Our source at Rogers’ has forwarded us the internal memo regarding Rogers’ new GRRF (Government Regulatory Recovery Fee), so here are the official details regarding the new fee.
The fee is charged to “cover costs associated with standard operations, maintenance, and network upgrades”.
New activations and account migrations onto new plans will be SAF and 9-1-1 fee free.
These new plans will be launching October 5, 2009.
Like the System Access Fee and 9-1-1 Fee the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee will be charged on a per line, not per account basis.
Rogers is not required by the Canadian Government or any regulatory body to charge this fee.
Money collected by the GRRF will be put towards recovering the costs associated with:
9-1-1 fees
spectrum acquisition
licensing charges
help subsidize telephone service in rural/remote areas
The rate of the GRRF depends on two factors: the province where you account originates from and what service you have with Rogers.
Province
Voice Plans or voice & Data Combo Plans
Mobile Hi-Speed Data Plans (For Access Cards or Rocket Sticks)
Starting Oct 5th new Rogers customers along with existing ones who migrate to new billing plans will get call forwarding, call manager and WhoCalled included with thier plans.
Instead of a $6.95 SAF customers will now see something called ‘Government Regulatory Recovery Fee’ . It varies based on the government fees where customers live. Apparently this isn’t really a new fee – Rogers is saying they’re just being more transparent about it now.
Rogers is saying that your total bill will remain about the same after these changes.
Rogers has just announced that their 21Mbps HSPA+ network is now live in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. There will be a USB modem which supports this speed that you can pre-order for as low as $75.
The 21Mbps stick the ZTE 668, a triband HSPA (850/1900/2100Mhz) USB modem that can do 21.6Mbps down 5.76Mbps up. It has a retractable USB connector and a micro SDHC card slot. You have to remove the SIM card slot cover to access the SDHC card slot.
At 21Mbps it would take just under 40 minutes to go through Rogers 6GB data plan. No word on whether there will be any special data plans for the 21Mbps USB modem.
I’m at the launch right now and am observing speeds of around 16Mbps down and 2.8Mbps up from speedtest.net – nice. Keep in mind these modems aren’t widely available so it remains to be seen what speed will be like later.
The netbook market has been pretty saturated for for sometime now. Prices have come down to the point that you can pick some up for around $200 if not less. So I was surprised when Nokia toss their hat into the crowded netbook market. Still, their entry has some interesting specs (which may or may not be interesting depending on how long it takes Nokia to ship the product):
one piece aluminum body – nice
Atom 1.6Ghz Z530 processor -most netbooks ship with either a 1.6Ghz N270, 1.66Ghz N280 or 1.3Ghz Z520
1GB 533Mhz DDR2 RAM – status quo, I wonder if you can easily upgrade this to 2GB
120GB, 1.8″ 4200RPM hard drive – most ship with a 5400RPM hard drive or slow SSD. A 4200RPM hard drive will kill the performance and make the Booklet 3G feel much slower than it’s piers. The 4200RPM hard drive is a real deal breaker, I’d skip this one till Nokia puts something faster in.
10.1″ 1280×720 display – Some may find 1280×720 on a 10″ display to be too small but if you can handle it, it’s a good thing.
HDMI output – neat
1.3 megapixel camera – status quo
HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth – built in 3G is always a nice thing, it’s optional if you don’t want it.
264×195x19.9mm, 1.25kg – nice
16 cell LiIon battery good for up to 12hrs – 16 cells, damn! Still, you’re going to need all that battery life because you’ll be waiting forever for the 4200rpm hard drive.
Looks like Nokia is getting more creative with their model name nomenclature.
To me the most interesting phone here is the X6. It’s a S60 touchscreen device but it has a capacitive touch screen. It will be interesting to see if that makes a big difference over other S60 resistive touch screen devices like the 5800XM and N97. Other specs: 3.2″ 640×360 display, Triband HSDPA (850/900/2100 or 900/1900/2100), WiFi, 434Mhz processor (same as the N97) and 5 megapixel camera with Zeiss lens. It uses the Nokia barrel port to charge.
The n97 mini is very similar to the regular N97 except the mini is slightly smaller (113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm vs 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9mm, that’s 75cc vs 88cc) and comes with less storage (8GB instead of 32GB). It still has a resistive touchscreen.
The X3 is a slider phone running S40: 3 megapixel camera, no HSDPA.
Rogers and Fido have launched three new SMS bundles which are perfect for your travels around the world.
$10: 20 text messages ($0.50/message overage)
$20: 50 text messages ($0.40/message overage)
$35: 100 text messages ($0.35/message overage)
The travel packs for good for messaging anywhere outside of Canada. The add-ons will not be prorated so they do not need to be added on your plan’s anniversary date. All roaming SMS packs will expire after 30 days and will need to be manually re-added.
Rogers Wireless is changing the eligibility of its HUP program.
Effective August 21, 2009, a minimum tenure of 24 months since initial activation or last upgrade will be required before a customer is eligible to participate in the hardware upgrade program. This change aligns all upgrades (voice, voice to data and data to data) with the current data to data HUP policy.
According to the internal bulletin, Rogers is implementing the change to the HUP for two reasons.
Rogers Wireless heavily invests in providing the latest data devices at affordable prices to our data customers. This update to the Hardware Upgrade Program is designed to offer a consistent upgrade eligibility to an outstanding selection of the most advanced devices for the best value.
In addition to the outstanding selection of available devices, there has also been improved level of quality and technology that has gone into the line-up over the past years allowing a longer hardware lifespan.
I always love reading companies internal documentations as there is always a few sentences that give you a good chuckle. Take this one from the Rogers’ bulletin for example.
This change also reinforces the importance of explaining to customers that HUP eligibility and quoted hardware/plan pricing are subject to change without notice and cannot be guaranteed beyond the time of quotation.
To me that paragraph means that Rogers’ is implementing the new HUP policy to remind consumers who is in charge. The change has nothing to do with devices costing more or the “longer hardware lifespan” it is just another way Rogers can make an easy buck.
As mentioned earlier in the post, the updated HUP upgrade policy is effective August 21st and will only apply to regular consumers, business accounts will not be affected. I recommend if you are considering upgrading you current Rogers’ device you do so before August 21st because even though you may have been eligible for an upgrade you may no longer be able to under the new policy.
T-Mobile just announced the Blackberry 8520. Instead of a trackball it comes with a optical trackpad. It also has WiFi, UMA, Quad band EDGE (no 3G), 2 megapixel camera and 256MB RAM with a 512Mhz processor.
There are some media keys on top of the device and it sports a newer look than what you find on other Blackberries (like the Storm, Curve 8900, Tour and Bold).
It will be available in Black and Frost (white).
It’ll be available August 5th for $129.99 on a 2 yr with qualifying data plans.
Today is July 7, 2009 and that means that Rogers Wireless consumers are being charged $0.15 per incoming text message.
To void the incoming message fee simply subscribe to any text plan or value pack that has text messaging included. Customers with my5 plans without a texting package will be charge $0.15 per incoming messagae that is not from one of their chosen five numbers. System alerts and WhoCalled messages will continue to be free regardless if you have a text messaging plan or not.
Text messaging plans start at as low as $5/month for 250 picture of text messages. Give customer care a call at 1-888-ROGERS1 (1-888-764-3771) or 611 from your Rogers mobile phone to add you text plan and avoid the incoming message charge.
Rogers’ discount brand, Fido, will not implement the incoming messaging charge. If you want to switch your Rogers account to Fido a $100 transfer fee will apply and the transfer will only be granted if you are past the one year mark in your contract.
