Fido

Well, I just received an interesting email from a Rogers Communications team member, sent using the contact form on my website... It looks as though Rogers is in damage control mode, regarding the recent uproar that has occurred on blogs and social media services such as facebook and twitter. Pretty amazing that my blog was targeted for the contact a mere 8 minutes after the news broke on twitter.

Good for them for realizing their lack of news, and keeping everyone in the dark was doing nothing to help their image. Good for them for coming up with early upgrade incentives for their early adopters, and high monthly bill customers.

And good for them for engaging the people who are sharing news about their company and products whether good or bad. Is it too little too late?

The email I received follows:

Miranda MacDonald sent a message using the contact form at http://www.mythoughtsonthings.com/contact.

Hi Darren,

I saw your recent blog posts about Rogers and iPhone 3GS. I'm with the Rogers Communications team and we’ve just announced the details of special Hardware Upgrade savings for our existing iPhone customers and wanted to let you know.

There has been a lot of excitement around the new iPhone 3G S and we wanted to recognize the early adopters who helped make the iPhone the hottest-selling handset in Canadian wireless history. We will be discounting the price of the iPhone 3G S by between $250 and $500 to provide savings to many of our iPhone customers.

More news today about the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 3.0 software update. AT&T today put out a video answering customers concerns about upgrade pricing, MMS and tethering.

Although AT&T was booed at the iPhone 3G S announcement for not offering MMS on launch, it is interesting to note that they will not be charging extra for MMS, they will treat them like a regular text message.

Rogers on the other hand, will be charging at least $5 on the iPhone value pack to have MMS messaging, which is quite funny because the regular smartphone value pack included it, but when you purchased an iPhone 3G they converted your value pack to the iPhone one without MMS because the iPhone did not support it. Now if you want that functionality back, you must pay.

But make sure you sign up for the MMS package, because if you don't you will be paying the ridiculously high per use fees that cell phone providers love to charge

iPhone 3G S available at the Apple Store in CanadaThe original iPhone was not officically available in Canada, and the second generation 3G was available on both the Fido and Rogers networks but was only available to be purchased directly from the carriers.

iPhone 3G S available at the Apple Store in Canada

This is all about to change with the iPhone 3G S, as in addition to being available directly from the carrier, you will also be able to purchase it beginning at 8:00 am at Apple Retail Stores across Canada. In fact, I have reserved a 9:00 am appointment for the Apple Store in Calgary, however I live a 15 hour drive away, and my wife just informed me that she would leave me if I drove to Calgary to get an iPhone on Friday!

iPhone 3G S available at the Apple Store in Canada

For iPhone 3G S lusters, you can now avoid the un-informed Rogers' (often licensees) staff, and get all of your iPhone accessories in one quick visit!