Just like “unlimited” really means subject to limits, the marketing guys at Rogers seem to communicate that “any” doesn’t mean any.
Any tier
Yesterday, I got an ad in the mail from them for their digital cable service, offering a free HD receiver. On the reverse side of the ad, it says that I can sign up for “any tier” of their high speed Internet or phone service to get an HD personal video recorder for free.
Sign up for any tier ... get an HD PVR for free.
Apparently, the fine print specifies that “any tier” really means “Rogers Hi-Speed Internet Lite and above”, which excludes the Ultra-Lite tier valued at $27.99/month.
Hi-Speed Internet Lite tier or above also required
I don’t think I’m the only one who would find this a little bit misleading.
While it doesn’t really look good on paper to say “sign up for Lite or above” in the big bullet, it would be a lot more honest than defining “any tier” as “not any tier but this one and above”.
And while I would certainly die of broadband withdrawal if I had the Ultra-Lite package, I still think there are people who will probably sign up for the cheapest tier and discover that they do not, in fact, get a free HD PVR.
Here’s the entire scan; click on the image to view in full size.
Get a free HD PVR!
(As of more than a year ago, I no longer use Rogers cable Internet because there’s something cheaper out there.)
What are the tiers?
On a semi-related note, Rogers seems to be doing a great job at market segmentation. Instead of providing consumers with economical plans comparable to those in France (20-30Mbps connections, VoIP service, and HDTV with a DVR included for just $45 a month), Rogers Communications has decided to split a service as important as cable Internet into… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 different plans.
- Ultra-lite @ $27.99/month; 500 kbps down, 2 GB limit
- Lite @ $35.99/month; 3 Mbps down, 25 GB limit
- Express @ $46.99/month; 10 Mbps down, 60 GB limit
This used to be the highest plan back when it was only 5 Mbps. - Extreme @ $59.99/month; 10 Mbps down, 95 GB limit
This means $13 extra for 35 GB of transfer. - (new) Extreme Plus @ $69.99/month; 25 Mbps down, 125 GB limit
- (new) Ultimate @ $99.99/month; 50 Mbps down, 175 GB limit
(all plan information current as of April 7, 2010)
Theoretically, creating these tiers of service maximizes revenue by differentiating between groups of consumers with dissimilar willingness to pay for Internet. (There’s also a supposed benefit to charging more for faster speeds and more bandwidth: curb torrenting and illegal file sharing. That’s a more reasonable justification.)
In reality, it just makes consumers jealous of users who can afford $100/month Internet. In addition, I’m rather wary of a company that has the capability to offer faster speeds overall to match the top countries (South Korea has average broadband of 14.6 Mbps, and Japan has an average of 7.9 Mbps), but which suppresses broadband for its corporate gain at the cost of consumer benefit.
This is probably one of many reasons why consumers, particularly Canadian iPhone users (albeit not for cable Internet), despise Rogers. It plays like it dominates the market. After all, broadband Internet in Canada is an oligopoly; Bell, Rogers, and Shaw are essentially the only big players in the market (and Shaw isn’t even available here). We don’t have much choice.
My conclusion
My personal perspective of Rogers, from a consumer view, is that they don’t deserve most of our business.
After the storm, there were the chirps of birds, the rustling of leaves, and the sounds of water dripping — draining from roofs, into the street, and into the sewage system.
But a few minutes later, anyone looking out would see an immensely beautiful rainbow spanning the dusk sky. This is the rainbow at dusk, after the storm.
A beautiful rainbow panorama
I don’t purport to be a photography expert, but this is a beautiful rainbow. Click on the picture to see a larger file.
No, I’m not dead. My last post was published quite a while ago, but I’m still alive and well — for the most part.
Concerning the human swine flu, it’s important to note that hype and paranoia may not really be that far from the truth. It is a serious health risk, and the World Health Organization recently issued a level 4 alert.
At least the City of Toronto has no known swine flu cases thus far.
