Last year you told us you wanted to be able to share data across the devices you use, and we responded at TabLife TO in December by being the first service provider in Canada to announce data sharing plans. We wanted to take some time to explain how these plans work and highlight some of the key benefits.

Why would you want to share your data?

• It means only one plan to manage– share your smartphone plan with your tablet, netbook or Rocket mobile internet stick
• Maximize your monthly data usage – get the most value by sharing your monthly smartphone data allowance with up 4 additional devices
• Save each month – Add a device for as little as $10 per device per month plus Government Regulatory Recovery Fee (GRRF) (limited time only)
• Greater flexibility – get a plan that works best for you (three-year term with hardware discount OR month-to-month without hardware discount)

How these plans work

Whether you’re a new or existing smartphone customer, there are a number of flexible options that will let you share data across multiple devices.  You can check them out here.

After you settle on a plan that makes your data shareable, you can add additional devices to this plan. For just $10 per month plus GRRF (limited time only), you can add a new or existing device that you already own. For those saving with a hardware discount agreement, the price per device to share is $15 a month plus GRRF (limited time only), with three year term.

Can you explain that to me again?

Ok, let’s say you’ve got a Sony Ericsson X10, and you’d like to get a new Rocket stick but want the convenience of having only one plan to manage all of your devices.  You currently have a voice plan with a 2 GB data plan that costs $45 per month plus GRRF, and you’re three months into your three year term. You’d first change your data plan to the equivalent 2 GB data share plan, also at the same $45 plus GRRF price. Since your X10 is already on a 3-year term plan, there’s no effect to your current term or hardware upgrade eligibility. From here, you simply have the Rocket stick added to this plan. If you don’t want a 3-year term on your Rocket stick, you simply purchase the Rocket Stick at its full price and pay $10 a month plus GRRF to share the data with this additional device.

Eligibility

To take advantage of these plans, your primary line must be a smartphone, and you can’t combine them with other special offers. Corporate plans are currently not eligible for sharing, and the Rocket hHub isn’t compatible with data sharing plans. Please contact a Rogers representative for full eligibility details.

$30/ 6 GB Customers

Our 6GB customers are very important to us. That’s why we created a special limited time offer when we launched iPhone 4 last summer that allowed them to share data on an iPad for an additional $20 per month plus GRRF.

If you missed out on this offer, you can still share smartphone data on an additional device for $30 per month plus GRRF. This works out to just $10 per shared GB – less than our other wireless customers on sharing plans.

How do I get full details?

We recommend you visit www.rogers.com/datashare, call 1-888-Rogers1 or visit a local Rogers retailer to get full details. You can also check out this clip below from Vancouver’s Breakfast Television where Mike, one of our Data Guyz recently appeared to discuss the data sharing plans.

How many devices do you have? Do you share data?

Duane MacDonald is a regular contributor to RedBoard