My, talk about a breath of fresh air. Canadian wireless subscribers have
long since dealt with inhumane
three-year contracts on mainstays like Rogers and Bell, signing over their cellular soul on a whim in order to get a marginally subsidized phone and a guaranteed bill for 36 months. We've heard for awhile now that
Mobilicity was jonesing to change things up in the Great White North, and change it has. Shortly after receiving an all-important
green light from the CRTC, the company has gone live with mobile service in Toronto, with a number of other large Canadian cities to follow in the months ahead. What's most unique about the service, however, is that every single plan it sells is unlimited in nature, and there's nary a contract to be found -- you simply pick the phone you want, the plan you want, and then you pay upfront. It's most akin to the various prepaid options here in the States (Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, etc.), but still -- it's a lovely alternative to have if you're a Canuck. Unlimited calling and texting can be had for just $35 per month, while $65 per month nets you unlimited everything (including global texting, US long distance calling and data usage). The phone selection ain't half bad either, with the only major "gotcha" being that extra roaming fees can apply if you use your mobile outside of metro Toronto (or in the future, away from the carrier's specific coverage cities). Hit up the source link to get the facts straight from the
horse's moose's mouth.
[Thanks, Endi]
posted May 16th 2010 4:37AM
The first one's free. When you come back they start charging...
About time
@remmus2k
Except Wind Mobile has had great plans, and better coverage since Christmas, and will be nation wide, unlike moblicity.
@Craptorium: It's still great to see another carrier putting pressure on "robelus". Each will hopefully grow well and will start stealing more and more customers from the shitty trinity (tm).
So, can anyone comment how the two (wind mobile and mobilicity) compare, beyond the obvious maturity/size of network? As I understand they're both AWS, so potentially, if I'm not satisfied with wind mobile I might try out mobilicity in the future.
@2late2die Robelus, I like it :D
I love the concept of these carriers, though I can't love them unless they get their asses 4 hours out of Toronto and into my town. Unless they gain lots of coverage, WIND isn't going to even be a breeze to the larger carriers. Right now, Rogers is OKAY to me personally, with my BlackBerry Bold on their prepaid service, the only actual problem I have with them is charging way too much for SMS. To make the topups worth it, I have to buy the $6 SMS plan, which gives me only 160 messages, I sometimes get through a month though others are quite tight.
Too bad they're AWS.
@trek No kidding. What is there, the Nexus One?
@trek whats so bad about aws? the fact that its new doesn't make it bad, it just means atm there is less selection of phones which work on it. However, the more gsm aws carriers the better, as this creates a larger demand, so that more mfgs will make phones for that band. We just need to make it a bit easier for people to put up cell sites, so that the higher frequency has a better chance of penetrating walls.
@trek
If I ever move to Canada, they'd be perfect for my N900.
@jgp Well, if you are in the States.. you don't need to move. MetroPCS all though not the best.... does unlimited everything for $40 bucks a month (including taxes and fees).. contract free. They have the same coverage issues.. (Mostly available in ONLY major cities).
@Tense problem is the N900 doesn't work on MetroPCS (CDMA)
N900 is a GSM phone with UMTS on AWS
it also looks like mobilicity is a UMTS only network
@goalcam
The Nexus One is a great phone! Don't know why you're knocking it.
@Peter F Oh, I agree, but one great phone doesn't make for much of a selection.
@trek Yet another AWS carrier? That means I can't use my imported docomo...damn!
An affordable carrier for Canadians? Nice.
Hopefully this will pressure Rogers and whoever the other carriers are to lower there's rates.
@Apple Fan
nah, it won't. Not until it's nation-wide. Also, Rogers doesn't sweat carriers that can't get the iPhone.
good, canada needs more carriers
i love how rogers and telus's primary personal voice+data plan is literally identical
$50 .. 150+150 minutes, 500meg data, same choice of one bonus option (unlimited in/out txt, unlimited my5 nationwide, double your minutes)
nice price competition there
@jaysim44 The difference being the length of contract.
@jaysim44 That's the plan I'm on lol. Rogers, Telus, and Bell are pretty much identical right now. When one introduces a change, the others match it within a few days, so the features and plans are the same.
I like what these new companies (Mobilicity, WIND) are doing, but they REALLY need to do nationwide launches. Most people are not willing to switch to these small ones, because being signed to a regional carrier introduces other problems.
I hope that by the time my 3 year agreement with Telus is over, there will be some REAL competition.. 500 Megs per month is killing me!
@kspraydad
What contract, the competely optional one you need to sign if you want them to give you a couple hundred dollars towards the phone?
When I switched to Telus I already had an iPhone. Guess how long my contract is. If you go to Rogers with $500 in hand to spend on a Blackberry your contract will also be 0 months.
