[Mark Rejhon]

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.

To all those affected (Rogers BlackBerry Customers, Rogers resellers and stores selling BlackBerries, Rogers past and potential BlackBerry customers, RIM and Rogers employees using Rogers BlackBerries that are exempt from the cap):
www.RogersPetition.com
And then click the "Sign Petition" at the bottom of the page.

To Rogers Canada:

We want to bring your attention to the 25 megabyte "limit" (cap) on the Rogers $60 Unlimited BlackBerry Data Plan. Many have been charged several hundreds dollars of extra fees per month because of exceeding the "limit" (cap) of the Rogers $60 Unlimited BlackBerry Data Plan. To this date, the Rogers fine print still disclaims the following, as of February 9th, 2006:

"** Rogers Wireless reserves the right to limit usage and charge $7 per additional MB for excessive usage over 25 MB of data per month."

Today, this is no longer acceptable. It is no longer "excessive usage" because of the following reasons:

- This 25 megabyte limit was designed back when BlackBerry only did email. New BlackBerry models do much more than email.
- Modern BlackBerry models transmit much more data, especially the BlackBerry 8700r EDGE model.
- There is no way to self-monitor data usage, until the end of the billing period. It is easy to accidentally exceed the data limit before you receive the bill.
- Rogers.com still uses the wording "Unlimited"
- Out-of-the-box, modern BlackBerry models support the capability to do full HTML web browsing with images and JavaScript, Yahoo Chat, BlackBerry Messenger, and other software now pre-installed on a BlackBerry that uses more bandwidth. Rogers advertises Yahoo Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger, as well as the full graphical web browsing capability, so this is expected "normal" non-excessive usage of BlackBerry.
- On recent Rogers BlackBerry's, the BlackBerry Internet Browser includes a bookmark labelled "BlackBerry HELP!" that links to wireless downloads for BlackBerry games and BlackBerry picture themes. Two of the games are almost 1 megabyte in size for a wireless download.
- New data-intensive BlackBerry software such as Google Maps Mobile from Google Maps can be accessed via BlackBerry Internet Browser.
- Newer versions of BlackBerry email services (BlackBerry Internet Service, BlackBerry Web Client, BlackBerry Enterprise Server) provide full wireless email synchronization, which consumes more data to keep everything synchronized wirelessly.
- 25 mgeabytes is no longer considered "excessive usage" on current models of BlackBerry, especially the model 8700r.
- Treo users have the option of purchasing 100 megabyte Rogers data plan. Rogers does not provide any method of paying for a higher-priced BlackBerry data plan to get a higher data limit.
- Fido Wireless has no data limit. Bell Mobility recently eliminated their 100 megabyte cap. Telus Mobility now offers a 250 megabyte BlackBerry plan for $100 per month.
- It is anti-competitive because Rogers owns Fido, giving Rogers a monopoly on worldphone-capable networks. Fido does not permit consumers to sign up for BlackBerry plans on the Fido network, even though fido is already set up to function with BlackBerry (see https://webclient.blackberry.net/Web....jsp?site=fido for the Fido BlackBerry Login Webpage, which indicates Fido is already set up to function with BlackBerry)
- Rogers permit Fido Unlimited Data users to roam on the Rogers network without the 25 megabyte limit. Also, Rogers permits Treo 100 megabyte plans on the same network. This implies that the Rogers network has sufficient data capacity to support the removal of the 25 megabyte limit.
- International data roaming is $10 per megabyte. Data overage cost is $7 per megabyte. Data overage costs are almost as expensive as international data roaming, just to use the BlackBerry in Canada at reasonable non-exessive levels.
- In the first 3 months of a BlackBerry plan, data overages are waived. This pratice should not legitimize the use of the word "Unlimited", since customers are often hit by unexpected data charges after the first 3 months. Data usage can vary widely and can later surge unexpectedly if a user later decides to download a data-using application such as Google Maps Mobile. Looking at past bills is not a reliable indicator of current or future data usage, since there is no way for the customer to monitor current month's data usage before the end of the billing period.
- BlackBerry is becoming more consumer-friendly. Even RIM has redesigned BlackBerry to appeal to non-business users. Therefore, Rogers BlackBerry Data Plans need to be more consumer-friendly and small-business friendly.

In addition, many Rogers and RIM employees as well as Rogers partners are waived of this limit, and do not get charged these data overages. They do not experience the true pain of small businesses and individuals who are subject to the 25 megabyte cap, and are charged several hundred dollars of extra fees per month for exceeding the 25 megabyte "limit" of the Rogers $60 Unlimited BlackBerry Data Plan. Therefore, Rogers Wireless does not get subjected to the necessary pressure to raise the data limit. This indicates that this is discriminatory practice, which hurt consumers and small businesses. Consumers and small businesses have a hard time convincing Rogers about the problems revealed by the 25 megabyte data limit on the Rogers $60 Unlimited BlackBerry Data Plan.

Increasing numbers of users have paid several hundreds, and in some cases more than $1000, during one month for data usage that would have not been charged extra on any other North American carrier on their best BlackBerry data plan. Some customers have posted messages about their Rogers data overage costs at the following forum websites:
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - Blackberry users, What is your Data Volume?
http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?p=164173

We, as Rogers customers, Rogers representatives, and Rogers resellers of Rogers products, are all requesting Rogers to do any or all of the following:
(1) Readjust the 25 megabyte limit to more representative industry standard levels. Rogers Canada is the carrier in North America with the lowest data limit on their best Unlimited BlackBerry plan; and/or
(2) Introduce another higher-priced data plan that removes the 25 megabyte limit. This is parallel to the Telus Mobility $100 BlackBerry plan that gives a 250 megabyte data limit; and/or
(3) Remove the wording "Unlimited", because this is no longer an accurate representation of data usage on a modern BlackBerry model 8700r.

Readjusting the BlackBerry plans will help Rogers sell more BlackBerry subscriptions, bring more BlackBerry users online, make the BlackBerry more consumer-friendly, make it easier for Rogers stores to sell BlackBerry, and make it easier for people to switch from Bell/Telus to Rogers. This benefits Rogers Canada, Rogers stores and representatives, and Rogers customers as a whole.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

To Sign The Petition, click:
www.RogersPetition.com
And then click the "Sign Petition" button at the bottom of the page.