For those thinking of Kodoo, Solo, etc. These are merely brands belonging to Telus and Bell. Virgin is nothing more than leased lines from Telus. Don't be fooled by the bait and switch. Your money is still going to the crooks. Now they're charging for incoming text messages? You all have the power to stand up and say no. Will we?

For those thinking of Kodoo, Solo, etc. These are merely brands belonging to Telus and Bell. Virgin is nothing more than leased lines from Telus. Don't be fooled by the bait and switch. Your money is still going to the crooks. Now they're charging for incoming text messages? You all have the power to stand up and say no. Will we?

Please note Koodo is a sub-company re-branded version of TELUS... and it's not any cheaper; it just uses a different contract scheme.  Just throwing that out there.  On top of that it's over-marketed... if you ever go to the McGill metro station in Montreal you'll know what I mean... it's hideous!

For those thinking of Kodoo, Solo, etc. These are merely brands belonging to Telus and Bell. Virgin is nothing more than leased lines from Telus. Don't be fooled by the bait and switch. Your money is still going to the crooks. Now they're charging for incoming text messages? You all have the power to stand up and say no. Will we?

I've been lurking quietly for months, incensed with the greed shown by Canada's GSM monopoly. I've chosen not to let Ted Rogers and crew bend me over, and now I'm sharing my chastity belt with you. (It's clean, I promise.)

The solution to Ted's greed is simple. All you'll need to do is buy a new Rogers SIM first, and if you're already a Rogers subscriber, you won't even need to do that. (If your local Rogers dealer won't sell you one by itself, go to your nearest The Source By Circuit City [that's what they call Radio Shack these days) and they should sell you one no questions asked. The price is $25. They are also available on eBay -- be sure to buy a new, sealed one.

Buy any working first-generation iPhone on eBay (locked or otherwise, no matter which wireless carrier worldwide it was originally sold by), and unlock it with PwnageTool (or WinPwn for Windows users). It's a ten-minute operation and works flawlessly.

Mac:
http://xs1.iphwn.org/appcast/PwnageTool_1.1.zip
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=893

Windows:
http://www.winpwn.com/files/winpwn_1.0.0.3_RC1_Setup.zip
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=957

Call Rogers at 1-888-ROGERS-1 (or go into any Rogers dealer, but beware some of them will sign you to a contract even if you tell them not to, since there are significant cash kickbacks from Rogers for new contracts). Sign up with any combined voice and data plan, or separate data plan such as the new Flex Rate data plan on top of any normal voice plan. When they ask you for your phone's IMEI, tell them you don't have the handset yet (perhaps because your friend is buying a new BlackBerry today and will be giving you his old one shortly). If the Rogers rep says they can't proceed without an IMEI, tell them to use the standard dummy IMEI, which is 111111-11-111111-9 (that's fourteen 1s followed by a 9).

When you call (or go in) to activate, be ABSOLUTELY SURE to specify that you want MONTH-TO-MONTH billing since you are supplying the handset yourself. Beware: I have had a dealer lie to my face in the past and tell me that such a thing is impossible -- this is again because of the fat cash kickback they would lose out on. This is why I phone in all new activations for myself and my friends.

This way, you can use one of the less-extortionate BlackBerry plans, or the Flex Rate plan:
http://your.rogers.com/business/wireless/plans_services/business_plans.asp?plan=flexrate

Beware that the "BlackBerry Voice & Data Plans" seem to be stuck in the past with ridiculous data quotas like 7 MB or 25 MB; this is why I recommend sticking a separate data plan onto a voice plan to avoid this.

You will not have Visual Voicemail, but you can reprogram the "Voicemail" button on your iPhone by following these instructions:

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2007/09/voicemail-hack.html

And, with this, you have almost all the benefits of the iPhone 3G without the ridiculous contract or rate plans. What are you missing by going with the first-generation iPhone, you ask?

- Mandatory three-year contract (I'm not sure who would actually want this anyway)
- Visual Voicemail (see link above)
- Flush headphone jack (plenty of headphones exist which work with the first-gen iPhone's recessed headphone socket, and Belkin makes a small $10 adapter for the rest)
- Real GPS (pseudo-GPS works fine with the first-generation iPhone but is not accurate enough to pinpoint a street -- it's usually accurate to the nearest kilometre, even way out in the country, as long as you have Rogers signal available)
- 3G data speeds (EDGE is acceptable in my opinion, and I'm quite demanding, so I'm pretty sure you'll be happy with it too)
- "Better" audio quality (the first-gen iPhone I've been using on the Rogers network since last summer sounds just fine to me)
- Plastic back (the first-gen iPhone has a metal back which I actually prefer)

That's about it, folks. The first-gen iPhone will have the exact same 2.0 software that the iPhone 3G has, along with all its features other than the ones listed above -- in fact, the software update package is identical for both phones. You will have full iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, YouTube, and App Store functionality.

Put *that* in your pipe and smoke it, Ted.

Cheers,
Alexander Burke

A Complete Waste! Let's look at a little reality. Based on an average 3 year rate with variable offerings, let's say for the sake of argument, that the average amount is $3,600.00 for 3 years is the amount used for the purpose of this illustration. 
(Top end, approximately $4,120.00 or thereabouts, low end $2,600.00 or thereabouts.) So, $3,600.00 x 52,000 (irate non buying signed iPhone petitioners) = $187,200,000.00 lost to Rogers/Fido. That is $62,400,000.00 per year lost to Rogers. To put this into perspective, add to that, $26,208,000.00 lost to GST/PST not coming in from the above aforementioned transactions. Add, the loss in sales to Apple, of roughly $10,400,000.00 CDN dollars, and the loss of its GST/PST = $1,460,000.00, and you see why this has turned into a debacle. Not to forget the Apple, me.com Cloud service loss of 3x100=300x52000= $15,600,000.00, for a total loss to Apple of $26,000,000.00. Does Steve Jobs know this is what his losses will add up to? This is outrageous in its waste and extravagance. It's a complete failure to communicate on the part of Rogers, and it's time they had their license revoked, in the field of telecommunications.