchscreen smartphone and provides more competition for the iPhone Rogers will reverse course. 1 GB may be greater than today’s usage but that can rapidly change in the near future as new applications are introduced. After-all people used dialup for years, imagine trying to use YouTube over a 14.4K modem.