Monday, May 10, 2010

Rogers offers up $20 iPad data sharing deal... and then retracts it.

Apple and Rogers today seemed to announce an iPad data sharing plan, which was advertised on Apple.ca. That plan would have allowed iPad users to share their existing Rogers 3G smartphone data plans with their iPads for an add-on fee of $20. Although that added $20 was not a terribly good deal, at least it would avoid having to get an additional 5 GB $35 plan just for the iPad.

Oddly enough, that offer was quickly retracted, and there now only remain a 250 MB $15 plan and the 5 GB $35 plan.

As expected, the folks over at Howard Forums are rather disgusted with Rogers right now. I'm sure everyone is now looking to see what Bell and Telus will offer.

Rogers seems have to have an unusual knack for screwing up Apple 3G launches.

In the meantime, 3G data tethering continues to be a free add-on for those of us with the GB+ iPhone plans, so that's a pretty strong disincentive to get an iPad. The iPad cannot tether at any price since the machine is simply incapable of that functionality, but a laptop can "share" that data usage at no extra charge.


2 comments:

kEiThZ said...

I'll be using my Nexus One with Android 2.2 on Wind. Just turn into a WiFi hotspot and tether my iPad. Unlimited data on my iPad.

Eug said...

Good point. Phones that can become WiFi access points will work. That excludes the iPhone, unless you jailbreak it.

It is annoying though, since the iPad has both USB (sorta) and Bluetooth, and one can tether a laptop from the iPhone using either connection method.