Rogers to begin charging customers without text messaging plans for incoming SMS
More news on the messaging front is coming down from Rogers Wireless today as the company prepares to makes a few text-related changes to its service offerings. There has been a rumor going around for quite some time regarding the elimination of free incoming SMS for customers without text messaging plans and it looks like Rogers is finally getting ready to implement the new policy. Beginning July 7th, incoming SMS will run plan-less subscribers 15ยข per message — the same rate as outgoing texts. Customers with text messaging plans will continue to receive unlimited free incoming SMS. Rogers customers will find information to this effect circulated via bill inserts that will begin going out today.
Now before you start to get all crazy, we’ll repeat that this change only applies to those of you without a monthly messaging bundle; leaving the overwhelming majority of you unaffected. In fact, 94 percent of messages sent and received on Rogers’ network will not be affected by this news. Those of you currently without a messaging plan might want to consider catching up with the times; if you send and receive a combined 34 messages or more each month, it would now behoove you to snag the $5 bundle. Two related notes: Rogers is running a promo that provides unlimited free incoming tweets via SMS — whether or not you’re on a text messaging plan — for the remainder of 2009. Also, this policy change does not apply to Fido customers.
Awesome! In your face Rogers clients!
Right in the footsteps of (B) Hell and the Evil Empire. Iguess this is one way of increasing revenue.
Move to the UK, we don’t pay for incoming calls or texts. It’s much sweeter over here.
Way to go cdma fanboy
Weak!
It doesn’t affect the majority of the customers so why piss them off now for a measely 15 cents?
Again, weak!
I read that text messages are embed in data transmitters. So the cost of carriers is less than 1/78th of a penny that in fact its sort of a unlimited and does not effect the network in anyway what so ever. That’s lame that they would charge….its 2009 already…..those should come standard unlimited it doesn’t crowd the network the way voice data affects the network…..
lol@grammar fail.
wow i would be mad as hell of i were on rogers
am happy i dont live in canada
The cellphone plan sucks in Canada in General. The network is trying every thing they can add to the service fee.They added System access fee, incoming txt message fee…
You need to pay extra $11 to get caller id, call display and voice mail. I have an iphone and I have to pay extra to get the visual voice mail. $25 data plan only gives you half a Gig of data per month. Canada is the only country in the world where they allow the phone company to charge what ever the hell they want!
No consumer watch…?
Wow, I live in the US but it seems like Rogers is the devil.
I wonder how much they plan on making with this announcement? With only 6 percent effected and at 15 cent a shot it can’t be that much. Not worth the bad PR if you ask me.
Free incoming sms, we dont even get that in the US unless we are on an unlimited message plan. 15 cents is still a lot better then the 20 we pay here in the States.
I just phoned rogers and they say this was not true because it would drive to many customers Away….
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: North Peel Regional Municipality (Kleinburg) ON, L0J
if it doesn’t affect 94% of their customers, why would they even bother to try to get people to hate them more?
When are those new companies starting up?
they get free incoming texts? damn thats nice.
@sid: they don’t care who hates em whatever whatever. They know we have nowhere to run. And now with Ted Rogers passing, it’s about to get much much worse. He had a backbone (somewhat), these new bastards don’t have a bone in their body. Those new companies better start up soon cause rogers is gonna be unstoppable for a long time to come if they wait any longer.
If it gets any worse i’m simply gonna move to Alaska like i’ve been saying for years and that’s it. Me, Homer and Palin will be ice fishing every friday while chugging down some ice cold beer. Sounds alright to me…haha
Robber strikes again !
I can’t wait for Yak/Videotron to start their GSM network already ! Thank the lord they left Fido untouched by this but i don’t think it will stay like this forever.
Adi
What happens when random people/companies send spam to your phone? Perhaps I missed something, but not sure Rogers thought this through.
I’m with the communications team at Rogers. I wanted to respond to Doc-ryu’s question about Spam. We use filters to protect our customers from SMS spam and it’s not a common occurrence.
But we’ve also created a short code for spam. Effective July 7, customers can forward an unwanted e-mail to 7726 (SPAM) and receive a credit on the next invoice.
Finally, we’ve asked the CRTC to include text messaging in the Do Not Call List to help protect customers from this unwanted annoyance.
Bell and Telus has had this for awhile now, I dont really blame Rogers for doing this.
On another note, You cannot compare US-Europe plans to Canada. The population for US-Europe and landmass for Europe makes these factors uncomparable.
Im not being a Rogers fanboy, but I believe that Rogers Fido Bell are still the best solutions for a wireless device.
@Keith
USELESS! That is a do not “hesitate” to call list.
I am on the list, I get spammed regularly!
Awesome , can I bought it at Tradestead which has many kinds of such good consumer electronics but with a cheaper price!
Phone companies in Canada are the worst in the world in terms of ripping people of, they constantly bring up the land mass and population which is a pile of C#@p because the network is not even all over Canada, its only in populated areas the infrastructure is there, they charge a huge amount of nonsense fees. I was with Rogers for 5 years they f@#ked up my bill and plan after 5 years and wouldn’t want to fix it, so I had to leave not that Bell is better but I got a much cheaper plan with them, I can’t believe we put up with this sh!t I have traveled to many countries I’ve never seen anything anywhere in the world like the Canadian mobile companies, the make huge profits as it is and they are keep raising the prices its disgusting really
Jeeverz, there are several things wrong with what you wrote. First, just because Bell and Telus do something doesn’t mean Rogers has to as well. Part of the reason I switched to them from Telus was because of Telus charging for incoming texts. Second, we may not be able to compare our plans to the more densely populated US or Europe, but you know who we can compare with? Australia. It has comparable population density, and like Canada, much of its population is clustered in specific areas with the rest having little population density. And you know what? Wireless plans in Australia kick the shit out of what we get here. Rogers/Bell/Telus are the worst wireless companies in the world, without question, and you’re deluding yourself if you think otherwise.
Yeah, that’s what I said. AT&T used to do that (at least 6 years ago), but for at least the last 3 they have been charging you for any texts.
@Keith McArthur:
Do you seriously think people will spend half an hour on the phone to get credit back for 15 cents?
But I will give credit where credit is due: you guys do credit back a lot of money for unknown data charges. So my question is why follow Bell/Telus with this stupid idea for 15 cents revenue?? Please don’t tell it’s “industry standard”. Whatever happened to this:
“We just don’t charge for it, and have no plans to. Now it’s a unique differentiator for Rogers,” company spokeswoman Elizabeth Hamilton said of the move to charge for incoming messages.
http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=2527e80a-6260-47fb-b5ed-441d51cc0b79
Any ideas?