I just got off the phone with Fido.

As they say on their site, if you have an iPhone 3G you have to pay the no-term fee of $699/$799 to get an iPhone 3GS.

However, once you are a year into your term, you can transfer your account to Rogers, free of charge, according to the Fido representative I spoke to. (Later in the phone call I asked her to confirm that I had heard her say it was free, and she said yes it was free) She said you may find a cancellation fee on your Fido account, but if that happens, call them and they will waive it.

Once you are a Rogers customer, you can sign a new 3 year term contract (replacing your current contract with 2 year years left) to get an iPhone 3GS at the upgrade price of $199/$299.

Then, once you are a year into your 3 year Rogers contract, you can switch to Fido, free of charge.

This whole situation with Rogers/Fido customers not getting the same upgrade offer has happened because (I was told) Rogers allows its customers to upgrade their phones once a year, whereas Fido customers must wait until 6 months before their agreement expires.

So, you'll have to deal with a year without per-second billing and a year of lost Fido dollars, but the difference in cost for per-minute billing is likely quite a bit less than $400.

Note: $400/12 months = $33.33 per month

(Fido is offering iPhone 3G owners $100 in Fido dollars to upgrade to a 3GS, so the difference is $699-$199-$100=$400)

So, I'll have to wait until mid-July to get my iPhone 3GS. I didn't want to spend the money on one right now anyway, so for me it's not a problem.

I've been a Fido customer since August 2004, and now Rogers has found a a way to get me to leave Fido for Rogers. I'm sure this is exactly what they wanted, otherwise they would have been happy to let Fido customers extend their contracts like they were for Rogers customers.

Hopefully Fido is still around and still offering per-second billing and good plans in July 2010 so I can switch back. Or even better, switch to one of the new wireless carriers that should be up and running by then, or even Telus, whose GSM/3G network is already operational and will hopefully be available soon.