Ruinediphone | "Canadians Stop Getting Ripped Off" Campaign

Ruinediphone started an online petition in June 2008 to protest against the unreasonably high and unnecessarily restrictive voice and data plans introduced by Canada’s largest mobile carrier Rogers and the only one with a contract to sell Apple’s iPhone in Canada. The plans by Rogers struck some would-be customers as unreasonably high and unnecessarily restrictive, especially when compared with those in the U.S. and the U.K., and thousands of angry Canadians made their feelings known in various homegrown websites, including eh Mac, GeekCulture, and blog.r4nt. 

Ruinediphone stood out from the pack as it managed to gain the attention of  most of the would be customers angry with Rogers' plans. The site stated goal was to gather 10,000 names — accompanied by a letter to Steve Jobs — by July 14, 2008, the date when the iPhone 3G went on sale in Canada. By July 13, 2008 ruinediphone had already gathered more than 60,000 signatures. At 4:21pm July 14, 2008 the online petition was delivered in hard copy to Rogers Headquarters and it was received by Rogers Security. 

The letter to Jobs begins:

"Dear Steve,

My name is James and I would like to thank you for creating the wonderful iPhone device. We really think that you will change the world with it, just as you changed the world with the iPod. We were so happy to learn that on July 11th, we would finally be able to buy the iPhone and legally use it in Canada.

To our great disappointment, Rogers Communications Inc. has announced VERY unfair rates in comparison to AT&T in the United States and to other authorized wireless service providers around the world….(link)"

What’s was wrong with Rogers’ rate plan?
  • It came with a mandatory 3-year contract. In the U.K., O2 offered an-18 month contract and threw in the iPhone for free. 
  • Rogers offered one third less calling, 750mb cap on 3G data usage and half as many text messages for $75 a month compared with the plans offered by carriers in the U.K. and the U.S.A.

It’s this limited data plan that struck Canadian Apple fans as most unreasonable.  Petitioners were asking Steve Jobs to pressure Rogers to offer a better plan — or cut a deal with another provider who will.

Here are some of the highlights:
  1. An anonymous person started the petition
  2. The list grew from 20,000 people to over 60,000 people in less than a week
  3. Rogers offered a new data plan. (A small step in the right direction)
  4. There was a, first ever, online protest rally

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