Rogers app lets dad cut the kids’ data usage
Costs millions to develop, CEO says
Rogers Communications Inc. introduced Thursday a new data management app for its shared wireless plans in a bid to stop customers from calling to complain about data usage charges. But it’s a safe bet family drama will increase with account holders’ new powers to cut off users who blow past their data limits.
The new app enables the account holder to allocate different amounts of data to each member of a shared plan and alerts both the bill payer and the device user when someone hits their cap. When the limit is reached, the app prompts whoever pays the bill to buy a data top-up (the rates are cheaper than typical overage charges), upgrade to a larger data plan or simply turn data off for the remainder of the month.
Telus launched a similar system a year ago, but it doesn’t divide the data between users or have a function to buy top-ups.
The Rogers tracking system cost “millions and millions” and hundreds of engineers to develop. But Rogers CEO Guy Laurence believes it will eventually boost profit by driving demand and reducing customer churn, an important metric for investors.
“The thing I love about this the most is it puts the customer in control,” Laurence said at a media luncheon at Rogers’ Toronto headquarters.
Not being able to monitor who uses data — and the additional charges that can result in bill shock if one plan member streams too much — is a top five irritant for Rogers customers, the vast majority of whom are on share plans, Laurence said. One and a half million customers call Rogers annually to complain or ask questions about wireless data, he said.
Instead of getting mad at Rogers, Laurence expects customers will now deal with data strife internally as kids will get texts that literally state, “You have been switched off by Dad.”