[Tom]

AUG 2006 UPDATE:
Rogers now has a 200MB BlackBerry Plan!

As of August 2006, the petition's mission has now been mostly accomplished. Over 1000 people have signed the petition!

Success:
(1) Rogers no longer uses deceptive advertising to call the 25MB plan 'unlimited'
(2) Rogers now has a 200 megabyte plan for $100 per month.

While Rogers can do better than this, the petition's mission has now been completed. While we are sure the petition may not have had much of an effect on Rogers management, it definitely raised awareness of Roger's BlackBerry pricing plans, which may have ultimately contributed to Rogers' decision making in the very end. More and more people were definitely experiencing data overusages on the Model 8700 Series.

Call ROGERS - 1-888-ROGERS1 and upgrade to the BlackBerry $100 plan for 200MB of data per month. Even while switching, don't forget to make a polite comment that the competition has better plans and to bump the limit to 500MB.

The petition is now live:
www.RogersPetition.com
Rogers BlackBerry customer? Sign there.
Or affected by Rogers data overages in any way? Sign there.
(This includes Rogers customers, Rogers former customers, Rogers potential customers worried about data overages, Rogers stores and resellers affected by customers concerns, etc).

I do believe that we need to make a petition to Rogers for the purpose of either increasing the 25mb DATA cap, or providing us with an additional plan that allows more data, or a actual unlimited plan.

The last month, my data charges were as follows:

Data - Data Usage-Monthly Plan = 25,600.00kb $000.00
Data - Other Data = 35,861.44kb $251.03

Thats $250 extra dollars a month!!!!

And lets not start with the month before that, when I was installing programs OTA, that month was significantly worse.


Who else has these problems?

If there is enough of us, I will write up a petition we can all sign, and I will present it to Rogers (through RIM contacts).

Tom

Example quotes from this thread.

Originally Posted by Mark Rejhon

I paid over $1000 total for three months to Rogers for data overusages over a 3-month period (Dec 2004, Jan 2005, Feb 2005)

Originally Posted by mobile_pheen

i had a 1700$ bill 200 for voice and 1500 for data in december i almost had a instant heart attack when i saw it..

and yeaa there was data usage on my bill on days i didnt use my BB @ all.. wtf.. :S

Originally Posted by spindizzy

Sorry to resurrect an old thread and simultaneously open old wounds, but I thought I'd take a moment to vent, and also to check if I might have possibly set a new record.

My Rogers bill for January includes overage charges in excess of $420 CAD.

That's right, my data usage was 87,926KB.

Originally Posted by shadowbox

My $60 "unlimited" bill always came to around $300 per month. Eventually I just couldn't afford this anymore so I had to give up using the blackberry for the things i had bought it for, ssh and IM. Now all I use it for is email and I'm basically waiting for my term to expire, at which point I'll switch over to another provider.

(Edit: New Quotations appended to this message. This is just a small sampling. There are over a hundred people, posting on several different forums over the last few months, of data overage charges on the Rogers Unlimited Data Plan - So go sign the petition at www.RogersPetition.com.)

[mpovolo]

I thought they did have an unlimited plan for $60.

[finch]

Where as my data charges are not as high as others I've still felt for yrs. the 25MB cap is a filthy way of business, being Robbers and all it's no shock. It's a cash grab and a dirty one at that with a $7 per MB for overage charge. Don't call a $60 unlimited data plan unless it is just that, UNLIMITED...

[JessMartin]

I will sign it.

[Mark Rejhon]

Count me in.

I paid over $1000 total for three months to Rogers for data overusages over a 3-month period (Dec 2004, Jan 2005, Feb 2005) before I significantly curbed my data usage. I have already tried to petition Rogers, but we can all do it again, since there are probably dozens more users exceeding the 25-meg cap thanks to the Rogers 8700r model.

The Over-25-Megabyte BlackBerry Data Club

And:

1. Communications With Rogers on $300-per-Month Bills
2. Rogers Market Analysis PDF
3. Modern 2005-era BlackBerries More Likely To Be Used More Heavily [PHOTOS]

The landscape has changed for the worse:

• High speed models of BlackBerries are on the market -- EDGE in 8700r -- encourages more data usage.
• BlackBerry Browser, by default, now downloads more data (tables, JavaScript, CSS, etc). This means many webpages gobble well over 100 kilobytes. A few minutes of surfing on the bus or train, everyday, easily exceeds 1 or 2 megabytes per day.
• Google Maps is now available for BlackBerry at www.google.com/glm. Doing fully graphical scrollable Google Maps, gobble a horrendous amount of data. I have used 10% of my monthly cap in just 10 minutes, sometimes!
• Some downloadable BlackBerry games are 700 kilobytes now, including Asteroids from mobile.blackberry.net. If you download 3 games, you already got an immediate 10% monthly hit.
• Treo users can get a 100 megabytes plan. Why can't BlackBerry users get this? Today's multimedia 8700r model can do a lot of the same things Treo can do.
• Fido users can roam on Rogers, and get a true unlimited plan without a 25megabyte cap. Why no BlackBerry option on Fido?
• BlackBerry is more consumer friendly nowadays than in the past. More individual users nowadays for BlackBerry. It's no longer reasonable for Rogers to take advantage of business users' willingness to pay extra.

