paulyblog

Rogers announced this morning that it will offer a 6GB data package that you can add on to any of their existing voice plans for $30 per month.  I think this is Rogers way of accomodating power users as they do not have any unlimited data plans.  Myself, I am with Telus and was fortunate enough to get unlimited data for $15 per month. The only downside is I cannot connect to my Blackberry server at the office because that rate plan is only for personal e-mails.  However I can still receive my e-mails wirelessly with the blackberry internet service and my calendar with google sync.

Effective July 11, and as a limited time promotional offer for customers
who activate by August 31 on a three year contract, a data-only offering of
6GB of data for $30 per month is being made available that can be added to any
in-market voice plan. For example, with 6GB of data, iPhone 3G users can visit
35,952 web pages, or send and receive 157,286 emails, or watch 6,292 minutes
of YouTube videos each and every month.(xx)

Apple, Canada, iphone, rogers Apple, iphone, phone, rogers

It’s estimated that 6 out of 10 Canadians have a cellphone. It shocked me when I learned that the average Canadian pays about 33% more for their rate plan than the average American. High usage Canadians often pay 50% more than high usage Americans.

The federal government plans to auction off 105 megahertz of new wireless spectrum in a 3 week auction starting May 27th of 2008. Of the 105 megahertz 40 megahertz will be reserved for new providers to the Canadian broadband wireless market. The only catch is that the company has to be Canadian or has to partner with a Canadian company and has to have less than 10% in current market share. That means Rogers, Telus and Bell can’t have part of the 40%.

The federal government is hoping that larger companies like MTS Allstream and Quebecor will enter the wireless market. Quebecor has already indicated that it would like to invest $500 million to build a state of the art broadband wireless network. Toronto Hydro has also expressed interest in obtaining some of the spectrum.

What I find interesting is that newcomers to the wireless market will be able to roam through other carriers towers for at least 10 years with this new deal. This means that new carriers can take their time to build their own towers. This also means lower operating costs and cheaper rate plans. I would start my own broadband wireless company also if I could run most of it from my direct competitors equipment.

Canada’s three deep pocket wireless providers are Rogers, Telus and Bell. The larger spectrum means that bandwidth intensive technologies like video chat, mobile tv and perhaps even the Apple iPhone will be streamlined and readily available here in Canada.

Ultimately this will lower wireless rates making it more affordable for Canadian customers.

Canada, Cell phone, News, rates 111, 119, 122, 126, 135, 142, 145, 34, 47, 57, 58, 8, 97

I was on the Competition Bureau of Canada website earlier to get the right info for my previous post and something caught my eye, the “Guide to Made in Canada Claims“.

image by WickedSunshine.com

From the Guide to Made in Canada Claims

In its analysis of a declaration claiming Canada to be the country of origin of goods incorporating foreign raw materials or components, the Bureau applies the following rules:

(1) the last substantial transformation of the goods must have occurred in Canada, and

(2) at least 51% of the total direct costs of producing or manufacturing the goods is Canadian.

So when you really by something that is “Made in Canada” your actually buying something that is at least 51% made in Canada. The other 49% can be made anywhere else it the world, most likely China.

Canada, News, Useless 103

If you’ve never heard about the scanning code of practice it’s time you hear about it.

The scanning code of practice is a voluntary code brought to you by the Retail Council of Canada, the Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores, the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers and the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors. It was started in 2002 and most of the bigger Canadian retailers and grocers are on board with it (Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, A&P, Independant Grocers, etc.).

To tell if a retailer is part of the SCP you’ll notice a sticker by the main doors or at each cash register. Some retailers try to hide these stickers by posting internal memos over them (A&P…) because they don’t want people to know about it.

What does it do? Well for example, if you buy a loaf of bread that is on special for $1.89 and it scans in at $2.29 then you get that loaf of bread for free. Easy enough? The tricky part is the cashier won’t tell you that you get the item for free. Instead they will just change the price to $1.89 for you. You need to tell them that the scanning code of practice allows you to get that item for free (since it’s under $10). The other thing to remember is you only get the first loaf of bread for free, the others will be $1.89 ea. For more info click here.

More examples:

1 X Cereal priced at $3.99 but scans in at $4.99 = Free item

2 X Cereal priced at $3.99 but scans in at $4.99 = One free item and one item at $3.99

1 X Box of chicken breasts at $14.99 but scans in at $17.99 = $4.99 because the scanning code of practice says the first item is free up to a max of $10. Anything over $10 = lowest price - $10

You need to remember this next time you get something that scans in wrong. Even if it’s only a $0.10 difference you still get the item for free. If ever you run into a problem and the retailer doesn’t abide by the code you can call 1-866-499-4599 and they will take care of resolving the issue with that retailer for you. Remember to keep receipts and the name of the employee that refused to give you the item for free. I’ve only had to call them once because a cashier and their supervisor didn’t know anything about the policy and refused to give me the item for free. I ended up with a $20 gift certificate for that grocery store when everything was resolved. More info is available on the Competition Bureau of Canada website.

