Rogers's Unveils Cable Telephony Plan
Anyone looking for a deal on local telephone service from Rogers Communications will be disappointed. The cableco unveiled its much-anticipated service today featuring three plans:
- an standard plan for C$29.95 - includes local calling and one calling feature;
- an enhanced Plan for C$37.95 - includes local calling and three calling features;
- an ultimate Plan for C$41.95 - includes local calling and six calling features.
None of the plans include long-distance service. Existing Rogers customers who sign a two-year contract will see prices reduced to $25.26, $32.26 and $35.66 respectively.
The plans should warm the hearts of analysts who want to see Rogers take a disciplined approach to pricing. It should also please Vonage and Primus, which should still be able to operate quite comfortably in the discount segment of the market. If you're a Bell Canada customer, jumping to Rogers may depend on how much you like calling features. The standard plan seems to be a bit of a wash given you can get a Bell local line for about $23 and one feature for $6 to $8. As you move to the enhanced and ultimate plans, moving to Rogers seems more palatable. I'm puzzled by the absence of any LD given it is a standard feature in most VOIP and cable telephony plans. On a positive note, Rogers' entry into the market should give the VOIP and cable telephony markets a serious jump-start.
June 29th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
It's probably relevant that this is exactly Sprint's pricing — they were grandfathering an already-existing offering, not setting new pricing to compete with all the other offerings out there.
In other words, a stability play. Start with Sprint's installed base, hit the ground running, and announce any changes (LD inclusions, whatever) later. Though I wouldn't count on it — they're targetting Bell's core home phone customers here, not VoIP early-adopters.
The underlying idea is that this is your father's phone service. The stodgy pricing bolsters that.
June 29th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
No LD?!? So what exactly is the compelling argument to leave your existing Bell/Sprint PSTN connection…you love Rogers and/or hate Bell/Sprint?!?
The whole point of VoIP has been the ability to take advantage of the existing infrastructure of the Internet to greatly reduce the cost of long distance. With respect to the posting above this, you're exactly right…this is your father's phone service, and with this attitude towards pricing, I can't imagine anyone being interested in signing on.
June 29th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
So what exactly is the compelling argument to leave your existing Bell/Sprint PSTN connection…you love Rogers and/or hate Bell/Sprint?!?
Um, this your Sprint connection. That's the whole point.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
It is their VoIP offering — just not a Voice-over-Internet offering. They don't have one.