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News from Reuters

Rogers sets iPhone price plans for Canada

27/06/08

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Rogers Communications Inc , owner of Canada's biggest wireless carrier, announced pricing plans on Friday for Apple Inc's 3G iPhone, a multimedia-rich device set to hit Canadian stores on July 11.

Rogers and its Fido wireless unit are offering three-year voice and data plans ranging in price from C$60 ($59) to C$115 ($114) a month for the 3G wireless phone. Pricing includes unlimited Wi-Fi access at all Rogers and Fido hotspots.

The top-end C$115 plan will buy 800 weekday minutes for voice calling and unlimited evenings and weekends. It will also allow users to send 300 text messages and have 2 gigabytes of data usage.

Two gigabytes equals about 1 million text e-mails, or 16,000 Web pages, or 7,000 photo attachments, Rogers said.

Canadian customers have long complained of high wireless service plan prices and many blame lack of competition. Aside from Rogers, only Telus Corp and BCE Inc are national carriers.

By comparison, U.S. carrier AT&T has said it will offer unlimited 3G iPhone data plans for $30 a month in addition to voice plans that start at $39.99 a month.

Rogers will charge C$199 for the 8 GB version of the 3G iPhone, and C$299 for the 16 GB version. Both will require a three-year contract.

At AT&T, the 8 GB version will cost $199 and the 16 GB version will cost $299, but both will require a two-year contract.

After announcing that it had secured a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada, Rogers stock rose 2.3 percent on April 29. Some analysts said that announcement was more important than the strong financial results the company released that day.

The iPhone has been tagged a potential challenger to Research In Motion Ltd's 3G BlackBerry Bold, which will roll out globally this summer and cost between $300 and $400.

($1=$1.01 Canadian)

(Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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