Why the Apple iPhone is Not Available in Canada.

Ever wonder why the Apple iPhone is not available in Canada even though it is available just across the border?

Much of the blame can be targeted at our service providers here in Canada. Canada has two major players. Bell and Rogers. Before I get into compatibility issues with the iPhone, let me say that the data service costs are outrages here in Canada.

The US service providers have an "All You Can Eat" data plans. The one offered by AT&T for the iPhone allows you 1,350 minutes of voice calls, unlimited data, video voice mail, 200 text messages and unlimited use nights and weekends for $100/month.

Currently we have no such thing as "All You Can Eat" data.

Bell Mobility:
$100/month - email plus Internet - No Voice
Data included per month for email and Internet: 1 GB
Additional data: $1/MB
Charges for data in U.S: $3/MB
Voice Service - $25+ additonal per month with 50 anytime minutes plus additonal minutes @ 30 cents/minute. Plus $8.95 monthly access fee.

www.bellmobility.ca

1 Gygabyte sounds like a large amount of data but download a few songs from iTunes and watch a few Youtube videos and your monthly allotment can be easily used up. Keep in mind it is not just the files themselves that you need to worry about but every webpage you view means kilobytes or even megabytes of data being transfered to view the pages you are seeing to get to the music or video download page even before you start downloading the music or video itself.

Rogers:
$10/month - email plus Internet - No Voice
Browse approx. 2,500** web pages per month and/or
Send/receive approx. 2,500** email messages per month
**Each page or email is considered 4kb in size maximum.
Additional charge of 4 cents/kb
Voice Service - $20+ additional per month with 1000 Evening (9PM-7AM) and Weekend ; 50+50 Weekday Minutes

www.shoprogers.com

First, who has ever been to a website recently that is 100% text only?
4 kb = 4000 bytes or 4000 characters if 1 character equals 1 byte.
Also, if an image exists on a website, will it be 4kb in size or smaller? If a mobile friendly website contains a small thumbnail image it is probably 10 kb in size or larger. Even that is hard to see on a small screen. Therefore automatically (10 kb - 4 kb = 6 kb) or a total of 24 cents additional charge just for downloading an image that is painful for anyone to look at on any website.

If you used the iPhone as it is meant to be used, you would certainly view:
- Youtube videos
- Transfer music from iTunes
- Download ring tones
- Download camera phone or regular sized webmail pictures

These will certainly be in the megabyte size if not 100's of kilobytes for sure.
1000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte.

Regardless of which provider you go with, I could say a limited user could pay easily $200+ per month or maybe even $400+ if you are not careful with your data usage. I have not even considered the email costs in my calculations. 2500 emails-webpages per month included by Rogers sounds like a lot but since each is only limited to 4kb in size, the added charges can easily add up.

In the end, since the iPhone requires a GSM data connection, Rogers is your only choice up here in Canada. Though, currently $10/month for data and email sounds inexpensive, the actual end user costs will certainly be far more over the "All You Can Eat" AT&T plan of $100 USD.

Since the Canadian currency is now very close to or at par with the US dollar, there is no reason why we should be paying 3 - 4 times our US friends just across the border. Rogers charges $3/mb in the States over $1/mb in Canada for data. What's up with that?

One Last Note: Seems like if we do see the iPhone in Canada, there will be an initial cost of about $400 for the iPhone itself. That plus a $200+ service charge per month seems just too much for anyone to really enjoy the iPhone to its fullest.

I hope Rogers will consider reducing the Data charges or creating an "All You Can Eat" data plan. In the end, an "All You Can Eat" data plan in Canada will certainly add 1000's of new users from my perspective that currently do not use data or use any kind of mobile phone or mobile device. By introducing an "All You Can Eat" data plan will certainly allow iPhones to be made available and also add a large number of current Windows Mobile users to include data/phone access to their existing devices.

All cellular service providers here in Canada are missing a very large revenue stream by not offering a wider range of PDA's in general. The Blackberry plus 3 or 4 PDA devices supported directly by the carriers just does not cut it. There are dozens of compatible PDA's from Palm, Windows Mobile plus all sorts of Smartphone devices currently being used in Canada that would greatly benefit from an inexpensive data plan. Hope Rogers and Bell wake up and support the thriving mobile PDA marketplace in Canada soon. If not, Rogers and Bell are just telling foreign carriers that it is OK to provide their data services here in Canada. I do not care which carrier I go with in the end be it Canadian, US, or British. Service quality and reasonable costs are my deciding factors for using any service provider.

Added Note:

Shortly after writing the above comments, I saw a newspaper advertising from Bell for an "All You Can Eat" data plan.

Taken from the newspaper ads very small print. "Subject to acceptable use restrictions in Terms of Services, including comsuming excessive network capacity or causing our network to be adversely affected".

Unforunately it is mainly for laptops only since it is designed to work with a PC data card only - no voice. $75/month plus $8.95 system access fee. No comparison to what AT&T is offering with their "All You Can Eat" data plus phone plan @ $100 but it is a good start. Now if this can translate over to other carriers like Rogers to step up to the plate with a slightly better and more flexible plan as far as hardware support goes would be nice. We will just have to wait and see.