What a wireless whirlwind it has been over the past 72 hours, as now Rogers, Telus and Bell, along with their flanker brands Fido, Koodo and Virgin, all simultaneously have promo $60 plans with 10GB of permanent data.
Originally, this promo plan was launched in Alberta and BC only by Rogers and Fido, with 5GB of bonus data only for 24 months. Telus responded by offering the same promo in Alberta and BC but extended it to Ontario for Koodo customers with permanent data, just like Bell.
Eventually, Rogers and Fido modified their plan to remove the expiring 5GB data after two years, to make it permanent like their rivals. All of these moves are due to Shaw’s Freedom Mobile offering its ‘Big Gig’ plans back in October, which offered 10GB for $60 (Freedom also has a promo right now offering 10GB for $50).
The changes happened so frequently even Best Buy and their email newsletters had to be sent out a couple times to keep up. Look at their email graphic below in all its glory:
With so many customers moving carriers over the past few days, wait times on the phone have taken hours for some. You may have better luck with plan changes via online chat or social media.
So let’s take a quick poll—which carrier did you end up going with for your $60/10GB plan? Vote below:
Update Dec. 18: Rogers/Fido has extended the $60/10GB to Dec. 19 for existing customers, while Telus/Koodo has their promo plans expiring on Dec. 19 as well.
Update Dec. 19: For Rogers customers, try calling the international number 416-935-5555 to get through to an agent, as that seems to have lesser wait times. Here’s another number to try too: 1-888-764-3772. For Bell, call 1-855-718-3612.
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Fido is bungling this. Every customer service channel appears completely shut down for me, and twitter seems to be reporting similar.
Bell is doing the same thing. I’ve been on hold for almost an hour and the online chat is offline. lol oks like they do t want people to switch.
My wife was on hold with bell for almost two hours but finally getting through and the agent said it’s the promo that has every line filled.
So much this. People think they don’t want people switching? Rogers literally has a message saying sorry but too many people are trying to switch at the same time. Took me an hour to get through but they are more than happy to switch you.
I went to the store and they said they cannot switch people to this plan, you have to call in to do it. I’ve been on hold since 2, every time the call hits 57 minutes it rings and says there is an emergency and the call centers are closed. It seems like they want to look like they are competing, but in reality making it impossible for people to switch. Here’s a plan that no one can have.
Fido rep on twitter claimed it would auto add the promo if you change to the 5gb byod plan yourself online. I took the risk and screenshotted the interaction in case i have issues. Still think they really botched this from a customer service angle.
Did you visit a Rogers store? What province are you in?
I walked in to a bell store and was all set up within 20 minutes.
Same here. I’ve been with Fido for over 12 years. Was on $60/6GB BOYD plan. Tried to give them a chance but phone lines are not working, online chat is not responding…. went to Koodo kiosk and after 10 minutes my two phone numbers are ported and i’m on 10GB 60$ plan.
Fido is not the same after years of Rogers influence…. getting worse and worse with lack of Loyalty plans and any special perks for being with them for so many years… Fuck Fido!
Rogers Literally owns Fido, don’t be surprised.
First off: every carrier had this issue, the most complaints seem to be coming from Telus customers. And none of the carriers even wanted this promotion to happen so it’s not like they could plan for it. Secondly, Fido is owned by Rogers Communications, not Rogers Wireless itself. They simply share the same parent company, and they have separate call centres, separate network servers, etc
Is the Telus offer still on? The terms said it was supposed to go until December 18, but it disappeared from their promos page early last night. Also, does anyone know if you can use the $85 offer to get the iPhone X at the subsidized rate, or do you have to choose from specific phones that you can get for free?
You’d best to go to the mall or Walmart. The reps there will know.
Fido is the clear winner, with data bytes you can go beyond 5+5gb for $60, IMO
plus they offer UNLIMITED INTERNATIONAL text, picture, and video messaging4
i wish they offered Spotify permanently instead of 6 months but i can live without it
Every flanker carrier has unlimited international text & picture message. Virgin has it’s members benefits discount. It’s a fair playing field
How is fido the clear winner?..
Pretty simple: the five hours of unlimited data every month. You get to choose when each hour happens, and it literally means you can use 20 or 30GB with no extra charge.
Roger is including enhanced VM. While Fido only gets the basic VM.
Fido and Rogers are the worst. they give u the price u want then after sometime they send u sms telling that ur plan monthly will go up. Its exactly what happened when public mobile introduced $40/4GB then all carriers follow. everyone who got fido one was so pissed after getting amessage that the rate will be $45 effective ….. .
