November 23, 2007
Bell Touches Us In A Bad Place
Bell is launching a preemptive strike before the much-drooled-over iPhone lands in Canada. The Star reports that Bell customers with the new HTC Touch phone (pictured right) could get unlimited wireless data for just $7 a month (data transferring is necessary to get music, games, television and the web onto your phone). The Touch is similar to the iPhone in that both substitute a keypad for a touch screen and can run applications, but the Touch lacks the iPhone's WI-FI feature.
The big news is that Bell is willing to charge a fixed fee for unlimited data, since data transfer has been traditionally very expensive. Without the plan, the cost is a whopping $50 per MB, although Bell limits the cost per session at $2 (otherwise, loading Torontoist would cost about $18!). However, the unlimited data plan is not new: Bell users have been able to get it for years as an "unlimited mobile browser" feature, but the Touch has a full Internet Explorer browser that is head over heels better than the mobile browser on regular cell phones (no more improperly formatted sites with shrunken images!).
The pricing is not much of a deal though. The Touch is also available at Rogers, which already has a plan with 15MB of data usage that is similarly priced as Bell. (The Touch is also available through and Telus) In addition, Americans pay 20% less for unlimited usage on their iPhones with AT&T (see comparison pricing chart here).
The biggest losers end up being users of PDAs and BlackBerrys. Bell considers the Touch a cell phone and therefore allows users to have unlimited data monthly for $7. For PDAs and BlackBerrys, 8MB of data—a light amount of usage—costs $40 a month. Why the big difference? It's not the technology. According to Bell's technical support, PDAs, BlackBerrys and the mobile browser on cell phones all use Bell's EV-DO technology. Instead, it seems the mobile browser is cheaper because when accessing a site it uses less data than a higher-quality HTML browser. But that changes with the Touch, which should have no difference in browser quality from a BlackBerry. So it's likelier that Bell is charging business users (i.e. PDA and BlackBerry users) a premium for data transfer in the same way that airlines charge a premium for Business Class seats (without the free champagne and comfy seats).
We firmly believe surfing the web on your phone will become as mainstream as text messages within years once the iPhone drops in Canada. Bell isn't going to win any customers before the iPhone's arrival by singling out the Touch, but not the similar 6800 or BlackBerry Pearl. In fact, all Canadian mobile users are clearly being taken for a ride with voice and data plans that double that of our American counterparts. So, the big question is: where is Jim Flaherty now?
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I won't be upgrading my cell until the carriers here get off their asses and start offering comparable service and prices as found in Asia.
When I do get a new phone though, it'll probably be an OpenMoko.
I can't see anything like the OpenMoko in Canada until after Google's open-source platform for phones arrives - if ever. Canadian telecoms are making the classic mistake of attempting to over-exert control, and I'm surprised how long Canadians have allowed them to do it. Instead of finding new ways to make money, the companies are dampening innovation and resisting new technologies.
The OpenMoko is a nice dream, though, eh?
I saw this phone at FutureShop today and it clearly said on the info sheet that it had wi-fi capability. Telus, Rogers and Bell all have a version of this device.
I didn't notice if the Telus and Rogers versions had wi-fi.
@jrodgers
Hey, thanks for the comment. Actually, the phone you're looking at is the HTC 6800, a predecessor of the Touch. I actually have this phone and Bell is refusing to provide the unlimited wireless plan because it is a PDA, while the Touch is a cell phone. The difference? The 6800 has a keyboard. (Argh!)
It's also easy to get them mixed up since the telecoms brand the same phone differently. The Touch provided by Rogers has Wi-Fi, while the Bell and Telus versions do not. I was referring only to the Bell version -- sorry for the confusion!
Why would the OpenMoko be incompatible with cell service in Canada? Wouldn't it just be a matter of configuring your phone to run on whatever turn-of-the-century protocols Bell or Telus (or Rogers, but not for me) use?
I thought it was a similar argument to the new Google open-source platform. The phones now won't be able to make use of it because it's a hardware issue. It'd be up to handset manufacturers to incorporate it into the future. But I'm no O/S expert: I still miss rotary dials.