Tag: Price Increase

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo emailing customers about $5/mo bill increase starting in February

Telus’ flanker brand Koodo is raising prices again for some customers. In a recent email sent to some Koodo customers obtained by MobileSyrup, Koodo said customers would see a $5/mo increase starting on the February bill.

The email reads as follows:

“As mentioned on your January bill, the monthly service charge for the above lines on your account will increase by $5/month. You’ll start to see this monthly increase on your February bill.”

This is the second such price increase in just six months — at the end of July 2022, Koodo said “a small number of Koodo customers on select legacy rate plans will see a $5 increase on their next billing cycle.”

MobileSyrup has reached out to Koodo for more details about this latest price increase and to see if it similarly targets customers on legacy rate plans.

Thanks Lisa!

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo, Virgin up unlimited talk and text plan to $33/mo

Koodo and Virgin Plus have upped the monthly cost of their unlimited talk and text plans by $1. At $33/mo now, the plans are even worse value than before.

The unlimited talk and text plans are exactly as they sound — subscribers get unlimited minutes and unlimited texting, but data is pay-per-use (read: expensive). These plans are great for people who just need access to calling and texting, but for a while, the plans cost $32/mo, an arguably high price for what’s on offer. (It’s worth noting that back in January 2022, these plans cost about $30/mo).

Back in August 2022, Koodo, Virgin, and Fido briefly lowered their respective unlimited talk and text plans to $27/mo, a more acceptable price but still pricier than comparable plans from other budget brands.

After the Black Friday deals and before the Boxing Week deals, the three flanker brands put the unlimited talk and text plan back up to $32, and now Telus’ Koodo and Bell’s Virgin have pushed the plans to $33/mo. Fido, for now, remains at $32/mo.

Of course, there’s absolutely no reason to pay more than $30/mo for these plans when other providers offer talk and text for less. Telus flanker brand Public Mobile, Rogers flanker brand Chatr Mobile, and Bell flanker brand Lucky Mobile all offer a $25/mo unlimited talk and text plan with 1GB of data capped at 3G speed (technically, Chatr and Lucky offer 500MB and a bonus 500MB to customers who sign up for automatic payments for a combined 1GB).

Now, 1GB of data capped at 3G speed isn’t a lot, but if the goal is unlimited talk and text for a reasonable price, these are among the best value out there.

You can view Koodo’s plans here and Virgin’s plans here.

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Mobile Syrup

Paramount+ subscription climbs to $9.99/mo in Canada

The price of Paramount+ in Canada just went up.

According to a support page on the Paramount+ website, new Canadian subscribers will need to pay $9.99/mo or $99.99/year starting November 1st, 2022. Existing subscribers will see their costs go up with the December 2022 renewal.

“Paramount+ is in the process of getting even bigger, with many additions of blockbuster movies, new originals and exclusive series, plus a wide variety of hit drama, action, reality, comedy and kids shows. It’s a mountain of entertainment,” says the support page. Beyond that, the support page lists a variety of content that’s available on Paramount+ in an awkward attempt to justify the higher cost.

Details from the Paramount+ support page.

The price change marks a significant increase from the subscription service’s previous $5.99/mo price in Canada.

If you’re not interested in sticking with Paramount+ after the price increase, you can cancel by heading to the Paramount+ website, going to the account page and clicking ‘Cancel Subscription.’ From there, follow the steps to complete the cancellation.

The Verge reported that Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra sees “opportunities” to raise the Paramount+ price in the U.S. as well.

Paramount+ joins other streaming services in raising prices for Canadians, like YouTube and Apple. Amid record inflation, it seems every company is taking advantage and raising prices.

Source: Paramount+

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk wants Twitter to charge $20/mo USD for verification

Tesla CEO and now “Chief Twit” Elon Musk wants Twitter to revamp its subscription service ‘Blue’ to include a higher price tag and verification status.

According to internal correspondence and people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Verge, the plan is to raise the cost of Twitter Blue from $4.99 USD to $19.99 USD per month. (In Canada, Twitter nearly doubled the price of Blue to $6.49/mo in July — it’s not clear how much the new, more expensive Blue will cost in Canada, but $19.99 USD is about $27.34 CAD.)

Beyond the price increase, the new Blue subscription would include verification. Currently, verified Twitter users (shown with a blue check mark) must get verification by applying for it. Verification is intended as a tool for authenticating accounts that are of public interest, such as accounts for political leaders, journalists, and celebrities. Under the new verification system tied to Blue, currently verified Twitter users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark.

The Verge also reported that Musk gave Twitter employees an ultimatum: meet his deadline to introduce paid verification or leave the company. Musk reportedly has Twitter employees working late into the night and over the weekend while managers are drawing up lists of people to fire. Employees working on paid verification were given a deadline of November 7th to launch or be fired.

Considering Blue wasn’t worth the cost at $6.49, raising the price significantly and only adding verification as a benefit seems like a poor choice. Moreover, the implementation may harm the verification status if anyone can just pay for a blue check.

Blue’s other features include the ability to edit tweets, as well as access to ad-free articles from some publishers, customizations in the app and more. However, Musk apparently wants to grow subscriptions to become half of Twitter’s overall revenue — forcing people who need a verification badge to pay for it is certainly one way to push that agenda.

Of course, if you’d rather not deal with Twitter under Musk, there are some people who have jumped ship to other platforms like Mastodon — learn more here.

Source: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Apple jacks up iPad prices heading into the holidays

Apple announced several new iPad models on October 18th. But while those stole the headlines, the company also quietly updated iPad pricing, raising costs across the board in Canada.