Bell/Virgin on the other hand are always follow Telus or Rogers what they do. They are not and will not pioneer in any of their plans. They tend to follow Rogers policy.
The best to go with Koodo or Telus.Its guranteed they won’t change ur plan for long term or change the rate. their policy always to satisfy the customer . Personally I prefer koodo as International text included which I use it from time to time.
You’ll find this plan might be the exception where all three will increase the plan price. It will be Rogers or Bell that will make the first move, but it will happen. At that point, be prepared to ditch your current provider.
I never heard in the history that Telus or Koodo changes plan for their customer. Rogers and Bell are known for that
You must live a very sheltered and lonely life my friend.
They have. Telus also reduced their bundling price as well. There all the same.
You were correct. It was Bell.
If Koodo and Telus don’t change their price of this plan then others would be hesitant to change as well. Becuase that would be an unfair treatment to their customers.
i had a $50 8gb corporate plan with rogers then they raised it $10 and took away 2gb
I’m not switching as I’m only paying 27.50 for 8GB with Freedom and if I needed more..can add $10 for an extra 3GB 😀
Freedom has the most horrendous signal ever.. every friend i have using Freedom sounds underwater when we speak on the phone or my voice echos every word I say and often texts and messenger messages dont get through right away, emails sometimes takes eons to show up as well
Yeah. I think eventually Freedom will disappear or be absorbed by one of the big three. It’s only a matter of time Shaw is made an offer they can’t refuse, especially after Freedom customers leave them due to poor coverage and service.
That’s not true, head over to Reddit, HoFo, RFD and see for yourself. Freedom’s speed and coverage is really improving day by day, BC finished their network upgrade and the speed level is on par to the Big3. As for service, their social media team is actually not bad too. Not that you would anyway based on your comments but have you EVER even use Freedom once? I’m not talking about the Wind Mobile days but recently.
The government would block the sale I would think unless they are in financial trouble which I can’t imagine Shaw in that position.
Not in my experience actually since I ported our from Fido in August. I haven’t seen any problems, problem seems to be really different from person to person and in my case it works.
You guys just wait until they fully deploy the LTE network in 2018 spring and summer for the low frequency. Get back to me when you still think the network is bad, like everywhere thing, what Freedom needs are the support from the big guns. Again you said your friends, BUT have you actually use Freedom yourself with your own phone?
Like you guys I was really hesitant to port out to them when there’s ton of negative reviews but I have them a try for a few days and decided to join them after seeing good service/signal at my work and home.
What Wind lacks in the past is their commitment from their own board, no money to support them and they got shut down. Things will turn either really well for the rest of Canadian (cheaper phone plans) or it can make them the big4.
Actual proof is every day when I try to call my friends and it goes straight to voicemail constantly and they tell me phone is on and they don’t know why. Or when I’m speaking to them and they are constantly so garbled I can’t understand them. Or the messages don’t show delivered for hours. Or they email me days later and they say “weird I just got your email”. I would never switch, I rather pay The big three double and I hate all 3 of the big 3. You get what you pay for.
Fair enough but that’s unheard of :/ at least to me, are you guys in East or Central or West
I assume your friends never connect to wi-fi then? (Or else, they would get their emails then).
Good point! So assuming ^^ friends have wifi at home like most of us or use free wifi from places. I’m smelling BS just to bash FM as a whole.
Am with you on this….i ported my fido to Freedom just last week or so… No issue…. Then again, i do have 3 lines with them since wind days ….the 39 Can/US and 2 everywhere Canada 44. Tested out their new plans on pay before ….liked it (signal and stuff) and ported my main number (lottelarly getting out of the dog house) 🙂
LTE makes little to no difference. They’re still using crappy frequency that has horrendous penetration.
Sure their network is not at big 3 level but give them till the summer. They haven’t deploy the low frequency spectrum just yet but once they do it will be ready to have bars like the big 3.
When they do, and it’s proven effective then we can talk about them as a competitor. Until then, they’ll remain a subpar inferior brand.
Freedom is better than nothing, I suppose.
Freedom from signal 😉
Exactly even though it will be throttled after 8GB still unlimited data plus one thing why I love FM is no overages charge. Power users easily go over 10GB, ie Rogers $7/100MB overages.
There needs to be a “None. I don’t need 10gb of data, I pay $15 per month for 3gb, and use Fongo.” option on the poll. 🙂
Fongo? I ditched them due to horrible service. Completely unreliable.
And how’d you get a $15 3 GB data only plan?
