The article is correct, for the most part. Except for jumping the shark with this statement:

“The economic value of a contracted iPhone 4 customer in Canada is $3,689. Contrast that figure with the $1,598 value of a customer buying the same phone from a carrier in the U.K. Poor Canadian consumers are paying 2.3 times more for the same device – if they keep the device for the full term."

For the $3,689 a Canadian pays, he gets the phone and 3 years of service. For $1,598, the Brit gets the phone and 18 (or 12) months of service. Using these numbers as comparable is just plain stupid, and ruins the otherwise valid other points the author makes.

Also, I don't know how he came up with the UK number that he uses. I hope it's based on statistics about what iPhone users have ended up paying over the years, not an arbitrarily quoted UK plan price. There is one thing that often people overlook - minutes included in European cell contracts (they call them "free") are almost always the absolute minimum that the clients use, and almost always they pay a lot on top of that. (Higher priced contracts give a lot more unlimited stuff and cheaper rates, of course.) While in Canada, for good or bad reasons, people tend to stay within the limits of their plans.

I'd rather have the Indonesian style.

pay full price for the phone
no activation fee, you just pay x amount of money to get the SIM card and already included that same amount of money which you can use either for browsing, text or voice whichever way you want.

By activating the SIM card: unlimited incoming (voice and text) caller ID, VoiceMail, call waiting, 3 way calling, are already included at no extra charge.

If you buy an iPhone 4 from the Apple store, are you still locked into a term or contract? I am with Rogers and have one year left on my contract. I understand that I have to honor the contract but at the end of the contract am I then free to use/switch carriers at will?

If you buy it at full price than yes. You could also order it from Apple.ca.

If you buy it for a full price, either from apple.ca, or from an Apple store, you are NOT bound by any contract, and the phone is unlocked. If you are getting any kind of subsidy, you will be bound by a contract, and the phone will be locked, regardless of where you bought it from.
If you buy it for a full price (no contract) from a Rogers, Telus, or Bell store, the phone will still be locked, even though there will be no contract. Nobody should do that. Use Apple for full price purchases.

in terms of unlocking price, usually for BB is about $3, iPhone about $10, Android about $20.

Why are people paying to unlock iPhones? I googled and it was surprising easy - load a website on the phone, rebooot, type 1 word, done

When I went to Iceland I was able to buy a SIM card at the duty free next to the baggage pickup on my CC for $18 CAD. It gave me a local number, 3G, and airtime and lasted the whole week I was there

I think I paid $25 for my Rogers SIM (why do we pay for a small piece of cardboard?) and the roaming would have been charged on the kb

you can also buy factory unlocked iphone from apple stores now. no need to void warrenty either,

I think I paid $25 for my Rogers SIM

You got took. They're about $10, IIRC.

One of the dilemas we face is that most of the attractive airtime and data plans also come with a minimun term, usually 3 years. I have read about some minimal discounts for customers who supply their own phone, but they seen to be rare and unadvertised; maybe only available to customers who are renewing after a contract.

I have been prepared for quite a while to pay up-front for an iPhone when my contract expires in a 6 weeks for the sake of having it unlocked. But I am not happy that I may also have to pay more every month for my service while whichever carrier I go with avoids subsidising my phone. If I can't get a decent monthly rate without a fixed term, then I may as well take the phone subsidy and live with the smaller inconvenience that it is locked to a carrier.

;(

One of the dilemas we face is that most of the attractive airtime and data plans also come with a minimun term, usually 3 years.

Are you certain of this? In my experience, advertised/published rate plans are exactly that: they apply equally to contract-tied, or non-contract handset sales. My carrier, Bell, does not have a base-rate for a smartphone service plan that varies according to whether I do or do not have a contract.


I have read about some minimal discounts for customers who supply their own phone, but they seen to be rare and unadvertised; maybe only available to customers who are renewing after a contract.


Indeed. Some customers are able to negotiate certain discounts on certain components of plans, if agreeing to renew a contract..typically a 3-year commitment.

