For years, Canadians using mobile data devices (Blackberrys and other PDAs) have been getting royally screwed on mobile data fees. Just one year ago, I think most providers base plans included a “generous” 500 kilobytes per month.
That means users could download…five small pictures, per month.
A few months back, it looked like things might be getting better when both Bell Mobility and Telus introduced 1 gigabyte plans for $100. (Previously, $100 got subscribers 250 megabytes per month.)
Following this, Rogers brought in 500 megabytes for Windows Mobile users only priced at $80/month.
But now, things are getting interesting with Bell Mobility firing the first shot.
With their introduction of the HTC Touch (kind of a Windows Mobile version of the iPhone,) they’ll be allowing users to add on their basic $7/month unlimited web browsing plan. On a PDA, not a regular cell phone. Which is, well, insane. Even Americans don’t get their data that cheap – the unlimited iPhone data plan is $20/month.
Telus seems to have countered by offering unlimited e-mail for both the HTC Touch and Blackberry Pearl. Problem is, no web browsing there.
Rogers is also giving unlimited e-mail…for the Blackberry Pearl as well.
While this battle was a long-time coming, it would be nice if it didn’t target only consumer. Users of standard Blackberry devices are still stuck with 4 megabytes per month for $25. And I’ve said many times before, these prices really come off as discrimination against small business owners and the self-employed. Since the better prices are for consumer-oriented devices only, it looks like that’s going to continue.
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