Rogers Adding New $7.99 Plan For Easier Roaming In The U.S.
In a way, America and Canada have a lot in common. Including a ton of land borders, and some pretty great political relations. It's hardly a surprise that visitors from the Great White North visit the U.S. quite a bit (and vice-versa), but technology lovers have no doubt found it frustrating when crossing from one nation to another. Despite our similarities, our mobile networks are very different. They're compatible, sure, but the roaming rates you'll pay can be completely outrageous. Rogers, a Canadian carrier, is hoping to ease some of that pain.
The company announced this week a new plan to launch a more affordable roaming rate for its customers who will be traveling to the U.S. According to Rogers, Canadians travelling to the U.S. use their wireless devices to go online more than in any other country. Coming this spring, the company is introducing a new $7.99 pay-per-use roaming rate that gives customers access to 50 megabytes of data over a 24 hour period while travelling in the U.S. This new rate, available to consumers and businesses, gives customers nearly twice the data that they would typically use domestically. With 50 MB of data, customers can view approximately 50 maps, 200 web pages, 1,000 emails or over 5,000 tweets. It's still a pretty terrible deal when looking at per-megabyte costs, but compared to similar bundles from other carriers, it's about as consumer-friendly as they get.
Customers will be alerted before reaching 50 MB which means they will be able to control their roaming costs, but even semi-frequent users are apt to hit that limit far quicker than they probably assume. Still, it's a nice plan for those who may get stuck in a bind and need a quick pinch of data to get their navigation app going, and of course, using it to check-in via Foursquare is simply a must. Hopefully, other carriers elsewhere in the world will take a look at this plan and implement something similar. Until we have truly global, no-roaming coverage, things like this will have to carry us.
The company announced this week a new plan to launch a more affordable roaming rate for its customers who will be traveling to the U.S. According to Rogers, Canadians travelling to the U.S. use their wireless devices to go online more than in any other country. Coming this spring, the company is introducing a new $7.99 pay-per-use roaming rate that gives customers access to 50 megabytes of data over a 24 hour period while travelling in the U.S. This new rate, available to consumers and businesses, gives customers nearly twice the data that they would typically use domestically. With 50 MB of data, customers can view approximately 50 maps, 200 web pages, 1,000 emails or over 5,000 tweets. It's still a pretty terrible deal when looking at per-megabyte costs, but compared to similar bundles from other carriers, it's about as consumer-friendly as they get.
Customers will be alerted before reaching 50 MB which means they will be able to control their roaming costs, but even semi-frequent users are apt to hit that limit far quicker than they probably assume. Still, it's a nice plan for those who may get stuck in a bind and need a quick pinch of data to get their navigation app going, and of course, using it to check-in via Foursquare is simply a must. Hopefully, other carriers elsewhere in the world will take a look at this plan and implement something similar. Until we have truly global, no-roaming coverage, things like this will have to carry us.
