As a Rogers (25MB "unlimited") user, I've always watched my data usage carefully. This was easy in the past, since, IMO, the browser was so slow on my 7780, it was really just a toy, or good for emergencies at best.

With the 8700, this premise is destroyed. The browser is infinitely usable and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I really wish the BB OS had some sort of data use tracker to allow careful data management, but I did notice today that "Hellow World" has a data use tracker (for that app only). I installed it last night and did no more than test it with two or three address searches, etc. It has already used 950 kb!

Combine this with my normal email traffic, much web surfing and downloading of several MP3 ring tones, and I don't doubt I'm approaching my 25 MB supposed unlimited data cap. This is since Wednesday, November 30.

Question: has anyone received a bill yet? (I know, not likely...you never know though...some people had it pretty early).

Comment: this device surely has to force Rogers to reconsider their position on the 25 MB cap. It's ridiculous.

You are right...Bell is at 100MB with speeds of up to 5-7x faster. There is no justification for the charges on Rogers, especially for the small cap on usage they provide. Mark, our moderator has received bills of $300.00+/month for exceeding the 25MB cap. This is the problem with having such a limited number of carriers in Canada. It is not in Canad's best interest to allow such mergers as Rogers and Fido...the carriers have a very predatorial attitude and it will cost all of the consumers dearly in the end, but don't get me started...and you can also be sure that they will NOT reconsider their position anytime soon; they couldn't give a damn about the client. They are very arrogant in that way and have no regard whatsoever for customer service, good or bad. I want to barf every time they end a call with the "Thank you for choosing Rogers" line of crap they hand you...like we have a choice. Reminds me of the days we had to deal with Bell Canada before LD and local service was deregulated...same exact thing. Now look at them...with less and less LD market share every day in passing...

I am worried about my next bill because I've been using the html browser like crazy!! I have heard much talk about Rogers changing the data rates. Initially the rumor was they would announce new data rates and voice & data packages when the 8700r was launched. Now from the people I have spoken to have all said many have hopes for December but to be realistic watch for it come Q1 2006. I wish it were 100Mb like Bell but everyone I spoke to told me 50Mb is the talk.