Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rogers “Pay As You Go” US roaming

by alec on June 25, 2009

The customer service fairy seems to have paid a visit to Rogers recently.  Yesterday, I called and inquired about roaming rates to the US for my trip next week.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that roaming data rates to the US have dropped from $6,000 per gigabyte, and that I could now buy a short term roaming plan for both voice and data.

The details?

$40 will get you 60 roaming minutes in the US, and $60 will get you 120. 

A $10 charge will allow you to roam data at $1 per megabyte. 

So what does that mean in practice?  Normal data usage for me is around 300M per month.  For my 5 days in San Francisco, if I use data normally, I would expect to pay $70.  I also bought the $60 voice plan, and will use that in conjunction with Truphone Anywhere to avoid long distance charges. 

At $130 it’s still expensive, but compared to the $474 I would have paid for the same service six months ago, it’s a steal.  Moreover, it’s much less complex than my previous solutions – local SIMs and unlocking SIM carriers.

And the best part?  No contracts.  The customer service rep set the entire plan to expire in 30 days.  It’s totally pay as you go.

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Truphone adds 11 Nokia handsets

by alec on June 25, 2009

The team at Truphone has been focused for quite a while on their iPhone products.  Yesterday, however, they made an announcement that hearkens back to their roots.  11 new Nokia devices have been added to their list of compatible devices, including the N96, N78, N85, N79, 5630, 5800, 5320, 6210, 6220, 6650 and E63.  All phones can use the Truphone Anywhere service, and on the N85, N79, and 5630 you can also use the Truphone Wi-Fi calling service.  This brings the list of Nokia devices compatible with Truphone up to 26 in total.

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Apple iPhone proves the axiom: it takes three tries to get any tech product right.

June 25, 2009

It’s been famously said of Microsoft that it takes them three tries to get anything right.  In actual fact, it probably takes every company three tries to deliver a truly great product. Release 1 – get the product to market.  Release 2 – listen to customers and correct the biggest omissions in the product.  Release [...]

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