Fido data-only plan is $15 for 3GB. They recently made it harder to get, you need to have an account with them already, but going to BestBuy or TBooth will often get around that requirement. After 3 months you can call Fido customer retention and ask for a 12-month 50% loyalty discount, making it $7.50 per month for 3GB (and overage at $5 per 1GB with the 50% loyalty discount). Sprinkle on-top is to use the self-serve portal to change the number that comes with the plan to an AB number and not get charged any provincial sales tax. This is data-only, so use a VoIP service (e.g. Fongo) for calls and SMS.
I have 15gb already for $75
I have 17gb for $65 with Telus. Just data though. Call, text etc is $40
35 min waiting with Fido. I had to pay $130 to exit my two years commitment then they switches, me to the new plan.
you had to talk to their manager, and switch to their competitors if they do that again.
If they do what again? They did everything correctly. They gave him the plan, and made sure he was off-contract first…Which is the only rule to get the plan at any provider. If you don’t want to buy out your contract you pay $85/month. It’s totally up to you if you want to pay for your phone outright or not. Fido did nothing wrong here, they did everything right.
Do I spend $198 to cancel my current tab….
My current plan is $100 month.. but then I can save $40/month… so essentially spend $200 to save $500 this year sounds like a good plan right? (with this $60 plan).
Yes, I would
so Ill save $1000 every 2 years.. basically pays for an iPhone X!
I’m paying out $200ish per line to switch away, it’s a no brainer!
I’m trying to decide between the $60/month 10GB plan (no contract) and buy an iPhone X 256GB outright on Craig’s. Or go on the 85/month 10GB premium plan (2 year contract), and get the iPhone X for $799. The dilemma is that even though the iPhone X is only 799 on contract, after 2 years I’ll still be paying 85/month as opposed to $60. And $60/month for 10GB month-month for BC is unheard of lol!
Help! Lol. Need to decide in the next few hours before promo disappears.
$60 for 10GB and buy one outright from Apple imo
It’s the super expensive $1500+ price tag that’s bothering me. Subsidized at 799 is almost half price. Argh!
Okay let’s have a look here,
With a subsidized phone
799 with 12% BC tax: 894.88
85 with 12% BC tax is 95.2 x 24 months: $2284.8+894.88
= $3179.68
note: in case you do cancel your contract for whatever reason, you will have to pay off your remaining balance of the device in full. That’s another thing to consider. Buying the 64GB from Apple is cheaper long term wise if you just go month-to-month. What capacity model are you getting?
Without a subsidize phone and buying it outright
64GB iPhone X: 1477.28 tax in
256GB iPhone X: 1710.24 tax in
60 added the 12% tax: 67.8 x 24 months 1627.2
64GB: 1627.2 + 1477.28
$3104.48
256GB: 1672.2 + 1710.24
$3337.44
Another option though Freedom is not for everyone and based on reviews BC(Vancouver|Whistler)/AB(Calgary|Edmonton) coverage for Freedom is improving day by day and they are on schedule for their LTE network upgrade/refarming.
Freedom iPhone promotion ends on the 24th last time I chat with a rep on Twitter a week ago.
iPhone X 256GB
$0 upfront
plus $50 MyTab for 24mth with current $60+ plans: save $329
plus $40 MyTab for 24mth with current $90+ plans: save $569
$409 upfront
plus $35 MyTab for 24 mths with current $50+ plans: save $280
(This will work with the current Big Gig + Everywhere Canada 50 Promo offer ending on the 19th)
$649 upfront
plus $25 MyTab for 24 mths with current $40+ plans: save $280
$1049 upfront
plus $20 MyTab for 24 mths with current $30+ plans: No savings
$1529 outright
iPhone X 64GB
$0 upfront
plus $40 MyTab for 24mth with current $60+ plans: save $359
plus $35 MyTab for 24mth with current $90+ plans: save $479
$209 upfront
plus $35 MyTab for 24 mths with current $50+ plans: save $270
same with the above on the promo Canada 50
$449 upfront
plus $25 MyTab for 24 mths with current $40+ plans: save $270
$839 upfront
plus $20 MyTab for 24 mths with current $30+ plans: No savings
$1319 outright
Thanks for the break down, that really helps a lot. Looks like I’ll just be switching to the $60/Month 10GB plan, and maybe buying an iPhone X or iPhone 8 Plus 256GB outright if I see a good deal on Craigslist for a few hundred dollars off retail. Now if I can actually checkout my cart online, I keep getting an error – and all online chat and phone agents are gone for today.
Do you know if this deal will still be on for tomorrow Dec 18? Or does it expire today at midnight?
