While the law was originally proposed last year in Ontario, it wasn’t in effect because the legislature didn’t vote on it. Well last week, it got final approval and as soon as the regulations are defined for the law, it will be illegal to talk on your cellphone without a headset.

My current headset is the Aliph Jawbone, however they just released an updated version called Jawbone Prime.

Sure, Roger’s has two Canadian “exclusives”, the iPhone and the Blackberry Bold. But recent changes to their pricing and upgrade policies have me rethinking them as the choice for my current smartphone. Not only did they increase prices on all new blackberrys (by as much as $50) but today they increased the time for upgrades from 12 months to 24 months. This is on top of thier new increased fees for cable, internet and wireless service.

Rogers is taking EVERY step possible to squeeze as much revenue as possible from their existing user base. At least we have some choice in the matter. Bell isn’t standing by and has aggressively been promoting both cable and internet service to my building. GlobalLive is holding onto a large chunk of spectrum and itching to get into the wireless service in Canada. We have long memories and won’t forget this cash squeeze from Rogers – we may not leave right away, but when the time comes, we will leave and never look back.

Over the weekend I called Rogers because the Cable TV portion of my bill was way higher than I thought it should be. Turns out a “Speciality TV” package was added to my bill at a cost of $40/month. By removing it I only lost a few channels and none of them I really watch anyways because the VIP package already gave me a lot. Basically the two packages overlapped significantly.

What strikes me as odd is that I didn’t ask for that package to be added. It was added when I had some problems on my account and it was put there for “free” because of the headache I went through from Rogers. Little did I know that there was a term limit to how long it was free for and it quickly turned into a fee package.

So, double check your bills – make sure you’re getting only the services that you want. And be careful when Roger’s offers you something for nothing…

Do you have a phone with a data plan? Like an iPhone or a Blackberry? As these phones get more popular, demand for something called “tethering” is becoming to be more noticed.

“Tethering” allows your phone to act like a modem, allowing a laptop to use it as the network and use data via your cellular data plan, not wifi. This is expensive, unless you have a good data plan allowing for lots of data, however it is very convenient especially when you are somewhere that doesn’t have wifi – the GO train comes to mind.

Currently, only the latest Blackberry’s like the Bold have this. The iPhone does not.

Looks like the $30/6 GB plan has been extended until the end of September instead of the end of August. The plan requires a 3 year data plan commitment and a breakage fee if you end it early.

However, the Globe and Mail has said that after the plan ends, there will be new data plans available:

$25 for 500 MB
$30 for 1 GB
$50 for 2 GB
$60 for 3 GB
$80 for 8 GB
$100 for unlimited data

The plans will include 3 months of unlimited data so they know how much data is used. Moreover people can upgrade or downgrade their plan without penalty and data charges are capped at $100 a month, meaning no more $13,000 phone bills (thanks Bell Canada).

I’m not sure if these plans require 3 year contracts like the current plan, but with Rogers always bet on the worst-case scenario for consumers.