Rogers' budget-friendly chatr brand launches in Canada
By Ross Miller 
posted July 28th 2010 5:58PM
posted July 28th 2010 5:58PM
The brand will compete with other budget-conscious options from the likes of Wind Mobile and Mobilicity, but this one's got the advantage of Rogers' more established, wider-reaching network. According to The Globe and Mail and CBC News, Wind will be offering a whopping $150 credit for those who switch to its network from Rogers / chatr. Mobilicity's chairman John Bitove has a different strategy altogether, threatening to complain to the Competition Bureau that Rogers' possible goal here is to drive other discount phone brands out of business before dissolving chatr and leaving the market with only a higher-priced segment. And if you were wondering where Telus and Bell Mobility stand, well, both companies are reportedly expected to follow suit with entry-level brands of their own. Data plan-averse Canadians should have quite the selection from which to choose.
Talk to me when I can get service in Whitehorse or Yellowknife.
@Samurai Jack So this is basically a Canadian Metro PCS
@liftedngifted1 I think Metro PCS is a bit better
@Samurai Jack Just looking at the graphic, I am not impressed. I'll stick with Rogers' other sub brand, Fido.
@liftedngifted1 That you can use in 5 cities.
@Samurai Jack ...or in Newfoundland
@Samurai Jack or in Halifax :)
And I think Rogers needs to work on rolling out new Android Phones rather than new brands..Why couldn't they just make this a part of Fido?
Yeah, but its still run by the same greedy suits. After all the shameless money grabs they pulled on me I'm not looking at another rogers product for a long time
@centizen
They wont lower their prices because if they do Bell and Telus will do the same which means marginal income will go down for all
@centizen
"robr"
@centizen
Normally, I don't like foreign companies taking over our industries, but for god's sakes somebody please kill Robbers and Bell! I am fed up not just at them, but at our incompetent government that cares nothing for it's citizens and continues to work for big business. I beg you Vodafone, Sprint, Verizon and even you AT&T, end our suffering and enter the Canadian Market!
Since when was unlimited incoming calls/texts a feature?!? Does anyone pay for them? We sure as hell don't this side of the pond.
@NickH
Exactly. I was going to say the same thing.
@Scrotum
Thats a terrible deal, Your paying $35 a month and you only get unlimited outgoing to "Anywhere in the province" and 50 texts. Here in the UK you can get a FREE decent feature phone with 600mins and unlimited texts for around £20. And fortunately carriers do not try to trick people by stating things as "Unlimited Incoming Texts and Calls" No body in there right mind would pay to receive a text message! That is unless you were in another country or whatnot.
@biginthegame
Sadly it IS a feature. . . We do actually have to pay for stuff like that
@NickH
Yeah we pay for stuff like that =/
@Indefinite Implosion
Because of population density. Unlike europe we have vast areas of empty land! Prices are higher because tele companies need more towers for less ppl than in Europe. Of course Here in canada we are just getting F*ed because Telus,Bell and Rogers are doing everything possible to block international companies from competing.
How can you tell this is run by Rogers? They charge you $0.25/minute to check your voicemail... on the UNLIMITED TALK plan. Different brand, same greedy tactics.
@DonBellows its a 'feature' to display what number is calling you too?
@Ioncloud9 It is in Canada, unfortunately. Carriers normally charge you anywhere from $6-8/MONTH for caller ID.
@Ioncloud9
Even then, it'd be better if Caller ID actually meant - you know, display the persons First, Last name along with the number (like landline, heck if they did this for cellphone #'s that'd be great but cells are disposable, and you don't "own" the number like on a landline).
Rogers Unlimited AnalRape(TM)? Check!
25¢ per minute to check your voicemail but you get unlimited minutes? That's silly...
Canadian Public: "New competition! Maybe Rogers and the others will lower their prices to compete..."
Rogers: "You think so, eh? Ha ha ha..."
If this Roger guy is anything like MetroPCS then stay far away from him. I had a Metro phone for 6 hours before I returned it. Poor signal and dropped calls even in places that their supposed map indicated as full coverage.
ruh roh:
http://www.thestar.com/article/841014--mobilicity-to-take-rogers-to-court-over-new-discount-service
"And if you were wondering where Telus and Bell Mobility stand, well, both companies are reportedly expected to follow suit with entry-level brands of their own."
Are you kidding? Telus launched Koodo Mobile back in 2008. Get your facts straight.
@silencemuch
Yeah and Bell bought Virgin a while back too.
For the record, I hate Koodo's ad campaigns. . .
@zeco
Bell is going to rebrand Solo Mobile.
@zeco
I think every Canadian hates Koodo and no one takes the brand remotely seriously after that name and the annoying ad campaign associated with it.
