First things first. I don’t feel that the best way to cover something is to recycle stories from around the internet. I’m sure, as a reader, you really hate it when you read the same crap on hundreds of blogs, all linking to the same story, with the same content, and the same opinions. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable (read apple press releases), but most of the time, it’s just straight up lazy writing.
So, I’ve been avoiding the iPhone debacle the best way I know how, letting other people cover the same info a million times. What I don’t want to do here on Macgasm is provide a commentary on what happened between AT&T and Apple or why everyone is freaking out about it. I’ll just let everyone else is do it for me. We’re not in the business of being a clone. Instead, I want to give props where props are due. This comes as a bit of a difficult thing for me considering my past experiences with Rogers, Canada’s only GSM carrier, but, by no means does this make up for my last three years of annoyance; however, they really impressed me on Friday.
For those of you not in Canada, you are probably not aware that Rogers completely reworked their plans out of neccessity, considering the public outcry, as well as allowed their customers both new and old alike to upgrade to the iPhone over the phone and on the Internet. Sure, most of the hype and intrigue surrounding the iPhone had millions of people flocking to their Apple Stores and Cell Provider Stores both in Canada and around the world on release day. But, customers were met with lines which were way too long, reporters taking potshots at Apple fans, and idiots picking fights.
I think Rogers was on to something. I had a phone after waiting ten minutes on hold. TEN. Sure, I’m excited just like the rest of you. I wanted to be the first person I know with one. I wanted to be the cool kid on the block. But, then a still small voice kicked in and slowly became louder and louder in my head. “Are you stupid?.” I waited for a whole year to get my hands on this blessed phone, what is three to five more days? Well done Rogers, you’ve finally done something I can commend you for.
Now on to the second thing. That’s right, Rogers did a second thing right this week. Write it down folks, it could be the coming of the apocolypse. The fourhorse men could be on their way as I write this! Rogers, while not stating the option publicly, completely allowed me to upgrade my account as is, without a dataplan and still be eligble for the iPhone. That’s right, no Data Plan Required.
I work from home. I don’t need all that much wireless internet. Now, upon the request my operator went a bit slient, put me on hold, and came back to “stongly” advise me against passing up the dataplan. But, after some logical arguments on my part, she continued to put through my upgrade. That’s right, if you want an iPhone and do not want to use most of the mobile interent features, you clearly have that ability.
Props to Rogers for turning things around so quickly when it came to the iPhone.
