Carrier would have to revise wireless pricing plan if it aims to bring Apple's coveted multimedia device to Canada
The iPhone will hit Europe this week, and at prices that are likely to put pressure on Rogers Communications Inc. to cut its cellphone rates if it wants to be the carrier that eventually brings the popular device to Canada
European carriers will offer service plans that start at the equivalent of $70 a month. A rough calculation based on Rogers' current fees for its existing cellphone services indicates that similar features are more than double the price here, based on the cheapest plan. With some other data plans for Rogers' cellphones, customers could rack up bills of hundreds, or conceivably thousands, of dollars.
The data price gap could set the stage for intense negotiations between Toronto-based Rogers and Apple Inc., which designed and markets the popular multimedia phone. Apple was able to wring substantial changes from carriers in the United States and Europe.
Apple wants to see the iPhone reach millions of consumers, and high rates in Canada could interfere with that goal. Speaking from the point of view of users, Dawood Khan, a partner at wireless management consulting firm Kazam Technologies Inc., said: "You can't be counting in the back of your mind how many megabytes you use."
The iPhone hype is alive and well in Canada. Just yesterday, the Apple store in Toronto's Eaton Centre said it is working on removing some iPhone workshops that its website said were scheduled for November. An employee blamed a server error. Last month, Molson pulled the iPhone from a marketing contest in Quebec after it mistakenly said the device will be available in January.
So far, Rogers has had little to say about pricing. On timing, it says the launch plan is in Apple's hands.
"Apple clearly has a schedule and a plan for their rollout on a worldwide basis," Robert Bruce, president of Rogers' wireless division, said last week.
It could be that Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., is focusing on bigger markets for now.
But wireless carriers in the United States, Britain and Germany had to adjust their packages of services to get the opportunity to sell the coveted iPhone. So the phone's arrival in Canada may not be entirely up to Apple. Rogers may have to make concessions, either by slashing data prices or finally embracing the idea of WiFi for cellphones.
There's a reason carriers are willing to make such adjustments. The iPhone is the most talked-about cellphone in history, creating instant buzz around a carrier's brand. Time magazine just crowned the iPhone the year's best invention.
New York-based AT&T Inc., which launched the iPhone in the United States on June 29, recently posted its biggest gain to date in third-quarter wireless subscriber additions. So far, 1.39 million iPhones have been sold south of the border.
Britain's O2 Ltd. and Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile in Germany are next up, slated to introduce the iPhone on Nov. 9.
But to secure the iPhone, carriers have had to do things a bit differently, including ceding some power to Apple.
According to news reports earlier this year, New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. passed on the iPhone because Apple wanted to restrict the places where it would be distributed and also asked for a cut of service fees.
Carriers are used to bossing around the device makers, telling them what features to add. Apple changed that relationship, deciding for itself how to design the cellphone/Internet device/music player.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel figures his company worked with Apple for 2½ years before the iPhone finally arrived on its shelves. He wouldn't give details about those talks.
With companies that introduce the iPhone, the biggest change is the way services are bundled. At AT&T and O2, voice minutes and data services are packaged together for one flat price, instead of forcing users to cobble together different plans. T-Mobile combines a plan with cellular data and WiFi hot spots for the first time. And the rates for these plans are very appealing.
The new iPhone plans are "very clear, very straight," said Alexander von Schmettow, a spokesman for T-Mobile. If they are a success, he believes they could provide a "hint" of what its other wireless plans will look like in the future.
With the iPhone, Rogers would also have to warm up to the idea of letting people access WiFi hot spots on their cellphones.
Rogers now offers a few business-targeted devices that allow people to use both cellular and WiFi networks, but other high-profile WiFi cellphones from the Nokia and BlackBerry brands are missing from its product lineup. WiFi, with its flat fee for Internet use, could cannibalize more lucrative data revenue from Rogers' cellular network.
Shutting off the WiFi function on the iPhone, however, doesn't appear to be an option. Rogers many decide to follow AT&T's example and charge an extra rate for WiFi access on the iPhone, instead of including in the package like O2 and T-Mobile, Mr. Khan said.
Head to head
A comparison of iPhone monthly plans with Rogers' prices*
AT&T $59.99 (U.S.)
450 any time minutes and 5,000 night and weekend minutes
long distance in the U.S.
unlimited e-mail and Web
200 text messages
voice mail
Rogers: $161
500 minutes for $50
unlimited evening and weekend $15
long distance in Canada $6
500 MB data for $80
25 text messages and voice mail package $10
T-Mobile (Germany) €49 ($66)
100 any time minutes
unlimited incoming minutes
unlimited data
unlimited WiFi
voice mail
40 text messages
Rogers: $133
Mega plan with 100 any time minutes and 1,000 evening and weekend minutes $20
500 MB data for $80
voice mail $6
30 text messages for $3
WiFi $24
02 (Britain): £35 ($68)
200 any time minutes
unlimited incoming minutes
unlimited data
unlimited WiFi
200 text messages
voice mail
Rogers: $144
Mega 200 minutes and unlimited evening and weekend minutes $30
WiFi $24
500 MB data for $80
voice mail, 125 text messages package $10
*Rogers data prices based on fees for Window mobile plans. Data rates for other Rogers' cellphones are $10 for the first 10,240 kilobytes and then 3 cents for each additional kilobyte. So 200 megabytes (MB), equal to 204,800 kilobytes, could cost $5,837.
No comments:
Post a Comment