Bell Mobility brings unlimited data to Canada!
It’s been a long time coming, Canada. Bell Mobility has brought the wonder that is an unlimited data plan to our neighbors up North. The honor of being one of the first in Canada to have unlimited megabytes of data goodness won’t come cheap, with the only unlimited plan running about $75. The catch, as if 75 smackers wasn’t problematic enough, is that the plan is only available to PC Data card users. Sorry mobile handset guys. That said, the plan it replaces was $100 a month, and only bought you 1GB of data, so we’ll call it progress and move on…Hopefully Bell’s move will force other carriers to adopt similar plans, subsequently pushing the price down, we hope. Congratulations, Canada. How does it feel?
Bell is not the first to offer an unlmited plan. Fido had such an unlimited plan for only 50$ ! It lasted until Robbers bought them and killed everything that was good about that company little by little.
Adi
It feels like meh.
Hopefully Rogers and Fido are planning something along the lines of reasonable data plans for their GSM networks, so I can fully utilize this HTC kaiser, which I just dropped a cool Canadian grand for.
Honestly it still feels like a kick in the boys…$75 and only for pc card use. It’s like somebody offering you a brand new car only to say…oh sorry it’s only for left handed people. Geez. But here is to hoping it creates a battle to lower data prices!
Lol cards only anf ro tha price you better be riding on some hsdpa
Bell is a CDMA provider so as such they are EVDO Rev O speeds. Rev A is only slowly being rolled out in Canada.
Eh… as I’m not a mobile broadband user this isn’t going to do anything for me, but I know it will for those business types that have to be connected anywhere. And as that’s roughly what US customers pay (or so I am told), it’s nice to see Bell coming out of the stone ages.
When unlimited data for my Treo for $50 or less is introduced… then I’ll be totally thrilled.
I’d like to know more information on why this is the case in canada, I don’t know much about the market up there or coverage. Why is it that there is this huge deal about data.
Is there heafty government taxs on this?
Is there not enough cell towers to support the extra load this would bring?
Is there just not the competition to drive the networks in this direction?
I personally think American prices are insane, I think it should be roughly $10 US for unlimited mobile device data. I don’t think it should be different anywhere else either. It just seems ridiculous to charge the rates they are. I’d really like to see the breakdown of the costs that told carriers we need to charge this much for this.
Competition is the biggest issue in the telecom market in Canada. There are only 3 big companies that run the wireless, cable and home phone markets. It makes it very difficult for small companies to penetrate into these markets and be successful.
This $75 Bell plan is slightly cheaper than the US equivalent on Sprint. Sprint USA charges $79.99 for unlimited aircard data.
We’re doing well now, but forget about Fido/Rogers. They’re releasing their “best” new plans of $80 for 200MB and $120 for 1GB next month shortly after the release of HSDPA on October 2nd, and these new plans will not be compatible with Blackberry plans or hybrid BB Connect plans on Windows or Symbian phones either. Not that I’d ever pay $120 for a measly 1GB anyhow so it really doesn’t matter.
I’m getting one of Bells USB cards to run the $75 unlimited plan on my desktop tomorrow!
I just wish Fido or Rogers came out with a decent unlimited data plan so I can use my unlocked iPhone on. It’s getting annoying looking for free wifi hotspots to check my email. Man, we’re getting so screwed by our wireless providers
Telus wants $75 for this plan and you can’t use it with your phone? That sucks! And Rogers sucks worse: for 1 GB of data, you’d be paying $2710 with them.
Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile Canada has just released an unlimited data plan for just $10/month. You can use it with their new Samsung m510 phone which they sell for $199. Add that data plan on top of your $10/month voice plan, and your total cost for unlimited emails and web browsing (on their phone) is only $20/month!
where did you get your kaiser from ?
The Virgion $10 plan is not true unlimited data. Its only for WAP usage on one phone. Its the same as Bell’s $7 unlimited “mobile browser” plan and PC Mobiles $5 version. Nothing special.
Bell Mobility has lied about it’s $75/mth unlimited data. I was using 3-9gb/mth and they cut me off. They were totally unprepared for their offer and won’t admit it. Bell Mobility is a terrible company…..stay clear if you can.
Bell appears to be using the “excessive use” clause of the contract to strong-arm people off of this plan. Users are receiving notifications of excessive use for using anywhere between 1 to 2 gigs per month.
If this happens and you are not cut off immediately, you are given the option of either terminating your account or of switching to one of the newer limited plans. No warnings, no negotiating.
And these new plans? In Ontario/Quebec they are reasonable tiers, topping out at $100 for 5 gigs with an overage of $0.10 per megabyte. In the West, try $100 for 250 megs with an overage of $1 per megabyte. That’s $1000 per gigabyte.
My monthly usage for the past 2 months:
December 650 MB
January 1128 MB
They cancelled my service today.
I have hardware I paid through the nose for and is now useless.
The agent I spoke with said there would be “No disconnection charges”, but again they still sold me hardware I can’t use.
They haven’t bothered to update their website, so here are the plans being offered as of 20080221 as reported by their agent Loretta 6033543.
60$^ 30MB then $6/MB
100$^ 250MB then 3/MB
I got off the phone a few days ago with Bell and they cancelled my unlimited plan too. It is not about usage, because I asked. I was under 500MB for the few months I had the service. They are cancelling EVERYONE who had the plan, and too bad for you if you have hardware you can’t use anymore. I upgraded 13 days ago and am now fighting to get my money back. I don’t think they can legally do this, because when ever other “cell plans” have been cancelled in the past, they haven’t been able to force clients to change plans until they wanted to change a feature, such as available minutes or caller ID. Does anyone know if we can legally fight this move by Bell?
If we can’t fight Bell, Telus is currently offering an unlimited plan for $100.00, but I will be confirming with them that they can’t pull it out from under me before I pay another hardware fee. Best way to tell Bell we are mad and not going to take it is to take all our business to the competitor, even if they are usually not much better!
After yet another frustrating conversation with Bell, they are now saying that I was an “excessive user” and that is why I was disconnected. I had purchased a new computer that required 700mb of software upgrades for all of the included software, and that download put me over 1 GB for the month. Previous usage had always been under 500MB in a month.
You get no warning. They will not give you a value if you ask as to where “excessive use” begins. You are cut off without warning, and the notice they say they sent arrived 2 days after my service was disconnected.
Choose another provider, one with true unlimited service, or at least one that will give a warning if your surfing limits are excessive. Telus appears to have a decent plan and according to service representatives, they have not cut anyone off. They do reserve the right if it is truely excessive, but said a few GB is not deemed excessive. I guess I will see!
I finally got Bell to tell me what there definition of unlimited is……5-6gb/mo. But I have wi-fi available in my area now so I have cancelled my Bell Mobility Data Plan. I will never use Bell Mobility again.
to whom it may concern,i am very unhappy with Bell Mobility,as i purchased a new Samsung Instinct,just on new years eve.it was faulty i returned it to the Edson Alberta store where i purchased it,i had a total of 2 minutes 14 seconds on it,they took it back and said it was DOA,this is Jan, 11-2009 and still have no phone to replace it and am still required to pay on my contract,no one with your company will talk to me about it,and service here in town is terrible.can some one please get back to me to talk about this.