To sum it up, Koodo, Virgin (owned by Bell, and has no connection to the actual Virgin company), and now Chatr are all attempts at the Big 3 to try and continue their tri-opoly.
@silencemuch yes, and rogers owns fido. what's your point?
this is a tier that slots in under fido/koodo/virgin
@silencemuch
right now it goes:
bell-rogers-telus
fido-koodo-solo-virgin
wind-publicmobile-mobilicity-chatr.
in my expereince wind is still the best, rogers' main brand and fido sometimes give really good deals with their good phones if you call in customer support, but even then its nothing compared to what wind gives. also mobilicity's 65 dollar unlimited everything (including data) is pretty amazing.
the chatr plans seem really bad compared to wind and mobilicity, even their phones (although i understand you can bring your own GSM phones instead of just AWS for wind)
if it wasnt for the millions of marketing dollars they have, chatr would die before we know it.
They should investigate Rogers for this BS. If they really mean to compete in good faith, they would lower their prices. I am all for free market, but Canada's mobile industry is so messed up...its like a freaking mafia, and government is not doing anything about it.
These lower prices are a joke. Except for unlimited anytime calls, I've got more then I'll ever need on a $45 iPhone plan. Rogers, Bell, Telus and even Fido are equally bad. The discount carriers, although have good intentions, aren't much better.
Please explain why these rates aren't possible on Fido/Rogers? And where is the data on Chatr? If it is to compete with Wind, Wind offers unlimited data for $35.
@AMRivlin oh man dont even go into that
All three big player will rape your wallet with data plans. I'm waiting to switch to Wind as soon as my contract expires !
@HellFlyer You should just negotiate for a better plan, esp. if it's a smartphone. Better then changing to a worse carrier.
This is just another scheme at trying to kill the foreign competition that's entering the Canadian market. I hope this brand fails horribly and Rogers and Bell both go through some reforms with respect to their pricing models. I'm fucking sick of these brands having a bad selection of subsidised phones (I want more Android phones available than what's currently up there), trying to hold me with their 3-year contracts (hopefully the government could make 2 years the maximum), and hopefully, I hope these new foreign brands (especially Wind) gain more customers, and expand their network throughout all of Canada.
@ALBGunner04
Wind has some extremely tempting plans right now, but they just don't have the phones. Toss some high-end Android handsets into Wind's mix and I'll be there no problem.
that $35 will magically turn into $50 as out the door price in your bill.
What Canada desires is an option of getting Google Voice and SkypeIn number.
The Cell phone plans offered here are just too expensive compared to anywhere else.
In the USA and Canada, they CHARGE for receiving calls and texts normally? What the...
@0causton0
They do this to try and force customers to get into a messaging plan. Pretty much every messaging plan "waives" this fee. The funny thing is, the U.S. has been doing this for a while, and Canada has just recently picked it up from the United States. Gotta love America!
This isn't that great of a deal.. But I know that for some it will be cheaper than current plans. If you're really interested in Canadian cell phone plan prices, google the Telus, bell and Rogers websites, and thier koodo, solo mobile/ virgin, fido companies.
you have to pay for voicemail?!
@irfan Yes...
You have to pay for voicemail.
You have to pay for caller id.
You have to pay for incoming texts.
You have to pay for incoming calls.
I have some how wound up on a Bell month to month plan with all the bells and whistles of a contract plan. I can cancel at anytime I want with one month's notice. Bonus!
Rogers = Chat-R .
So I guess by being disappointed I am not because for a new company this is terrible, but for Rogers this is uhh! A little better. But I am happy with WIND :)
Rogers CEO's comments just after the launch of the new players (Wind,Mobilicity): “There’s no question in my mind that Canada cannot support more than three national facilities-based players,” “It’s inconceivable to me.”
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aulGEpbvlroM
And in less than ONE year, his company creates another brand to compete DIRECTLY with Wind and Mobilicity. Make no mistake, Robbers isn't trying to take away marketshare from the new players, they're trying to bully their way to run them out of business before they can get big.
Chat-r's plans are almost identical to the Wind/Mobilicity. Chat-r just so happens to be available in the exact same handful of cities that Wind/Mobilicity currently offer despite using a Rogers network which blankets more than that. I'm disappointed that no Canadian governing body has stepped in and slapped them on the wrist.
PS: It costs 10 cents to send/receive texts in Canada unless your under some text plan. Yes it sucks, many things you take for granted are "Features" here...
@blackric
ha! ATT is 20 cents per txt in or out w/o plan. just sayin
@Psyclotr0n I stand corrected, its 15 cents per text message send or receive if you don't have a plan