Bell’s Virgin Plus looks to have called it quits with 5G plans on its website.
As of writing, 5G plans are no longer available for new customers, as only 4G speed plans are showing.
Recently, the long 5G speed plan remaining on the Virgin Plus website was its $65/75GB offering. That’s no longer available, according to iPhone in Canada tipsters.
Here are the current Virgin Plus 4G plans (after a price increase last month):
Back in July 2023, Virgin Plus launched unlimited 5G plans, following a similar move by Freedom Mobile. Telus-owned Koodo eventually launched 5G as well, but those were pulled in May of this year. Rogers-owned Fido never launched 5G plans.
Earlier this year, we did see Virgin Plus offer 5G speed upgrades for some customers. The removal of existing 5G plans should not affect current customers that have 5G plans.
Update October 11, 2024, 5:04pm PT: a Virgin Plus spokesperson told iPhone in Canada the following statement when asked about the change: “Our mobility offerings are always under review, with the goal of providing great nationwide options at an affordable price. New Virgin Plus customers can select from a wide range of 4G LTE rate plans. There’s no impact to current customers subscribed to our 5G rate plans.
Are you seeing cellphone plans changes or bill increases? Email ti**@************da.ca so we can share news with the community.
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Instead of expanding 5G availability, we seem to be going backwards with less options available at lower price points.
This really just seems like a branding exercise, as the telcos are keeping the 5G label exclusive (mostly) to their flagship brands. For the average user, this really makes no perceivable difference. All plans, regardless of branding, will likely still be receiving access to 5G networks, and all will still benefit from reduced latency, increased network capacity..etc. However, the network speeds might be capped at "LTE /4G speeds".
I'm currently on a 30GB Koodo 4G plan, and my phone shows 5G+ all day long. On speed tests, it will top out @ 100mbps,
Most people should just choose the cheapest plan that meets their data allotment needs regardless how many G's the Telcos are marketing. There are few use cases on a phone that benefit from network speeds in excess of 100mbps.
Don't be swindled by the marketing BS.
As far as I know only Telus sub-brands (Koodo, Public Mobile) allow 5G network access (without 5G speeds) as you mentioned above. Fido, Fizz, Virgin, Chatr, and Lucky don't allow access to the 5G network at all (DC NR is set to restricted). Freedom also does not allow you to connect to the 5G network unless you're on a 5G plan.
It seems that you're right. Strange that Telus is alone in giving all users access to 5G (throttled) even though the other providers don't. Perhaps the other telcos had enough spectrum to offer two distinct, broad networks whereas Telus didn't, and they had to refarm much of their 4G.
i still think that all the providers will eventually need to migrate much of their spectrum to 5G in the not too distant future, and this 4G vs 5G will soon be a moot point.
Untill that time, save your money and sign up for the cheapest plan that you can find.
Yeah especially since they are artificially throttling data speed to 150mbps on LTE and 250mbps on 5G…
I litteraly have speed test on LTE at 400mbps on Virgin before they added the throttling
I got a new phone just before this changeover. When I signed up, I signed up with a 125 GB unlimited us and Canada 5G data plan. A few days after activating my phone, I had no data access. After a few phone calls it was restored, but then I got an email saying that my new plan was 100 GB unlimited us and Canada but no 5G. I'm currently trying to fight back on this one
File a CCTS complaint, they can't just change your plan to their leisure.