Tag: koodo

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo launches Black Friday 2022 deals

Telus flanker brand Koodo has rolled out Black Bright Friday deals, including discounts on phones and plans.

Check out the details below:

Phones

Koodo is also offering $100 in discounts when you shop online, composed up waiving the $50 connection fee and a $50 bill credit.

Plans

When it comes to plans, Koodo also has some offers. On top of the provider’s recently released ‘Pick Your Perk’ system, customers can get:

  • $45/mo 6GB
  • $55/mo 10GB
  • $60/mo 20GB
  • $65/mo 25GB

Check out Koodo’s Black Friday deals here.

For a round-up of all of our Black Friday deals, follow this link. You can find all of the top deals at Canadian retailers here.

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Mobile Syrup

Best Canadian carrier Black Friday 2022 deals so far

Several Canadian carriers and flanker brands have released Black Friday deals with discounts on smartphones, plans and more. There’s a ton going on, so we pulled some of the best Black Friday offers into one place, so it’s easier to keep track of everything.

Below, you’ll find some of the best Black Friday offers split by carrier. Deals are still rolling out, so make sure to check back for updates and new additions.

Rogers

  • iPhone 14 — starts at $0 down, $0/mo financing with Upfront Edge and when you trade in an iPhone 12
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 — $0 down, $15/mo financing with Upfront Edge online (in-store: $360 or $0 with eligible trade-in)
  • Pixel 7 — $0 down, $15/mo device financing with Upfront Edge
  • Samsung Galaxy S22 — $0 down, $0/mo device financing when you trade in a Galaxy S20 in-store

Upfront Edge allows customers to get a discounted monthly financing cost if they agree to return the device after 24 months or pay off the difference.

Along with smartphone discounts, Rogers launched some limited-time plans, including a $60/mo plan with 15GB of data and student plans starting at $55/mo.

Check out all of Rogers’ Black Friday deals here.

Bell

Along with smartphones, Bell is offering customers up to 50 percent on select accessories. Learn more here.

Telus

  • Samsung Galaxy S22 – $0 down, $10/mo financing with Bring-It-Back (Telus claims $1,120 in savings)
  • Pixel 7 – $0 down, $11.67/mo financing with Bring-It-Back
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 – $0 down, $15/mo financing with Bring-It-Back plus get the 512GB storage for the price of 128GB ($1,490 in savings)
  • iPhone 14 Pro – $o down, $37.83/mo financing with Bring-It-Back and get three months of free Apple TV+

Telus’ Bring-It-Back program reduces the monthly financing cost of smartphones if customers agree to return the devices at the end of 24 months. Customers can also pay the difference to keep the phone.

Moreover, Telus is offering a $10/mo bill credit for 12 months on its $95/mo 100GB plan.

Check out all Telus deals here.

Fido

Fido also has a plan deal offering 20GB of data for $55/mo, plus customers can save $5/mo for 15 months with promo code ‘YAYFIDO5.’

Check out all of Fido’s deals here.

Virgin Plus

Virgin also has deals on home internet plans, including a $45/mo credit for 12 months on its $90/mo 100Mbps plan. Moreover, the Bell flanker brand had bonus data available on several plans, bumping offers up to $65/25GB, $60/20GB, and $55/10GB.

Check out all of Virgin’s deals here.

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Mobile Syrup

Some ex Telus, Koodo customers receive $45/25GB win-back offer

On October 18th, I got an email from Telus flanker brand Koodo saying they wanted me back and that I could expect a call from the wireless provider. Well, last night, I finally got the call with a surprisingly good offer: $45/mo for 25GB of data.

To put that in perspective, Telus typically charges $85/mo for a 25GB plan. $40 off is a significant discount. Moreover, the win-back plan Telus offered me was practically identical to the company’s $85 plan, including data speeds up to 250Mbps and unlimited usage beyond the 25GB cap with speeds throttled to 512Kbps, unlimited Canada-wide calling and texting, voicemail features, and more. Telus also offered to waive the $50 connection fee. It includes access to 5G data.

While it’s not clear how many Canadians might get this offer, when speaking with the Telus rep, I could overhear other reps in the background talking to people and offering the same plan.

A section of my Telus service agreement showing the plan details.

