Rogers has a huge problem, they’re running out of adjectives to brand their internet services. They have SIX cable internet offerings right now with their newest service called UltraHeavyExpressExtremePlusHighSpeed. It’s true, check their website.

The new UltraHeavyExpressExtremePlusHighSpeed service allows a theoretical 50mbps download and 2mbps upload speed.

For years, Rogers has allowed users of their cable internet service to check their usage. Even more recently, they gave alerts to people as they neared their usage cap and about to be charged more.

Well, tracking your wireless data has now become easier. Rogers added this functionality to their website this week. If you have a data plan, definitely check this service out because it could save you a lot of money.

Better instructions to navigate to this page can be found at Boy Genius Reports.

I was looking at the Rogers Internet plans today and realized that both the $60 Extreme and $47 Express service are now 10Mbps. The only differences are upload speed (1Mbps vs. 0.5Mbps) and bandwidth cap (95GB vs. 60GB).

I’m not much of an uploader and I’ve never downloaded more than 60GB, so it was an easy way to save $156 a year.

Boy Genius Reports, again the best blog for mobile news, is quoting the following Rogers text about upgrading if you bought an iPhone last year:

There has been a lot of excitement around the new iPhone 3G S and we wanted to recognize the early adopters who helped make the iPhone the hottest-selling handset in Canadian wireless history. We will be discounting the price of the iPhone 3G S by between $250 and $500 to provide savings to many of our iPhone customers.

What this means is that eligible iPhone owners can acquire the iPhone 16GB 3G S for as low as $199 or the 32GB for as low as $299 until July 31, 2009.

For Fido customers, we’re offering the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion. This enables iPhone customers to redeem FidoDollars towards a new iPhone 3G S with an additional $100 top-up from Fido.

For customers who don’t qualify for these extra savings, we are pleased to offer Rogers Wireless customers the iPhone at our cost on rogers.com. This cost – $580 for the iPhone 3G, $680 for the iPhone 3G S 16GB and $780 for the iPhone 3G S 32GB – represents the price we pay for the device plus a nominal fee for the SIM card. Customers can access these devices at retail locations for just $19 more for the three devices.

We’re also happy to announce that Rogers and Fido are extending the 6GB/$30 data promotion until July 31. This offer is valid for customers on a new or existing iPhone plan or customers buying an Android-powered HTC Magic or HTC Dream.

Five ways to save

1) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone 3G between July 11 and Sept. 30, 2008, and with an average monthly spend of at least $100, Rogers will provide $500 off the cost of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires July 31, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

·      16GB 3GS $199
·      32GB 3GS $299

2) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone between July 11 and Dec. 31, 2008, but aren’t eligible for the above offer, Rogers will provide $250 dollars off the purchase of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires July 31, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

·      16GB 3GS $449
·      32GB 3GS $549

3) All Rogers Wireless customers can upgrade to the iPhone 3GS at our cost at Rogers.com, or for a suggested retail price of just $19 more than our cost through our retail channels.

·      8GB 3G $580/$599
·      16GB 3GS $680/$699
·      32GB 3GS $780/$799

4) Fido customers can take advantage of the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion:
·      Use FidoDollars towards the purchase of a new iPhone 3G S
·      Fido will top up the FidoDollars amount by $100
·      This promotion does not include an extension or renewal of their service agreement.

5) New and existing iPhone customers can take advantage of a limited-time promotion of 6GB of data for $30, now extended until July 31. Other Rogers and Fido data plans will remain the same, including the only national standalone data plan at $25 per month for 500 MB. We know that this is the right plan for most Canadians – 93 per cent of current iPhone customers on a data plan use less than 500 MB of data per month.

One of my favorite mobile blogs, Boy Genius Reports, just found out the non-contract price of the new iPhone 3G S.

• $799 32gb
• $699 16gb

Those of you that committed to 3 year contracts for the iPhone 3G better save your pennies.

Let’s get this out of the way first, it’s available on June 19th at Rogers. Unfortunately Rogers has not updated their website with any description and they did not lower the price of the old 3G to $99 like AT&T did.

Although the outside isn’t much different, inside there are many changes both in hardware and software. A better processor and memory are suspected, but not confirmed by Apple at the WWDC today. Instead they focused on showing off the new functionality of the iPhone and iPhone OS including:

• Faster applications (new CPU and memory?)
• Records video
• 3MP camera with autofocus, autoexposure and white balance control
• Voice Control (including voice dialing)
• Compass
• Cut, Copy & Paste
• MMS
• Search
• Tethering
• Voice Recorder
• Nike+

See the guided tour at the Apple website for a very lengthy tour of the new phone.

As predicted, Rogers followed Bell and Telus in beginning to charge their customers for incoming text messages. If you have a text messaging plan, this does not apply, but the majority of people do not have a text plan because they get offered a number through their voice plan (not a text plan).

This is a good time to buy Rogers stock, profits will be up.

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…

In the past month, as a Rogers Internet customer, you’ve probably noticed that you get a search page instead of an error page when you type in an DNS that is not registered. This reminds me of the Verisign “Site Finder” practice that did a very similar thing. Verisign’s Site Finder was disabled after ICANN told them to stop.

Rogers has had this redirect since July 18th and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the practice. However, there is an alternate DNS that has been made available for people that do not want this practice to continue.

Here are the details:
altdns.rnc.net.cable.rogers.com
64.71.255.202