Depending who you want to join, I know Koodo and Fido offers it until the 19th while Rogers and Telus all ends on then 18th..not sure about Bell. I want to say the offer expires at midnight, the best way to find out is go to the store.
Signing up with the Rogers promo. Says 16-18, but not sure it expires right at midnight tonight, or if I’ll have all day tomorrow.
I still see it on the Rogers website and is almost 1am here so this seems like it’ll definitely be all day tomorrow (18th) before they close. They haven’t remove the promo yet so I think the promo is still on otherwise the ad will be gone.
Should do the math for 24 months ie 2 years. Why 3? He’s free to leave after 2 years and start another contract for the following 2 if he chooses to stay.
So really only a saving of $150 with the contract.
Umm I did do 24 months, read my post again the 3 years is an example if he stay beyond the 24 months mark as if starting another year with them.
24 months ONLY. That’s the only pertinent figure here. If he started another year then thats another contract because likely he’ll upgrade again and why not.
Based on that the contract is cheaper. And you pay less upfront. So depends on the individual in the end. But the BYOD isn’t by any means a far better deal as most people try to portray it.
LOL I’m not here to argue with you the math for 24 months is there and move on.
Don’t care to; just wanted people to see both sides of the argument without the bias.
Buy a OnePlus5t…
I’ve still got my $40 6GB plan that migrated over from Mobilicity to Chatr. Now should I spent $20 more for 4GBs more?
Do you need it? How much do you use on an average?
I’ve added up mine within a 12-month period and on an average, I use about 4GB per month.
With mine, it’s just a 6GB data pack. So if I want to change or even cancel my calls/text plan, I can still keep the data plan.
Correct me if I’m wrong, the 10GB/$60 plan is one bundle which includes data, text & calls as a big package. Wanna cancel text? You gotta cancel the whole plan and get a new one.
Only if you need more data than 6GB; for me, it was actually cheaper to move down from a 6GB plan…
Keep it and save your cash. Don’t follow the sheeples just because.
Went with Virgin, no connection fee
I did too, no sim fee, waived connection fee, several of my friends went with bell and got exactly the same offer, since well they are the same. But you get member benifits with virgin.
Anyone had push back? Rogers turned me down for this plan, was told my current plan doesn’t allow me to switch over. I’m bringing my own device and not on a contract.
Was initially told new customers only until I told him their own websites says existing customers. Then he looked at my iPhone X and assumed I had it subsidized through them and wouldn’t be able to switch due to that, I quickly stopped him and told him I bought my phone outright from Apple and not on a contract. The guy finally looked annoyed and asked for my account info, looked for a split second and said no the plan can’t be changed over. He couldn’t even give me a proper explanation other than my account doesn’t allow for it.
Going to a different location tomorrow. I’ve tried to call and go online but their wait is too long and the chat options seems to be unavailable.
Sounds like you should be leaving Rogers. I had zero issues switching my Virgin mobile (Bell) plan to this 10 GB on yesterday.
You just got an incompetent agent. Call back and talk to another rep, or go online, log into MyRogers, and change it yourself – you can also chat to an agent via online. You’ll have to go though long wait times on the phone, and online may not work do to the volume of people on the site now, but keep refreshing.
I am regretting changing to the Bell 10 GB plan. I changed on Friday. Today I went and bought an apple watch 3… Justifying it with all the $50 per month I would save on the new bell plan. When I activated the watch I found out that this plan isn’t compatible with apple watch. So now I ether go back to a more expensive plan or return the watch. So frustrating!
Some reporting Telus plan to be working with Apple Watch. Take my comment with a grain of salt as I only read it on rfd, no first hand experience
I switched to koodo yesterday. Been with fido since 2006.
The main reason for me to switch was because I found Fido/Rogers network to be the worst in Toronto downtown and during my commute in the GO Train. My phone keeps struggling to latch on to LTE and I kept losing data and even dropping calls.
On the other hand, my Telus work phone never has any issues. A colleague uses Koodo and reported no issues either. I have been waiting for a good deal like this for a long time.
Koodo uses the Rogers network, FYI.
Ahhhhhhh nope. Koodo uses the TELUS network along with public Mobile.
Oops. Was thinking Chatr. My bad lol
Bwahaha. If it’s posted on the internet including comment sections, it must be true.
It amazes me that it took Shaw/ Freedom mobile to get Robellus from being greedy. I left Fido for Freedom. $50/10gb on a LTE network. I refuse to trust the big 3 and their monopoly of greedy price gouging.
Just switched over today. Well, picked up my freedom SIM cards. Going to test out the service over the holiday and if all goes well, pay out my balance at bell.