For some added context, I’ve never been a Telus customer, but I have been with Koodo multiple times. I briefly switched to Bell a few years ago to take advantage of an employee discount available to me at the time. Shortly after joining MobileSyrup in 2018, I switched back to Koodo. In 2021, Bell sent me a letter with a SIM card and offered a $55/mo 20GB plan with 5G (although roughly a year later, Bell upped the price by $3/mo). Naturally, I took it, but Koodo and Telus have been trying to get me back ever since, even going as far as paying me $20 to get on a Zoom call and tell them why I left.

As good a deal as this $45/25GB win-back offer is, it’s not unheard of. Rogers, for example, has previously offered $45/25GB win-back deals. Telus has also reached out to customers with special deals before, most notably MobileSyrup’s own Patrick O’Rourke, who received a letter and SIM card from Telus in an attempt to get him to switch from Koodo.

Ultimately, if you’ve been a Telus or Koodo customer, keep an eye out for phone calls from the company offering special deals. Your wallet might thank you. And if you’re with Telus or Koodo right now, maybe it’s time to think about switching providers for a bit — maybe you’ll get lucky with a win-back offer.

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo promotion offers unlimited talk, text with pay-per-use data for $20 per month

Koodo’s latest deal features unlimited talk and text and pay-per-use data for $20 per month.

The deal is only available for a limited time and comes with U.S. and International Easy Roam, call display, voicemail, call waiting, conference calling, and more.

It also includes Discover Stream+ option for $25 per month, offering Netflix, Apple TV+ and Discovery+. Grabbing this for $25 saves you 20 percent off the regular price of the streaming service.

Koodo also has a $45 per month/ 6GB of data promotion with one perk at no extra charge for either Premium Voicemail and Unlimited International SMS.

This also comes with Call Display, Voicemail, Call Waiting and Conference Calling.

Source: Koodo

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo launches ‘Pick Your Perk’ plans with options like Rollover Data

Telus flanker brand Koodo rolled out a change to its plans, adding a ‘Pick Your Perk’ option that lets customers select one free add-on for their plan.

In total, there are five perk options, although which ones are available depends on which plan you choose (only Koodo’s most expensive plan has access to all five perk options). The perk options are:

  • Rollover Data – “Keep any of your unused data from your plan and roll it over into the next month.”
  • Speed Boost – “Double your 4G speed limit with up to 200 Mbps download speed.”
  • Unlimited Long Distance Pack – “Get unlimited long distance calling to the U.S., China, Hong Kong, India, UK, Bangladesh, and Mexico from anywhere in Canada.”
  • Unlimited International SMS – “Send and receive unlimited international SMS to and from Canada free of charge”
  • Premium Voicemail – “Store up to 25 messages, plus send voicemails to your phone via MMS with Instant Voicemail”

Koodo’s Pick Your Perk options.

Customers can’t select a perk when checking out on the company’s website. Instead, Koodo directs them to head to Self Serve, select ‘Mobile services’ from the menu, then ‘My add-ons’ and ‘Manage perks.’ Customers can also use that menu to change their perk if they want, but the new perk won’t apply until the first day of their next bill cycle.

It’s worth noting that the Unlimited International SMS perk used to be included in some Koodo plans. Instead, all Koodo plans now include unlimited text and picture messaging.

This doesn’t apply to the CRTC-mandated starter plans, most of which still include unlimited international messaging. Moreover, those plans don’t include the ‘Pick Your Perk’ option, same with Koodo’s $27/mo calling and texting plan with no data.

Below, you can find a list of which plans have which perk options:

  • $45/mo 6GB – Premium Voicemail, Unlimited International SMS
  • $55/mo 8GB – Premium Voicemail, Unlimited International SMS, Rollover Data
  • $60/mo 10GB – Premium Voicemail, Unlimited International SMS, Rollover Data, Speed Boost
  • $65/20GB – Premium Voicemail, Unlimited International SMS, Rollover Data, Speed Boost, Unlimited Long Distance Pack

Koodo’s FAQ about the Pick Your Perk plans notes that customers can purchase any of the unselected perks available with their rate plan as an add-on in Self Serve. MobileSyrup has reached out to Koodo for more details about how much additional perks cost.

A few other interesting tidbits of information about rollover data: Koodo’s rollover data perk doesn’t work with Easy Roam “for now.” Koodo’s website says rollover data “isn’t accessible while roaming,” but if you have leftover data, you can still use it next month.