@geoken It's not quite as simple as that. Only the best plans are available on 3 year contracts. You can definitely go month to month, but you'll be paying several hundreds of dollars for the phone and the plan itself will be twice as expensive for the same features. So they really give you no choice, if you are at all concerned about your budget.
@jaysim44 I also find it ridiculous that on Rogers I must pay $8 for caller ID...that doesn't even work with numbers not on my phonebook.
$45/month for a featurephone plan, 100min/1000min. I'm being completely ripped off.
Points for "moose's mouth"
noone cares about canada
@account5 i do fyi, canada is pretty boss
@goalcam
A pretty boss? We all love those! Sadly, none in the real world...
@account5
somebody please ban this troll!
unlimited data.. OMG
Unlimited Global SMS! that is definitely something that I wish US magenta had...
also whats with magenta being used for cellphone carriers? T-mobile, 3, and now Mobilicity
@bruslim
expect a tmobile vs moblicity lawsuit, magenta is now sacred
@bruslim
expect a tmobile vs moblicity lawsuit, magenta is now sacred
That's actually a pretty damn good deal, not just in Canada but in general. Unlimited everything for ~£43 is around what we get in the UK.
Also, while looking up the exchange rate, I noticed how the USD and CAD are almost at parity! :O
@r3loaded
No it's not! I've unlimited Data, Txt's and 1500 minutes calls for £30 a month with a free HD2.
@Jimbob
How is 1500 minutes unlimited?
@Jimbob
1500 mins? Fail.
@Brandscill
It's not, although i've never gone over. I can double it for an extra £5 but my point was it's still not comparable to UK as you still get much better deals.
Anyhow, if you spend that long talking on the phone, your either very hard work or my Girlfriend. ;-)
@Jimbob
I think I'd be right in assuming you're on Virgin Mobile or similar partner network. In which case, it's not unlimited, 1 GB data and 3000 texts, they just claim it's "unlimited" but read the fine print and terms. Never understood how they get away with calling it unlimited.
@Almo
Vodafone, They were going to cap at 500MB but they have decided not to now. Which is good as I use alot of data
@Jimbob you get better deals on cellular service in Asia, what's your point?
i live in toronto so this is some good news, hope they live up to the claims. only issue is the coverage. like that wind company their coverage is ass. u dont even get coverage in newmarket(which is only 45 minutes north of toronto) although it does depend on mobilicitys roaming charge if its reasonable i may be interested because most my time is gonna be within the coverage area anyways.
While I agree the 36 month contracts suck, I would have to say the phones are more than a little subsidized.
just checked out the site, while the unlimited plans are good the phones are not so great and u have to buy them. the coverage is also pretty crappy only going as far north as richmond hill and your not even covered going a bit east to pickering. thats weak coverage. i would consider switching once they establish themselves more get better coverage and better phones.
Nothing worth hearing has ever come from a moose's mouth, so no, I ain't following your source link. :P
Seriously though... Wind Mobile and now Mobilicity.... Hopefully this signals a trend of the CRTC loosening its grip on our airwaves. The prices here have been outrageously high for far too long, thanks to a complete lack of meaningful competition. When you have just three big companies providing cell coverage to over 30 million people, you can only reasonably expect consumers to get royally screwed, and that is indeed what has happened.
@Gad Get
More to the point - perhaps the CRTC will grow a spine and actually stand up to the 3 carriers to enforce some competition. It's clear they will not allow the wireless market in Canada to become more competitive in the world market without the CRTC stepping in - something they have not been willing to do. I'm still cheesed that the iPhone came in on Bell and Telus late, and instead of being aggressive on price and taking customers away from Rogers, they created nearly identical plans. How is that not collusion?
Anyhoo - competition is needed...I'm tired of hearing from friends and colleagues in Europe about their unlimited plans and awesome phones.
ok, wait a friggen second
"Get unlimited coverage in the GTA with our 3G network, and use our phones anywhere in North America. Outside our unlimited coverage area, roaming fees will apply."
So I could use it anywhere in the US and get full coverage?
@brettlewis The don't have thier roaming maps up yet for the US but the Canadian one is there..you're fucked if you live in any rural area.
https://mobilicity.ca/coverage/canadian-roaming-map/
@brettlewis
roaming fees will apply
@brettlewis When you're roaming in the US, you're using T-Mob network, so it's basically it's T-Mob's coverage map.Don't know about their roaming rates.
I'm on Wind, and if I'm roaming in the US it's $0.25 a minute, and if I'm roaming in Canada, it's also $0.25 a minute using rogers 2g network.
YES! YES! YES!
I'm so friggen sick of Bell and Rogers BS. I'm paying $35/month for only 1GB of data.
@Tuxy79 I'm paying $50 for 200 minutes with 500 megs of data on Telus... So sick of crap data plans here!!