We as customers deserve accurate pricing. Most customers don’t notice that they’ve over paid for some of their items. Next time you’re at the cash register have a look at the screen as your items are scanned in. You’ll be surprised at the amount of items that scan in wrong (especially at grocery stores). You’ll also end up saving some money.

That’s why I like shopping at A&P, their prices are always wrong so I always get free stuff.

Canada, Scanning Code of Practice, Useless, free groceries scanning code of practice canadian retailers deals free

la·zy (lz)adj. la·zi·er, la·zi·est

That’s right, lately I’ve been pretty lazy. I haven’t wrote anything in the blog since I left for Ottawa so I will begin from there. (You better get comfy, it’s long)
The Ottawa trip was a lot of fun. This time we got to stay longer than a couple of days. We left on Friday June 30th right after work. By the time we made it to Ottawa it was past 3AM. I don’t speed much anymore since my record is now clean (I learned the hard way).

Canada Day was lots of fun. We went downtown, there was a gazillion people. There were people setup on the streets playing music, doing tricks, selling crap and trying to talk to you about Jesus. I still can’t believe how much money some guy made by taking a step ladder and doing a back flip off of it. The crowd around this guy was huge. When he finally jumped I was like “that’s it?”. I thought something cooler was going to happen. He could of set himself on fire or something. Then I would of paid money to see that. Apparently there was about 300,000 people in that part of town that day.

After we walked around the crowded streets we went to the Aulde Dubliner in the market to drink some beer. We ended up taking over the patio and drank beer for over 6 hours. We saw all kinds of people in those 6 hours (just look at the guy in the blue latex suit). I also got a funny video of a bum doing a cartwheel. Of course since it was Canada Day they had special menu’s out. To give you an idea how special, some chicken nachos were $17. It made for an expensive afternoon (new home owners). It was nice an sunny pretty much the whole day until the fireworks. It started to drizzle when it was time for the fireworks but they turned out good anyways.

On Sunday we did what we usually do when we go to Ottawa. We hit up Ikea and the Costco’s. Yeah I know but we don’t have those stores here. We needed some stuff for the new house so it turned out good. Last year when I went I only bought a brush to wash the dishes (best damn brush though). On Sunday night we were going to check out Barrymores for 80’s night but after waiting in line for close to an hour we decided to leave. We went to Social and sat in the courtyard for some drinks instead. It was a perfect night for patio drinking.

On Monday we went to the Museum of Civilization. I’m not big on museums but it was alright. The main feature was Petra - Lost City of Stone. They also had expositions about the history of Canada, First Nations People, Canada Post, Nursing, and Ice Skating. We also saw “Kilimanjaro - To the Roof of Africa” in the huge Imax dome. That was pretty cool. Later that afternoon I helped my cousin build a deck off the back of his house. It turned out pretty nice. I can’t wait to drink beer on it now.

On Tuesday we headed off to Sudbury right after eating breakfast at Denny’s. I’ve been to Denny’s twice now, it’s great. In Sudbury we went out for supper with Jenn’s friend Anya since it was her birthday not too long ago. Then we did some more shopping.

Wednesday was back home!

So in the last week I ended up spending quite a bit of money on shopping, restaurants and beer. It was alright though because we are on holidays. It could of been worse, we could of been in Calgary at the stampede spending way more money. I think buying a house was a better choice though.

Tomorrow I start eating better, exercising more and getting stuff done. We have less than 2 weeks left until we have to move. I still have so much packing to do, I am not looking forward to it.

Canada, Fun, Jenn, Life, Useless

April 22nd, it’s Earth day.  My calendar says it and so does Google (fancy Earth Day logo).  I took the Earth Day quiz this morning and it wasn’t too good.  Click on my results to take the quiz and post the results on your blog.

The least one can do for Earth Day is pickup a few pieces of garbage outside, which is what I am going to do. You can also sign the stop global warming online petition from my links on the right.

Ideally you would sell your car, 2 stroke snowmobile / seadoo, and take the bus or your bike or buy a hybrid, no longer eat any packaged goods that can’t be recycled, get rid of your A/C, do laundry at 11pm, change all of your household lights to the spiral ones that don’t take up much power and never use them unless it’s really really dark, change the 30 year old beer fridge with the cool handle that you have in the garage to a new expensive energy efficient one, conserve water by taking 2 minute showers (with the water saver head, of course), if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down….you get the point.

Canada, News

I was surfing the net and found that this winter was Canada’s warmest winter on record. That’s nuts! A recent global project called the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study suggests global warming has already caused irreversible damage. Click to read the full story

Canada, News

Alberta is spending their money wisely.  The Alberta will be spending $1 billion dollars on Cancer research as a plan to cut cancer deaths in half in 20 years.  The question that I am asking myself, why doesn’t the Canadian government do something like this instead of spending money on some of the ridiculous things they are spending millions on?  Even better, why aren’t the United States doing something like this? $1 billion is fractional compared to what they are spending with the war on terrorism.

Canada, Politics