Additionally, rollover data only lasts one month. Per Koodo’s FAQ page:

“Any data leftover from your plan’s data bucket in the current month will get added to your data bucket for next month. Your Rollover Data will get used automatically after you use all of your regular plan data. You can only keep your Rollover Data for one month, so any unused Rollover Data at the end of the month will expire.”

You can learn more about Koodo’s Pick Your Perk plans here.

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo, Fido, Virgin roll out another $65/20GB promo plan

Over the weekend, the Big Three flanker brands added new $65/20GB promotional plans after removing similar limited-time plans earlier this month.

Telus’ Koodo, Rogers’ Fido and Bell’s Virgin Plus now offer some form of a 20GB plan that costs $65/mo. Koodo and Virgin both just have a $65/20GB plan in place of the $65/15GB plan they had before. Fido, on the other hand, adjusted its $65/15GB plan to include a bonus 5GB of data, bringing the total monthly data up to 20GB. Interestingly, Fido’s website notes that the data bonus will be applied automatically and won’t show up until customer’s second or third invoice.

Moreover, both Koodo and Fido note that the $65/20GB plan is only available for a limited time, but neither displays an end date on their websites. Virgin Plus makes no specifications about its version of the plan.

Koodo also has its $60/mo 10GB plan listed as a promotional offer despite it being identical to the non-promotional $60/10GB plan it offered before.

Beyond that, there’s not much that’s special about these plans. They all include unlimited Canada-wide calling and texting, 4G data speeds, and other features like voicemail and call display (although some features vary from provider to provider).

If you missed out on the last $65/20GB offer from these providers, now’s your chance to take advantage.

You can check out Koodo’s plans here, Fido’s plans here, or Virgin’s plans here.

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo, Fido remove $60/20GB and $55/10GB promo plans

It looks like Koodo and Fido finally ended $60/mo 20GB promotional plans the carriers have offered since July.

Judging by updates to both providers’ websites on October 4th, the $60/20GB and $55/10GB promo plans are no longer available. Interestingly, Bell’s Virgin Plus still has both of these promotions, as well as the limited-time $5/mo bill credit for 12 months. However, I’d expect this will leave soon too.

In place of the promo plans, Telus flanker brand Koodo now offers a $55/8GB plan, $60/10GB plan, and a $65/15GB plan. Moreover, Koodo had added notices to the promo plans on its website that said they would go away on October 3rd — looks like that’s exactly what happened.

Rogers flanker brand Fido likewise offers $55/8GB, $60/10GB, and $65/15GB plans. Fido previously removed its $5/mo for 12 months discount for these plans but re-added the promotion shortly after.

It’s definitely a bummer to see these plans go, given the (debatable) value relative to the Canadian wireless market. The Big Three offer plans starting around $85/mo for 25GB of data — while those plans do include 5G access, that benefit remains minimal as carriers are still in the early stages of rolling out 3,500MHz spectrum.

You can check out Koodo’s new plans here and Fido’s new plans here. Although, with the holiday season around the corner, it might make more sense to wait and see what, if any, deals come with it.

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo website suggests switching to Telus to get 5G

Koodo’s website has a banner that appears when looking at 5G-capable phones that suggests customers switch to Telus if they want 5G.

It’s not clear how long this has been a thing, but I noticed it today while bouncing around carrier websites gathering pricing and pre-order info about the new iPhones. The banner says “All 5G-capable phones available from Koodo will run on our coast-to-coast 4G speed network. To access a 5G network, consider switching to Telus.”

Moreover, the banner includes two links. The first is to a page showing Koodo’s coverage, while the other links to a Telus page detailing all the benefits of 5G (and yes, benefits is doing a lot of heavy lifting there).

Koodo, of course, is a Telus flanker brand. At the moment, none of the Big Three flanker brands (such as Fido, Virgin Plus, Public Mobile, etc.) offer 5G connectivity — those who want the latest and greatest cellular network will need to go to Rogers, Bell, or Telus for now. However, the other flanker brands don’t have banners like this — at least, not yet.

Another interesting tidbit: Telus added data speed caps to its plans and to Koodo’s plans back in February. Depending on your Telus plan, your speeds will max out at either 250Mbps or 1Gbps (naturally, the more you pay, the higher your speed cap). Koodo caps speeds at 100Mbps. And yet, a couple of years ago when I had a Koodo plan, I regularly hit speeds over 300Mbps on its 4G LTE network. Curious how now that pricey 5G plans are available, 4G speeds are suddenly limited.

