Unlimited data, but not everyone can play

This past week, Rogers introduced a new unlimited data plan for a flat rate of $20. This move helped align Rogers with the other major cell providers in Canada (Telus and Bell Canada) by offering low-cost, add-on plans for data users. Until now, Rogers had one of the most expensive data usage rates around, charging hundreds of dollars to the power users. My personal experience with the cost of data on the Rogers network was when I first purchased my SMT 5600 smartphone. I decided to try the online connectivity by signing into Mobile MSN from my phone. I was logged on for no more than 30 seconds, so I thought I would not be hit too hard with data costs. When I received my bill in the mail, the cost for my experiment was almost $14 CAD!

The speculation is that Rogers may have introduced the flat rate as a precursor to the iPhone being released in Canada. I think Rogers is testing the waters to see how the flat-rate plan is adopted across it’s subscriber base. The problem is that they have excluded arguably their largest subscriber populations - Blackberry users and customers with smartphones. The plan is tailored to a specific phone (Rogers Vision). The fine print for the flat-rate plan reads (bolding is my own):

Important: This plan includes unlimited on-device mobile browsing only. Plan is available on select phones only (PDAs such as Blackberry or Windows Mobile devices, PC cards and non-Rogers certified devices are not eligible). Data usage incurred on ineligible devices, incurred while tethering (using device as wireless modem for laptop) or incurred using non-Rogers (3rd party) applications downloaded to your device will be subject to pay-per-use charges of 5 cents/KB.

So, if you own a smartphone or Blackberry, you aren’t any further ahead. You still pay $0.05 / KB for ad-hoc data usage. And even if you could apply it against your Blackberry account, you would not qualify for the unlimited data for external applications that reply on always-on internet connections (Google Maps, Google Talk, etc).

Why bother introducing the plan at all? The plan is a step in the right direction, but until it is mated to a device that is useful (iPhone?), it won’t be too appealing to me.