Monday, June 30, 2008 -- 9:38 p.m. -- at my desk

Now we have the Canadian media covering this whole Rogers thing. It was starting to make the rounds with the CBC yesterday, but I hadn't seen much outside that.

Now, there's a story from the Canadian Press that actually has a comment from the Rogers spokesperson who didn't take the time to e-mail me back.

So I will share with you what Liz Hamilton said to the Canadian Press here ... basically, she said that what was announced last week isn't the only choice for Canadian consumers, although that certainly was never made clear before today.

"As always, our customers have many choices, they can use their existing voice and smartphone data plans if they wish, including for example, selecting from our new data pricing and then adding a voice plan that suits their own needs, or they can choose a voice and data plan to best suit their individual need," Hamilton told the CP.

"With respect to existing customers, all customers' accounts are unique. If desired, customers can keep their existing voice service plan and pick a separate data plan to meet their needs."

It probably would have been nice if Rogers made this clear before the outcry started, but if consumers have other choices, that's great. Still, I don't see a choice that's comparable to anything in other large nations such as the U.S. and the U.K., although AT&T still has not released its rates as of yet.

So we'll see if this additional clarification does anything to calm the storm that has been raging for several days now.

Here's a link to some of the stories in the Canadian media: From the CBC and from the Canadian Press

Canadian callers ... how does this work for you? Can you use a current plan and have what you need for the iPhone? Please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for calling.

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It doesn't work. Roger's ridiculously expensive rates are the result of the CRTC allowing the big three telecom companies to form an oligopoly by buying up their smaller competitors. The CRTC needs to be gutted (witness their laughable ruling that allowed BellGlobeMedia to buy ChumCity) and the big three need to be chopped up into smaller companies. Unfortunately, I fear that most Canadians are far too complacent with things as they are. I also fear that the only thing to develop out of this whole iPhone/Canada debacle will be more record profits for Rogers.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Amazing that things got this out of hand, isn't it, Daniel? Whether or not Canadians are far too complacent or not, there had to be some sort of red flag that went up at some point, it would seem. Maybe it's easier for me to assume that on the outside looking in, though.

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