Going from almost 300 a month, sometimes it would hit 360 with having to add data, to like 140 is a no brainer. I will have to pay out my SB plan which has 9 months left, but even at $1k I’ll save that back before a calendar year is over.
And for subsidies, I’m happy with what freedom offers. If I can, might even pick up the iPhone X if they get them in. Don’t tell my wife!
I’d love to hear about your experience with freedom once you’ve had a chance to take the service for an extended test drive. I’m on the fence, but am definitely supportive of the idea of switching to freedom if the service is reliable.
Bums like you can’t pay their bill,and then blame carriers why you’re so irresponsible.
I went with TELUS. The only one that you can get this deal with and still fire up the cellular on a series 3 Apple Watch…. even if Telus tells you it’s not compatible… trust me, it is.
Were you previously with Telus and had an apple watch plan?
Nope. I was with Public Mobile. I just about didn’t make the switch to the 10gb plan as a TELUS csr told me the Watch was not compatible with this plan. I decided to grab it anyways as it’s still a good deal. Once I had it I simply went to the watch app and enabled the data plan for the watch. The difference is…. if you have a share plan on your phone, the watch and phone share all the data between the two devices. With the $60/10gb plan the phone gets 10gb and the watch gets 1gb. Works for me as I don’t plan on streaming Apple Music. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your reply! I did change to telus and it worked! 🙂
Awesome!! It’s pretty darn cool, eh? Lol
No thanks! Paying $38 at Freedom with unlimited data and my city now has LTE. These big companies can suck it.
Updates: Rogers/Fido customers can switch to these plans online via their self serve accounts.
Fido’s website lists Dec. 19 as the last day for Ontario, but AB/BC still shows Dec. 18
Update: Rogers/Fido extends plans to Dec. 19 for existing customers: https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/carriers/rogers/rogers-fido-60-10gb-plan-dec-19/
Rogers and Fido are extending this deal for existing customers until Dec 19. Might want to update this post.
Thanks for the reminder Ron, updated.
I didn’t even have to change carriers to get this plan. Just called Koodo 611.
Virgin was world wide texting (Rogers was Canada only) so I switched.
I simply can’t get through to anyone.
For Rogers customers, try calling the international number 416-935-5555 to get through to an agent, as that seems to have lesser wait times. Here’s another number to try too: 1-888-764-3772. For Bell, call 1-855-718-3612.
ok so what provider would you guys recommend im with Fido right now but not happy with them too many lost calls and lack of service coverage both in the city and outside the city. i loose coverage in Mississauga, Acton area and up north cottage country as well. i work mainly in GTA area. so who you guys recommend Bell, Telus, Rogers or what. I only use android phones dont like apple phones.
Koodo
Freedom if you work in the DT GTA BUT Koodo is not bad because of their shock data feature. I’d jump on Koodo if I didn’t have fnf discount on my freedom account. What phone do you have?
i use LG g4 but need to get a new phone, i just dont know if Koodo has reception in Perry sound area and such as i do travel far for fishing trips all with in 400 km range
A rep from Bell told me that as long I stay with the plan, they will never increase the plan’s pricing. Is this true?
Fido largely wins this due to cheaper LD rates and most importantly the five free hours of unlimited data every month, one hour five times per month whenever you want it. It effectively means you can use 20 or 30GB of data with no extra charge.
Anyone who sign up with BELL on the 10GIG plan during the Promo period got SCAM like me?? They sign me up for it and later tell me I didn’t sign me up for that Plan is not available now. I was on Koodo 10GIG plan and switch over to Bell since I like their National coverage more. After they port my plan over during the PROMO period from Koodo, and told me the plan will show up on my account in 72 hours. After the promo period was over. BELL Customer Service told me they Didn’t sign me up for that plan and put me on a lower plan. They said I can’t get that PLAN anymore!!! Bunch of SCAM ARTIST!!! DO NOT SIGN UP to their network. THEY ARE SCAMMER!!! Tell you they match the PLAN and once you are on board THEY SCREW YOU OVER !!!! I am one of them.
I took the Fido 10 gigs $60 package due to the data bytes – an hour of added data 5 times a month. This likely averages to an extra 2 gigs of data a month.
If I called Koodo to switch to them do you think I could still get this plan? Is it best to call or go into a store? My bf just signed up in Jan & got a sweet deal like this. will I we get the $25 also for him signing me up then I was also thinking of signing my son up at same time so I get $50 instead of $25 🙂 I presently dont get text as only computer but got a new phone so waiting to see who I am going with for best plans.