Much of the rest of bang of the 3G S will be available to current iPhone customers as part of the OS 3 upgrade.

Oh, the promise of better battery life is really tempting, but the original promise of the iPhone 3G’s battery life was completely bogus, so why would I believe the 3G S’s numbers. I’m still considering buying a battery sled or external battery.

Besides, because iPhone owners were required to sign a 3 year contract when it came to Canada, it will be another year before existing Canadian customers can get reasonable “subsidized” pricing. “Rogers/Fido Social Media Guy” Keith McArthur confirms here.

The good news is Kieth says “tethering included free in data plans of 1GB or more until at least the end of the year.”

Kieth does through down the gauntlet “@dasnutz Canada is a very different market than US.” in response to Jason Wilkes “@keithmcarthur why is it that Rogers wants us to sign up for a 3 year contract, yet in the US it is 2 years? Greed…”.

The problem I have with Keith’s claim is Canada stands part from many countries in allowing three year phone contracts. Challenge accepted fellow Canadians? Time to take it to our legislators?

I know Micheal Geist continues to rise to the challenge by appearing two weeks ago before the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to discuss the state of telecommunications in Canada:

“Remove consumer barriers – Restrictive long-term contracts and the possibility of copyright legislation that could prohibit consumers from unlocking their cell phones make it harder for consumers to move between providers. Other countries place caps on long-term contracts, caps on overpriced roaming charges, and reject legislation that stops consumers from unlocking their phones.”