Stay safe and be careful!
Where do you see yourself?
That’s the slogan for Mercedes-Benz’s new midsized, premium sports utility vehicle, the Mercedes GLK. This is clearly a car for those who love style, comfort and elegance — concepts shared by Mercedes’ new mini-site promoting the GLK.
The promotional mini-site is actually rather artistic. A fully Flash-based site, it is amazing in usability and experience, as I might expect the GLK to be. The site has a few major sections, which include a place to ‘watch’ — that is, to look at high quality photographs and promotional videos for the car —, a place to learn — that is, to review information about the car —, and a place to ‘create’, which apparently means to answer a very short personality quiz to create a background image that remains consistent throughout the site. (There’s also a feature to download that background to use as a wallpaper image.)
Prospective buyers will get all the technical information and product insights that they need from this GLK mini-site. While being dazzled by the site’s amazing functionality, high-res pictures and persuasive commercials, buyers can still get what they need to know about this new model from one of the world’s most reputable high end automaker.
In times like these, you want a fuel-efficient vehicle that will reliably stay with you for years to come.
My flight to Calgary, Alberta (Canada) leaves at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. There I will be having fun at the National Seminar for debate, a noncompetitive conference for debaters all across the country.
Friday is our recreational day, when we will be visiting Banff and the hot springs pool there. Who knows? I might even have a chance to visit Lake Louise.
I will aim to post Twitter and blog posts every day, in the rare occasion that one of you may actually be interested.
I will be gone (as in “out of the country”) for the next week or so, so there will be no blog posts or Frederick Time episodes until at least Monday. Don’t ask me where I’m going. (Suffice it to say that I will be out of reach and “offline”.)
However, if you’d like to keep track of me in a stalker-ish way, follow me on Twitter (it’s even better if you have an account and you click “Follow”). I will use my cell phone to send text messages that will hopefully keep you appeased of what I’m doing and where I am (in a non-specific way).
At the same time, let’s welcome Brandon who is in Canada as part of an exchange program.
If you’re looking for something to read in the meantime, see “Why Kosovo Was And Always Will Be Serbian” or “Georgia-Russia Conflict” from two friends who are ethnically linked to the issues at hand, and who offer insightful perspectives.
Finally, I’d like to apologize for being part of “Western media” when it comes to my podcast’s coverage of the Georgia-Russia conflict. I did try to present both sides or multiple points of view, but I really didn’t know what to believe… thanks to the terribly influential and often deceptive Western media.
Breaking news – Elections Canada claims the Conservative Party violated elections law when they spent money for campaigns in excess of the permitted limit.
This information should be covered by Nikola’s Musik, but it seems he’s not watching the news tonight.
Thousands of Chinese demonstrators from Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal gathered on Parliament Hill today to rally against boycotts of the Beijing Olympics and to oppose Tibetan independence.
A pro-China demonstration on Parliament Hill on Sunday attracted about 5,000 Chinese-Canadians from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto eager to show support for the troubled Beijing Olympics.
The planning of this event had been orchestrated online, facilitated by thousands of willing volunteers who wanted to show their support for China. There were some hiccups with the chartering of buses, when (allegedly) an opposing entity threatened the busing company. However, sources state that a Chinese-Canadian businessman arranged (out of his own pockets) for more than 30 buses to transport demonstrators and the elderly to Parliament Hill.
This event is an instance of powerful Chinese patriotism which has brought thousands together against “media distortion” and attempts to disrupt China’s hosting of the Olympics.
A few hours ago, approximately 5000 protestors also gathered in Australia for the same cause.
Isn’t it strange, though, that news of these events aren’t on the media… aren’t found on the homepage of Google News (the last time I checked)… aren’t even mentioned?
Interestingly, Jack Cafferty (whom I had respected previously) on CNN made a comment that “…they (Chinese) are basically the same bunch goons and thugs they have been in the past fifty years.” Absolutely intolerable!
Watch him make his offensive comment:
