Telus-owned Koodo recently made a change on its website when it comes to bring your own device (BYOD) plan pricing.
Last month, starting BYOD pricing was listed at $25 per month, as a promo plan offered unlimited talk with zero data. That promo plan has since been eliminated, hence the website change to show BYOD plans starting from $30 instead of $25.
The $30 data-only plan originally launched back in 2018, as part of CRTC-mandated ‘lower-cost’ data-only plans. Since then, the entry prices for these data-only plans have gained more data in two years. Originally Koodo offered $30/500MB LTE data in April 2018.
Koodo’s data-only plan is similar to Rogers-owned Fido’s offering of $30/1GB, although the latter plan includes both incoming and outgoing Canada-wide text messages, and not just incoming.
Bell-owned Virgin Mobile offers a $28/1GB BYOD data-only plan with pay-per-use minutes and price-wise, undercuts Koodo and Fido. However, its data overages are billed at $10/100MB for the first 800MB, then $0.15/MB after, or $15/100MB ($150/1GB).
For those making the decision to choose a data-only plan, you may be better off getting a plan with more than 1GB data to avoid expensive data overages.
Update May 3, 2020: A Koodo spokesperson reached out to clarify the $30/1GB CRTC plan never increased in price, but rather the website change indicating BYOD starting at $25 then moving to $30 was referring to the elimination of a $25 promo plan, which offered unlimited talk with zero data. This article has been updated accordingly.
