iPhone would cost $300/mo in Canada while U.K.’s 3 launches 10£ mobile broadband

Thanks to Michael O’Connor Clarke for the tip:

The biggest game-changing element of the iPhone, however, is that Apple is reportedly forcing operators to offer generous voice and data plans along the lines of AT&T’s, so that the customer’s experience isn’t hobbled. AT&T’s basic monthly service plan offers 5,450 voice minutes and unlimited data for US$59.99. In Canada, where Rogers has the only network compatible with the iPhone, a plan with anything resembling unlimited data would be closer to $300; even providers in Rwanda offer unlimited data plans for less than $50. That may be an unbalanced example, but Lawrence Surtees, vice-president and principal communications analyst for research firm IDC Canada, says it highlights how bad Canadian rates are here.

“These guys have the old monopoly pricing mentality where you will pay for everything, it’s my network, my phones, I will control you,” he says. “It’s to the point of losing the big picture where none of us are going to use this stuff much or at all.”

Funny that the Rwanda meme is catching on. You heard it here first. Mobile Data Rates in Canada are worse than central Africa.

Meanwhile if the contrast was not stark enough: 3 Launches Mobile Broadband From £10 Per Month

Canadian carriers is it not time you offered 21st century data plans in this country? or are you waiting for the regulators to impose a solution?

The U.K. has a highly competitive wireless market.

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