Rogers casts doubts on iPhone for Canada - Page 2

Thank's grahamw!
I've counted 18 posts that had nothing to do with this topic (that I'm particularly interested in).

My 2 year contract with Bell ends in june and it would be nice if Rogers introduces the iPhone during the summer or even in fall. I would be ready to use my cell with a pay card between contracts for a few months, but now with Rogers not even sure if (or when) they will offer the iPhone, I'm getting worried. Here in Canada, you cant sign a contract less than 2 years, some even 3 years duration. I dont want to sign a 2 years with Bell, if someone finally offers the iPhone in 6-8 months from now, nor using a pay card for such a period.

On march 13th, I got a email from Rogers customer service stating that they will be the exclusive iPhone carrier. But at this time are not able to say at what date and for how much.

I'm with Bell since I own a cell, but I'm ready to go with whoever carries the iPhone!

Until then, I'll keep watching AppleInsider for the latest news.

(edited to avoid further trouble)

Welcome to AI.

Fair enough.

Sick my Duck. I finally register at AI and the fight is stopped before I can even drop my gloves.


Korea is completely cdma/wcdma. Maybe Japan as well?
My CDMA phone worked in China. Even though they may have more GSM phones, that still leaves hundreds of millions of potential customers.
It is my hope that those markets - which have more users than either Europe or N.A. - will soon force a EVDO/1X CDMA version of the phone that we can buy at an Apple store to make Bell add the necessary infastructure. (And at Bell I get true unlimited data - unlike Rogers finite version of unlimited.)

Our contract is up, my blackberry is dying and I had been negotiating with Rogers to come aboard with our newly portable phone numbers. They were going to hand us phones and generous (for Rogers) "retention" plans until the iPhone arrived around Christmas.

I have just fired off a note to Odette Coleman thanking Rogers for the warning.
Now I can get another CDMA blackberry and continue to avoid Rogers until they figure out that the iPhone will be like the iPod writ large. (Still won't sign a Bell contract though, just in case.)

Hi folks,

I've decided to register and warn you that this CBC report is not true!

I'm the editor-in-chief of iPhoneWorld.ca, currently the biggest Canadian iphone news site out there, so I've already been in contact with both Apple Canada PR and Rogers Wireless customer support, trying to get additional information about the iPhone's release date and pricing here.

Below is what a Rogers Wireless customer service rep told me:

Dear Dennis Sloutsky,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of
online customer service.

In your recent email, you have asked us if about iPhones and if our
software supports the Macintosh Comouters.

Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada as
soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in
Canada.
Rogers will be offering the iPhone exclusively in Canada but launch date
and pricing for Canada are not yet available. Other Canadian wireless
carriers will not launch the iPhone, Rogers will be the only Canadian
wireless carrier to offer the iPhone.

We appreciate your continuing patronage. Please contact us at your
convenience if you have any further inquiries.

For future reference with respect to this e-mail, please quote reference
number 18129366

Regards,
Diane P.
Rogers Online Customer Service
http://www.rogers.com

While the e-mail is badly spelled, it was received by me from Rogers Wireless agent in response to a question about iPhone in Canada and music downloads on it. I've even left in my name and reference number, if anyone would like to follow up on that.

This story was posted at http://www.iphoneworld.ca/news/2007/...aunch-in-2007/

I've e-mailed CBC news who I believe are using outdated information, but they never got back to me. Nevertheless, I believe their information is flat wrong.

We assume Rogers will have the iPhone. They have just stopped admitting it.
Pouting, if you will.

Idionysus: Do not believe everything you hear from a Customer Service rep, the problem with CSRs are that sometimes they know absolutely nothing about what you are asking so they may sometimes have a tendency to make up stuff.

I worked as a CSR for an American carrier for half a year, CSRs misinform quite a bit, usually by accident, but we are told about new phones or service literally the week they came out.

With Rogers, lots of these people are clueless, and only give what they think will happen, but it doesnt mean that the iPhone will come out when a specific CSR agent will say, because the next agent that you email could say something different.

People need to take CSR agents' comments with a grain of salt, they're not the "official" word of the company, they're basically people like you and I who just want a good paying job and chose that over working at a store or restaurant or whatnot. People take comments a CSR does to heart too much, I've had CSR agents before me who promised a customer $100 in credits, but I get yelled at because I cannot act on the agreement done by the previous agent, thinking that we ARE the company.

But anywho, rant done, and I'm excited for the iPhone to come to Canada, I'm personally waiting for the Blackberry 8820 for now, and I actually was on the phone with a Rogers CSR agent today.. I knew more about the current lineup of phones than the agent himself, and I haven't worked as a CSR of any type in well over a year and half

Just as it was getting fun.

It was all in jest anyway. I doubt anyone on either side of the border took any offence.

This thread can't discuss much anyway. The fact that Apple would call Rogers and tell them to clam up is not surprising to any AI reader. And we all know it will cross the border, though not in June.

Who buys their phone at Future Shop anyway

Hi folks,

I was so intrigued by this story that I couldn't sleep too well last night.

So today I called up Rogers customer service again, looking for some more information about iPhone and Rogers.

Here's what I've been told by a customer rep:

"According to Amanda (whose last name we were unable to get due to Rogers policies), “We [Rogers Wireless] are going to offer the iPhone in Canada… We’re just unsure of the exact release date.” "

This story was posted @ http://www.iphoneworld.ca/news/2007/...-canada-again/

This is the last and final confirmation we've received for Rogers and iPhone in Canada. We will not touch this topic again on iPhoneWorld.ca until we get a release date confirmation from Rogers or Apple Canada PR, anything else you folks might've heard are just rumors :-)

That CBC report was wrong, not the first and not the last time for that to have happened. I've contacted CBC again about this information and they still did not answer to my inquiry.

Are you sure they were aware that:

Agreed....
Apple should just make available unlock through the Apple Store

I have a question. What are the major obstacles involved in the iPhone making a simultaneous US/Canada release?

I ask this because the only things I can think of are some delay in certification or perhaps a delay in Rogers setting up there system for 'Visual Voice mail'.

Now I can see a possible delay on the certification front, but in terms of Rogers, they will have had at least 6 months since the keynote (in reality probably more as I doubt Apple would've kept them out of the loop before hand) in which to get their system configured for the iPhone.

Is there anything I'm missing?

Why couldn't the iPhone make it to the Great White North by late June?

Perhaps their contract with ATT?

Beyond the contract, no doubt a staggered rollout helps with production ramp up.

I don't know about the contract with Cingular/ATT having anything to do with it. Cingular doesn't operate in Canada so it's not like Rogers poses them any competition. I think the exclusivity 'til 2009 is only valid in the US.

Production ramp up/staggered rollout is an interesting theory and probably does/will play a part in any delay.

I read something interesting in the iPhone discussion page yesterday:


Don't know how reliable this is but I guess take it for what it's worth. November '07 is a longtime yet and by then G6 iPods (hopefully with multi-touch) will probably be making a debut, if this is the real iPhone release date for Canada it faces some serious undercutting by those devices. Not too mention the more-than-likely exorbitant data plan that Rogers will be charging.

Don't count out contractual obligations... No doubt Cingular wants some "we had it first" prestige, and beyond that for instance Europe, the Caribbean, etc, have much loser markets with regards to locked phones and client contracts. The later these markets get the iPhone the later US residents will be able to purchase unlocked iPhones online.

I would go further to say than most potential customers in the Caribbean, initially, would not purchase an iPhone unless they could get an unlocked version.

Right... that was weird then.

Since we don't know what those contracts spell out, we can't say that they don't matter. Im' pretty sure they do for several reasons.

One is just the exclusivity for the first few months. The second, and possibly even more important reason, would be that ATT doesn't want to be caught up in a ramp-up war with other providers. This way, if the phone does prove to be a big hit from the beginning, they will have the entire output for that first critical time.