Bell has quietly reworked its plans heading into May, keeping prices the same while bumping up data allotments across the board. The headline change is unlimited data in Canada on the top two tiers, plus a new daily cap on roaming:
The top tier plans now deliver unlimited data in Canada at 5G+ speeds up to 2 Gbps. Notably, there’s no mention of the 512 Kbps throttling that used to kick in once you burned through your data bucket.
On the roaming side, things are a bit more structured now. The $80 plan caps you at 5GB per day in the U.S. and Mexico, whereas before you could pull from your full 175GB pool while travelling. The $95 plan works the same way for global roaming: unlimited data in Canada, but once you hit 5GB in a day abroad, speeds drop to 512 Kbps.
The $95 plan also comes with a 5-year price guarantee, following Telus’ lead. Hotspot on both the $80 and $95 plans runs at full speed up to 50GB, then throttles to 512 Kbps.
None of this happened in a vacuum. Rogers recently rolled out its own unlimited global data plan and matched Telus on the price guarantee, and Freedom Mobile has been quietly applying pressure with aggressive roaming promotions, at one point offering 250GB for $40.
The flanker brands, Fido, Virgin Plus, and Koodo, still don’t have comparable global roaming options, but that probably won’t last long.
Bell reports its first quarter earnings on May 7, with Telus following the next day.
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Is this plan only for new activations? It’s not coming up when I try to switch from my existing plan.