I have been prepared for quite a while to pay up-front for an iPhone when my contract expires in a 6 weeks for the sake of having it unlocked. But I am not happy that I may also have to pay more every month for my service while whichever carrier I go with avoids subsidising my phone. If I can't get a decent monthly rate without a fixed term, then I may as well take the phone subsidy and live with the smaller inconvenience that it is locked to a carrier.(

If you buy an unlocked iPhone from Apple directly, your cellular service provider of choice is not going to jack up the base monthly service-plan rate when you walk into their retail store to set up your monthly service.

Samsung to make an unlocked galaxy s?

http://mobilesyrup.com/2010/11/01/samsung-says-the-nexus-two-is-simply-not-true/

You got took. They're about $10, IIRC.
Could have been $10 I don't remember. It should be free.

A Bell SIM is $5. Bought mine from the Source. Handed the guy a fiver and a quarter for the GST ;) and I was outa-there to activate online.

But if your bank asked for $5 for a chip debit card you would laugh

The banks get you with interest and service charges.

On buying a GSM phone overseas and finding out it doesn't work here. That happened to me, but I was expecting it. The phone only cost me twenty bucks (they now cost less than ten bucks). I already knew the chances it would be a quad-band phone at that price were pretty much zero. But the positive experience did encourage me to pay $300 for a Nokia 6500 Slide that WAS a Quad-band phone, and which worked perfectly on Fido once I was back home.

It's funny. In Europe, most service providers will mail you free SIM cards to your home upon request. Over here, you sometimes have to struggle to get the Canadian carriers to sell you a SIM -- if they even call it a SIM at all.

I've been following this thread with interest.

I currently have a Bell BB - CDMA so no SIM card. If I take it to the US, it will immediately start roaming - probably on Sprint. I also have a BB 8830 World Edition - also Bell, but it has a SIM card. As I understand it, SIM card or no SIM card, this beast will also switch to Global Roaming mode if in the US.

I was thinking of getting a GSM phone - unlocked - and using a Rogers SIM card here, and a T-Mobile SIM card in the US. T-Mobile sell theirs for $6 and for that matter will supply an unlock code if you are taking one of their phones out of the country.

Has anyone had experience with this kind of setup ? I would consider Wind or Mobilicity but their "local" coverage is severely limited. Even if it would work on T-Mobile's network it looks like any travel within Canada also triggers roaming charges.

Is Rogers likely to supply a SIM card if asked ? Am I dreaming in Technicolor here?

Re: SIM
Rogers will probably charge for it.
If you're lucky, you might get one free.. who knows? Depends what they think they can get out of you :p

Re: Wind/Mobilicity
I'm with wind and if I go somewhere outside the home zone that has rogers coverage, it's only 25c a min (no LD charges, a min is a min anywhere in canada). And your home minutes/plan aren't used up when you use away minutes.

Pretty sure you'll be paying 35+/min just in long distance with rogers unless you're calling a number local to where you physically are. (and you lose minutes off your plan)

Just something to keep in mind.

For example, my father went to alberta last month.
He could call home for 25c a minute.
Had he been with rogers it would be 35c/min for his 5 minute call, and he'd lose 5 minutes off of his rogers plan.

And US roaming (if you don't get a tmobile SIM) is 25c/min too. So unless you're doing a lot of talking stateside, it's probably not even worth getting a tmo sim if you use wind.

Thanks for the info.

At those rates, Wind probably makes sense. I travel to St. John's a couple of times a year and don't do any heavy talking. My current Bell plan costs .10 per minute for LD. It's the US where they kill you - I believe it works out to about $2 per minute for roaming on another network. In St. John's it's still Bell - but not in Boston. And data roaming on a BB is whole other universe.

I'll go hang around the Wind website for a bit and see what I can find.

I just got a free phone and they told me it's unlocked. It was at 7-Eleven - they have a SpeakOut wireless promo where you get a free Nokia 1661 when you buy $100 in airtime. I got it as a Xmas gift for my Mom because there's no contract and no system access fees. I think the minutes will last her a long time, but I can always buy more for her birthday. I thought this was a fantastic deal. Since it's unlocked, she should be able to buy a SIM card in the US when she makes her annual trek to Phoenix.

I think you may have received some incorrect information. I just purchased a SpeakOut phone too and it is locked to their network. A Rogers simcard may work in it (same network), but that is about it.