Rogers has outed its new data sharing options, with a special option for iPhone users on the 6GB/$30 a month plan. Under this new option, users who are already paying $30 for 6GB of data a month on their iPhones will need to pay an extra $30 a month—plus the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee—in order to share that data with an iPad.
As iLounge editor Jesse David Hollington notes, Rogers offers a standalone 5GB/$35 a month data plan for iPads, making the new $30 option a poor deal for users wanting to share data with their iPad 3G units. iPhone in Canada speculates that with the launch of these new data sharing options, Rogers may be preparing to charge for iOS 4.3’s Personal Hotspot feature, despite the fact that they haven’t charged for USB/Bluetooth tethering in the past.
Unless Rogers was able to disable the Wi-Fi sharing feature of the Personal Hotspot individually, this would actually take away existing free functionality from current users by disabling Bluetooth and USB tethering. Users who aren’t on the $30 for 6GB of data plan can share their data with other devices for a charge of $10-$15 per month.