Moreover, 5G speeds are, well, not great in Canada. To be fair, I haven’t been able to test the new 3,500MHz spectrum yet since I don’t live in an area where it’s available, nor have I tested Telus 5G since 2019, but I’ve had Bell 5G for years and have been lucky to get anything faster than 100Mbps on it.

Several members of the MobileSyrup team have experienced pressure from Telus to make the leap from Koodo. Most recently, MobileSyrup editor-in-chief Patrick O’Rourke received a letter from Telus urging him to switch from Koodo to Telus for a plan that cost the same but had less data.

Anyway, will 5G be worth it for Canadians someday? Hopefully. But we’re still early days, and I remain skeptical of any push to get a 5G plan, especially if it comes from a banner on a wireless provider’s website.

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Mobile Syrup

Telus mailed me a free SIM, $70/25GB plan to switch from Koodo

Usually, my physical mailbox is full of useless junk mail (no, I’m not interested in selling my house), but on Monday, I was surprised to receive a rather interesting offer from Telus.

The deal, entitled ‘Need an upgrade,’ seems to aim to encourage Koodo customers to make the jump to Telus. For those who are unaware, Koodo is Telus’ flanker brand.

“Patrick, since Telus and Koodo are part of the same family, we wanted to let you know about a special Telus deal,” reads the offer.

The Unlimted 25 5G plan costs $70 per month and includes 5G speeds. The ad stands out because it comes in at $15/mo less than the carrier’s in-market version of the plan, and it includes a physical Telus SIM card. It’s surprising to see a carrier still send out a free SIM, especially in the modern era of digital eSIMs.

It’s important to note that Telus lists data speeds with this plan at up to 250Mbps with unlimited data at a “reduced speed” of 512Kbps once the 25GB has been hit. However, there are no overages with this plan. Those interested in switching can bring their own device or purchase a new smartphone through Telus.

Since I’m with Koodo and currently have a plan that gives me 30GB of LTE data (usually at speeds of 20Mbps-70Mbps) for $70/month, the jump to 5G alongside the loss of 10GB of data isn’t worth it for me. Maybe if the deal was tied to the carrier’s Unlimited 50 5G+ plan that offers 50GB of data at 1Gbps, it would be a much better option.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time a Canadian carrier has given away a free SIM card. For example, Bell sent a ‘win-back’ offer that included 20GB of data for $55/mo to some former customers last year.

Have you received an offer to switch from Koodo to Telus? Let us know in the comments below.

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo, Fido, and Virgin reduce talk and text plan by $5/mo

Koodo, Virgin Plus, and Fido logos on smartphones.

Fido, Koodo, and Virgin Plus have all lowered the cost of their basic talk and text plans by $5/mo.

The change appears to have happened sometime in the last few days. Previously, all three flanker brands priced the talk and text plans at $32/mo — now, the same plans cost $27/mo. Interestingly, Koodo lists the $27/mo talk and text plan as a limited-time offer promotion.

Talk and text plans are exactly as they sound — they just have talk and text. Data access is ‘pay-per-use,’ which means it’s quite expensive. Koodo charges $13 for 100MB, Virgin charges $15 per 100MB, and Fido doesn’t appear to publish the overage costs on its site since adding a data overage protection feature that pauses data and asks customers to buy additional data if they want to keep using it. When that feature launched in 2019, it cost $15 for 1GB — it’s not clear if that price changed.

Anyway, the price change makes the talk and text plans slightly better value for customers who don’t need any data, although they’re far from the best. Public Mobile, Chatr, and Lucky Mobile all offer $25/mo plans with unlimited talk and text plus 1GB of data at 3G speed (Chatr and Lucky actually offer 500MB of data and a bonus 500MB for customers who get auto pay, which totals to 1GB).

In other words, there are still better value options out there for people who don’t need a lot for their mobile plan. As a reminder, Koodo and Public Mobile are Telus flanker brands, Fido and Chatr are Rogers flanker brands, and Virgin and Lucky are Bell flanker brands.

Koodo, Fido, and Virgin also recently rolled out cheaper $60/20GB and $55/10GB plans, and then added a $5/mo bill credit for 12 months.