Newsletter 
It is hard to defend Rogers – or any of the Big Three in Canada – on raising their prices on several Share Everything Plans on January 12. It is a pattern with them and one might think they draw straws to see which one raises their prices first so that the other two can follow. Now MobileSyrup has learned from an internal Rogers’ memo that on January 20, Rogers is going to revamp its entire Share Everything pricing structure. We already reported on the price increases on its 5GB, 8GB and 15GB tiers, but now it looks like a complete new pricing structure is going to be announced that will effectively eliminate any benefit to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to their network.
According to the internal memo, the No Tab plans will increase $10 to $15 to match its Smart Tab offerings. They give an example of the 1GB No Tab Share going up from $65 to $80 on January 20, which matches the 1GB Smart Tab Share Everything plan. Apparently, Rogers will spread the increases across its entire gamut of plans. They also plan to increase the cost of adding additional lines to existing Share Everything plans from $35 – to $65 per month up to $35 – $50 for local calling and $60 – $65 for a Premium Tab with Canada-wide calling, matching Bell’s recent increases.
While Rogers has had its share of success – Roam Like Home and Shomi come to mind – most of their announcements have to do with raising prices. Either these come before Bell or Telus raise their prices or after the other carriers raise their prices. In the US, T-Mobile started the ball rolling with their ‘Uncarrier’ attitude and now Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are finding ways to lower prices to be more competitive. In Canada, it seems as though the Big Three work together to raise prices – maybe they need a ‘T-Mobile’ working the wireless mobile scene in Canada. The problem with Canada is the vastness and terrain of the land and the concentration of the population…it is hard to have any real competition between major carriers. It is not as easy to quit one carrier, switch to another and expect the same coverage. A recent study though does give high marks to Canada’s carriers and even some of the smaller, regional carriers received kudos.