Just like in the States, carriers in Canada enjoy taking the cost of doing business and plastering at the end of your bill as a below the line fee, allowing them to advertise a lower monthly price. Facing a coming storm of cheaper competitors with no such fees, Rogers Wireless is finally ditching their controversial $6.95 "system access fee," and instead will simply be raising the price (a preferable move that offers better transparency to consumers). Unfortunately, users in our Canadian forum point to the news that Rogers will be adding a new government regulatory recovery fee ranging from $2.46 to $3.46 per month, depending on the province. The "regulatory recovery fee" is also used commonly here in the States, and is simply a rate hike disguised as an official sounding government fee.

As promised, Canadian operator Rogers Wireless this week started offering 21 Mbps wireless service in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The new HSPA+ upgrades make the carrier the first wireless operator in North America to hit the 20+ Mbps mark. Of course you probably won't see anywhere near that actual speed, and the service comes with a 5 GB cap (plus three cents per additional megabyte), but it's a notable achievement all the same. As we just explored in detail, AT&T only just started upgrading their HSDPA network to provide maximum speeds of 7.2 Mbps downstream, with upgrades available to six U.S. cities before the end of 2009.

Since Canadian broadband provider Rogers has announced that it will be bringing the iPhone to Canada, many people are taking an interest in what it means to be a Rogers wireless customer. Although they’ve traditionally been friendlier with their wireless service than with their broadband service, there remain several issues of concern to new customers who are looking at Rogers specifically because they want an iPhone.