Roger's network can handle the extra capacity, since many users won't use more than 25megs, while others will be using more than 25megs.

Is there any grounds for class action lawsuit? This was supposed to be called "Unlimited", but it is not actually unlimited. Plus, the "excessive usage" loophole is moot, it is no longer "excessive usage" to go beyond 25 megabytes, given the changed circumstances today. Rogers is a GSM monopoly in Canada (they own Fido too). So this is an anti-competitive pratice. I believe we have grounds for a lawsuit, no?

[mikester]

Where do I sign?

[JessMartin]

Start it up

[Stinsonddog]

Well I know you can't do that, but if you want me to put something on the Tips site let me know. Is there any other choice?

[514HH]

I will sign it and re-sign it. I've been extremely frustrated by the 25MB cap and have paid stupid amounts of overage charges to Rogers. Lead the way Guess!

[markhutchison]

Originally Posted by Stinsonddog

... Is there any other choice?

There are always alternatives. Bell Mobility does not currently enforce a data cap on their $60 Unlimited RIM data plan.

A mass market-shift would be a much more powerful statement than any petition.

[Stinsonddog]

Maybe a silly idea, and not practical, but here goes. What if you switched to a US Carrier number with Canada roaming plan? Downside is people calling you are calling long distance to the states, so you carry a small cell phone for your incoming calls. I know back to 2 devices, or it's Bell Mobility I guess.

[Mark Rejhon]

Originally Posted by Stinsonddog

Maybe a silly idea, and not practical, but here goes. What if you switched to a US Carrier number with Canada roaming plan? Downside is people calling you are calling long distance to the states, so you carry a small cell phone for your incoming calls. I know back to 2 devices, or it's Bell Mobility I guess.

Already covered. Cingular requires you to be in the USA at least part of the year (6 months, I believe). If they discover you've been permanently using the BlackBerry internationally, they can hit you with big data charges.

Originally Posted by markhutchison

There are always alternatives. Bell Mobility does not currently enforce a data cap on their $60 Unlimited RIM data plan.

Bell is possible, but as a chat software user, Bell Mobility has some notable disadvantages -- higher power usage for nonstop TCP connections. I can't as easily run chat software for 50 to 100 hours nonstop on a BlackBerry. My old 7280 ran VeriChat for 100 hours nonstop, the Bell Mobility 7250 ran VeriChat for only 8-16 hours nonstop. (This goes with any other chat software that uses continuous connections - nonstop open TCP/IP sockets for faster "push-style" instant messaging). Also, Bell does not have a model equivalent to the 8700 yet. Might as well switch my other Rogers services such as Rogers Cable over to Bell too?

[mpovolo]

Now that everyone has me worried on getting the 8700, what exactly do you do that causes you to be over 25M. I am not sure that I will so maybe I should not worry about it. Can someone help me to determine that possibility of being over.

thanks

[clyde_turkey]

I will sign any petition for this. All Canadian Cell carriers screw you. SAF anyone? Although I heard that there is a class action suit against Bell over the SAF. I hope they lose so that all carriers will refund this outrageous charge.

Anyhow, we need to have thousands and not hundreds on this petition if anyone will pay attention to this.

[sabesh]

Originally Posted by mpovolo

Now that everyone has me worried on getting the 8700, what exactly do you do that causes you to be over 25M. I am not sure that I will so maybe I should not worry about it. Can someone help me to determine that possibility of being over.

Well, if you are a new Blackberry plan subscriber, you can sign-up as I did: There's a 3 month promotion for the CAD $40 plan. It's unlimited without the 25MB cap. I intend to see what my useage pattern will be during this period. I expect the first month's data useage to be sky-high as I'm installing apps OTA, chatting a bit, surfing web pages etc.

However, I only see myself using data for the Free news app updates (3-4 times a day), email and occasional surfing in the long run. If it's exceeds 25MB for these three, I might as well give up BB. If not, I'll bump up to the 25MB / CAD $60 plan. Cheers, Sabesh.

PS> Here's the link for the Bonus page:

http://www.shoprogers.com/business/w...ta&cat=2&typ=2

Bonus: For a limited time receive 3 months of UNLIMITED e-mail and web browsing when you subscribe to the $40 BlackBerry Data Plan.

[stevew]

Robbers Wireless...yes...I like that one and that's who they really are. What they do with this unlimited plan..they should be shot for...unlimited means unlimited...not 25MB, especially while Bell M is at 100MB for the same money. Sign me up!!

[Mark Rejhon]

I just got my Rogers bill for my first full month of cautious and sparing 8700r usage.
Here goes: 31.5 megabytes!

And that's with web browser image downloads permanently turned off. (I browse text-only on the BlackBerry precisely to avoid data overages!)

Rogers calls this "Excessive data usage"?

[he1neken]

I am scared to see my next bill which will reflect almost a months use of Google Local.

[mobile_pheen]

i had a 1700$ bill 200 for voice and 1500 for data in december i almost had a instant heart attack when i saw it..

and yeaa there was data usage on my bill on days i didnt use my BB @ all.. wtf.. :S



i posted thsi on another thread... soo id unno if all of u read it or not

[SamBerry]

The opening screen for Google Local shows "data received." I assume this is cumulative, and doesn't reset every time the unit is powered off, etc.

It shows I have received 5.2 MB of data - that's probably over about three weeks.