Rogers delays BYOD price increases for some plans until early February

Tomorrow, the price of mobile service is increasing at Canada’s largest telco.

Rogers, like Telus and Bell, is raising base rates by $5 per month on its share plans, while nominally eliminating the benefits of customers bringing their own devices to the network. The cost per month for users who buy their own smartphones and activate them on the Rogers network will be the same as for those who sign up for a so-called “Smart Tab” plan, which provides a smaller subsidy to customers buying their phones through Rogers compared to the company’s “Premium Tab” option.

But according to internal documents obtained by MobileSyrup, Rogers plans to delay the price increase for one particular bring-your-own-device plan until early February. The company will heavily promote a “Limited-time No Tab 5GB Local Calling Plan” until Sunday, February 7th, a plan that today costs $90. After that time, the same option will be $100 for new customers.

Rogers says that it is raising the cost of bringing a device to the network because “We want our customers to all benefit from having the latest and greatest phones while taking advantage of our value added services like Roam Like Home, Rogers Game Centre Live, and their choice of Spotify, shomi, or Texture by Next Issue by signing up on a 2 year Share Everything plan.”

The company notes that for the foreseeable future, existing users will be able to add additional lines to their accounts at rates available when they activated their account, which constitutes a $5 to $10 per month savings per number. New signees will be charged $55 per month for additional BYOD and Smart Tab lines, while Premium Tab subscribers will share data for $65 monthly.

Earlier this month, MobileSyrup was the first to report price increases at Bell, Rogers, Telus and their accompanying flanker brands, Virgin Mobile, Fido and Koodo, respectively.

Related reading: Rogers will effectively eliminate bring-your-own-device benefits on January 20