Rogers received an incredible amount of negative publicity regarding their price plans, and was covered by most of the major news outlets (only those, of course, that weren’t owned by Rogers Communications). An online petition quickly formed that received over 50,000 signatures, all protesting the price gouging by Rogers. And thankfully, at nearly the 11th hour, Rogers caved in to pressure and decided to offer a 6GB/month data plan for $30/mo, which for all intents and purposes, is unlimited.

Understand that the iPhone is not a typical cell phone. If anything, it is a powerful internet device that just happens to have a phone on it. That is why having a reasonable data plan with the phone was absolutely necessary.

Shortly after Roger’s change of heart, I found myself in a line in front of the Rogers store on Davie street last Friday. Truthfully, I actually only swung by so I could grab a few photos of all the crazies standing in line for my Flickr account. But once I realized they actually had enough units for everyone in the line, I decided to join the party.

The iPhone launch that day was a worldwide debacle. Not only did Apple’s activation servers go offline for the better part of the day, but Roger’s entire computer backbone also fell down dead due to the sheer volume of people trying to activate their new iPhones. In addition, the free breakfast that Rogers promised everyone at their Broadway store in Vancouver turned out to be Presidents Choice drink boxes along with a bin of granola bars. Way to go all out for the launch, Rogers.

It only took me 45 minutes or so to get from the back of the line and into the store, but I spent another four and a half hours on a chair waiting for the computers to come back online long enough to activate my phone.

For those of you wondering about the specifics of the iPhone 3G, here they are. Rogers originally offered a few plans that started at $60/mo. These plans had very few airtime minutes for phone calls, and offered only a measly 400MB of data transfer a month. After their change of heart the other day, they decided that you could pick and choose any plan from their current repertoire (most of which are reasonable), and simply couple it with the $30/mo 6GB/mo data plan, which is basically what every single person in the line-up ended up doing.

The 6GB/mo data plan is only available up until August 31st, after which (presumably) it will disappear, leaving only the original (insufficient) data plans that Rogers originally offered. For those of you on existing Rogers plans, you should be able to simply add the $30/mo plan to your phone and keep your current telephone rates and packages. For new users, you can walk into a store and choose which plan and extras (voice mail, caller ID, etc). you want, and then add the data package to it. One thing I’d recommend is splurging the extra $4/month and getting the visual voice mail. Most voice mail systems work by having you call in to receive a message. The visual voice mail system on the iPhone actually just has an icon on the phone that shows when you have a voice mail. If you click it, you can see a full listing of every voice mail you have right on your iPhone, and simply click the desired entry to listen to a MP3 of the call. No more calling in to retrieve a message.

I’ve been using my iPhone 3G since Friday, and it’s truly an amazing device. It’s a strange thing to be able to access the internet from basically anywhere. I was at the beach the other day wondering if the tide was coming in or out. Instead of wondering, I simply fired up the iPhone and a did a quick Google search in Safari for the appropriate tide chart. Thirty seconds later I knew exactly when high and low tide would occur.

Also released at the same time is Apple’s new Mobile Me service. It effectively replaces the old .Mac service, and adds a host of features (Email, Calendar, Contacts, etc) similar to Google’s Gmail and Calendar offerings. The coolest part about it in my opinion is that it supports PUSH email. Most email systems (IMAP, POP, etc) all use polling to figure out when a new message arrives. For example, I have my iPhone configured to access my Gmail account. To determine whether or not I have a new message, my iPhone will access Gmail every 15 minutes and check. With Mobile Me, the service actually contacts your phone the moment a new message comes in. So you basically get new mail the very instant it’s sent to you. I tested this a few times, and it takes about three seconds from the time I click send in gmail until the time my iPhone chirps letting me know there’s a new Mobile Me message on it. In addition, Mobile Me will also synchronize your contacts and data between all your Apple computers and devices, using PUSH when it can.

There’s also built in GPS on the unit, so you can simply press a button to see exactly where you are using Google maps. It sure makes navigating a breeze. Once a few more applications are released, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can simply SMS your GPS coordinates to a friend, and have them magically show up for a beer at the bar you are at. No more having to explain to someone how to find you.

So, while it’s not the cheapest toy in the world, it really is a revolutionary device. I’ve only just scratched the surface with what it can do, but I think it’s a fairly good primer for those of you looking to get one. I picked one up on Friday, and Dale got his today. Hopefully Matt’s not far behind.

I didn’t think anyone here @ BraveNewCode would be one of them at day’s end, I know I certainly wasn’t going to be one- I’m running a first-gen model right now and didn’t see any need to wait in line for hours to get borked up the rear by Rogers. But I have been now clearly shown to be wrong…

After talking at length with Duane about whether or not to pick up an iPhone 3G over the last little while, it seemed to me that he was going to pass and wait off on it… but I was dead wrong, it seems. Around 6pm this afternoon I got this e-mail today, CC’d to everyone on his contact list, from Duane:

Hey guys,

I picked up the new iPhone 3G today. I had to get a new phone #. My new phone # is [...]. None of my old phone numbers work, so use this one from now on.

Also, I had most of your numbers in my old phone which no longer works, so please forward me your phone numbers or SMS me real quick.

Thanks,
Duane

So, Duane’s the first BraveNewCoder with a 3G. No word yet on which model he picked up. Congrats buddy on duping me huge into thinking you could resist the dark forces of Steve’s reality distortion field and hold off for more than 24 hours.

I’m sure he’ll have some nice Flickr shots up soon, and maybe a post about his new girlfriend.

Looks like our ‘write-offs’ just got a boost from Storey.

Unfortunately, Rogers completely missed the boat on this one. They had the chance to bring Canada to the forefront of the wireless world, but instead felt compelled to keep us locked up in our draconian past. There are no unlimited data rates for the new plans, and anything approaching 1GB will cost you $100 or more per month (plus, I’m sure, the 9/11 fee and the system access fee, bringing your bill to $120 or more).

To be honest, it’s exactly what I expected, but I can’t honestly say I didn’t dare to hope that things might be better. On my recent trip down south I walked into a Best Buy and bought a pay as you go plan, including a free phone, for $15. No contract, no nothing. The same deal up here will run about $80, and you need your own phone. In addition, Jason lent me a little USB dongle for my laptop that took a GSM SIM card and provided unlimited internet access anywhere in the US for only $60/mo. We’re so far behind here it’s not even funny.

The iPhone is a revolutionary invention, but it really needs to be augmented with an unlimited data plan to bring it to fruition. Given that Rogers is adamant about a 3 year contract (I can’t think of a single other carrier that wants a 3 year contract), and that their data rates leave much to be desired, I’m probably going to pass on getting the iPhone, and spend the next few days reflecting on the wireless dream that never was.