Rogers’ new CEO Guy Laurence introduced the new Rogers 3.0 plan back in May 2014 and since then he has been putting this plan into action, so it will be a while before his leadership can be fully evaluated. However, carriers, like Rogers, really make me laugh when they try to convince us that when they raise a price, it is for our own good. For instance, their wireless connection fee – you know the one they “must” us charge whenever we buy a new device or even upgrade from one device to another – is going up $5 on February 10, to $20.
According to Rogers, this is as a result of their annual review of pricing and fees “to make sure we’re delivering the value our customers need. We strive to minimize fee changes as much as possible and we’re always looking for innovative ways to better serve our customers.” It is hard to imagine their public relations (PR) department could write a few lines like those and expect their customers to buy into it. They raise the fees in one sentence and in the very next, they tell us they’re “delivering the value our customers need.” Rogers’ internal email went on “to highlight the company’s value-added services like NHL GameCentre, Roam Like Home, and its First Rewards loyalty program.” Those added services are nice, but everybody has to help pay for them, not just the subscribers.
Rogers just had their earnings call in which we reported they were still the number one carrier in Canada with 9,450,000 subscribers – 8,073,000 postpaid and 1,377,000 prepaid – even though they lost 53,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter 2014. They activated 836,000 wireless smartphones during that quarter and 28-percent of them were new subscribers. Their lowlight was the fact that their churn rate is up from the previous year, although their Average Revenue Per Users (ARPU) was up an incredible $1.27 to $59.86 for the quarter.
Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know what you think about Rogers raising their connection fee to $20. Do you participate in any of their “value-added services” and how would you rate them overall as a carrier compared to other Canadian telecoms…as always, we would love to hear from you.