The Globe and Mail says the Instinct will sell for CAD $149.95 on a three-year contract, although I’ve also read that you can pay more for the phone if you only want a two-year or one-year contract.
That said, Bell Canada’s site doesn’t confirm that as yet, so you will need to check in stores or with the company to see if that is the case. However The Globe and Mail says the phone will cost CAD $449.95 with no contract at all.
Although there are a range of plans available, the cheapest starts at CAD $20 per month, giving you 100 minutes of weekday local calls, 1000 minutes of voice (but not video) calls from 9pm to 7am every day and all weekend, and $8.95 monthly access fee and a $10 unlimited data plan.
There’s also a “one-time” activation fee of $35.
This compares with a CAD $199 cost for the 8GB iPhone, with the cheapest plan starting at $60, giving you 150 daytime voice minutes, unlimited evening and weekend minutes and 400MB of data transfer.
Both companies have more expensive plans giving you more minutes, but if you want maximum downloads on Rogers for the iPhone you’ll need to spring for the CAD $115 per month plan which gives you a 2GB download limit.
Samsung is also negotiating a deal to get the Instinct sold with Bell Canada CDMA competitor “Telus”, so the iPhone clone of an Instinct will soon be widely available.
While everyone knows the iPhone is more capable from a mini computer point of view, has a better interface and more, the Instinct is still a very capable device that will more than fulfil the everyday telephony needs of most consumers at prices that are definitely a lot cheaper than those from Rogers.
So, while nothing will stop Canadians from getting an iPhone with Rogers if they can comfortably afford it, the Bell Canada Instinct deal will undoubtedly turn many heads and cause people to wonder just how important the iPhone really is to their lives.
Still, iPhone mania is definitely contagious, so it will be quite the battle for Rogers and Bell Canada, just as it will be for AT&T and Sprint in the US.
We’ll all be looking at sales figures closely to see who really won, although the odds are surely on the iPhone at this stage.
Canada gets unlimited mobile browsing - but not for iPhone
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One of Australia’s best-known technology journalists and consumer tech experts, Alex has appeared in his capacity as technology expert on all of Australia’s free-to-air and pay TV networks, including stints as presenter of Ch 10’s Internet Bright Ideas, Ch 7’s Room for Improvement and tech expert on Ch 9’s Today Show, among many other news and current affairs programs.