The keen eyes at iPhone in Canada spotted the price increases, which range from $20 to as much as $200. First, Apple appears to have raised the price for its newest iPad Pro compared to previous models (which are no longer available unless you can find a refurbished one):

  • 11-inch M2 iPad Pro (2022)

    • 128GB: $1,099, up from $999
    • 256GB: $1,229, up from $1,129
    • 512GB: $1,499, up from $1,379
    • 1TB: $2,039, up from $1,879
    • 2TB: $2,579, up from $2,379

  • 12.9-inch M2 iPad Pro (2022)

    • 128GB: $1,499, up from $1,399
    • 256GB: $1,629, up from $1,529
    • 512GB: $1,899, up from $1,779
    • 1TB: $2,439, up from $2,279
    • 2TB: $2,979, up from $2,779
  • It’s another $200 on top of the above for the cellular models.

That’s not all. Apple announced a new version of its entry-level iPad, which has long been the budget iPad option. The new 10th-gen iPad starts at $599, which is about $170 more than the 9th-gen iPad. Worse, the 9th-gen iPad is still available from Apple but now starts at $449 instead of the previous $429 price.

Along with the entry-level iPad, Apple upped the price of several other iPad models, including:

The price updates are certainly a bummer, although it remains unclear why exactly the prices went up. Likely, it relates to inflation, supply chain issues, and other economic stresses. Either way, it sucks for Canadians who might plan on picking up an iPad during the holiday season.

Via: iPhone in Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Nothing to increase price of Ear (1) earbuds later this month

London-based tech company Nothing will increase the price of its Ear (1) true wireless earbuds on October 26 by about 50 percent.

The news comes from Nothing CEO Carl Pei, who tweeted that the Ear (1) price would climb to $149 USD on the 26th. That’s a 50 percent increase over the current $99 price for the Ear (1) buds in the U.S. Although Pei didn’t say what the Canadian price would be, assuming a similar 50 percent increase, the Ear (1) buds would jump from $129 to about $193 in Canada.

In follow-up tweets, Pei justified the price increase by pointing to Nothing’s growth. The company expanded from its initial three engineers to 185. Moreover, Pei tweeted that the “Ear (1) has received 15 firmware and tuning updates, and is a completely different product” compared to when it launched.

Pei also noted that Nothing has sold almost 600,000 units of the Ear (1) and that the product enabled it to launch the Phone (1).

The Verge points out that global inflation may also play a role in this change. The publication points to the pound’s slump in value as a potential motive for Nothing to increase the price of the Ear (1) buds.

Given that many reviews pointed to the Ear (1) buds’ value as a major selling point, the price increase may deter future sales. At $129, the Ear (1) buds were competitive, but if you need to shell out almost $200, other options become more appealing (like the third-gen AirPods for about $30 more). With that said, if you were thinking about picking up a pair of Ear (1) buds, you should probably do so before October 26th.

Source: @getpeid Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Nintendo has no plans to increase Switch cost amid PS5 price hike

On the heels of Sony’s completely necessary PlayStation 5 price hike, Canadians wondered if other consoles would be next. Microsoft indicated it didn’t plan to change the price of the Xbox Series X or S, and now Nintendo has said it doesn’t plan to raise the price of the Switch.

Nintendo’s U.K. arm reiterated in a statement to Video Games Chronicle (VGC) that its existing plan to maintain Switch prices was still in effect:

“As our president Mr Furukawa stated at the 82nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in June:

“‘While we cannot comment on pricing strategies, we currently do not have any plans to change the price of our hardware due to inflation or increased procurement costs in each country. We will determine our future pricing strategies through careful and continued deliberations.’

“While the final price to consumers is always determined by retailers, as Mr Furukawa stated, Nintendo has no plans to increase the trade price of its hardware.”

Moreover, MobileSyrup reported earlier this month that Nintendo had no plans to raise the price of the Switch because the company wanted to “avoid pricing people out.”

So, that leaves Sony as the only major console maker currently jacking prices — something it calls “a necessity.”

Source: VGC

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Mobile Syrup

Sony ups price of PS5 in Canada due to inflation

Sony says it’s raising the price of the PlayStation 5 in Canada and other countries due to the “global economic environment, including high inflation rates.”

A blog post from Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan outlined the price changes in several countries, which are “a necessity” and “effective immediately.” Canada will see the PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive increase to $649.99 and the PS5 Digital Edition increase to $519.99. Per Canadian game deals Twitter account Lbabinz, the consoles’ prices were previously $629.99 and $499.99, respectively.

Ryan attributed the change to inflation and adverse currency trends, writing:

“The global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing. We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries. Based on these challenging economic conditions, SIE has made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price (RRP) of PlayStation 5 in select markets.”

The U.S. will not see a price increase for the PS5.

You can read the full blog post here.

Source: Sony Via: @Lbabinz

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter thinks users would willingly pay almost double for undo send

Over the last few days, Twitter has emailed customers of its ‘Blue‘ subscription warning of an impending price hike — in Canada, the price is nearly doubling from $3.49/mo to $6.49/mo.

New subscribers will pay the higher price from the start, while existing users won’t see the increase until October. Several countries will see the increase, including the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, although prices differ between them.

Users were quick to criticize Twitter over the price increase, largely over the lack of value for the money. As a quick rundown, here are some of the features you get with Twitter Blue:

  • An ‘undo send’ feature (a.k.a. a band-aid solution for the much-maligned lack of an edit button)
  • Custom icons and navigation bar
  • The ability to set a JPEG you paid way too much for NFT as your profile picture
  • Ad-free articles (within the Twitter Blue Publisher network)
  • A ‘Reader Mode’ for long tweet threads
  • Folders for bookmarked tweets (imagine saving tweets, let alone so many you need to organize them?)
  • Labs for early access to new features (like the aforementioned NFT profile pic)

Not sure about you, but $3.49 seemed like a stretch for most of these features. The only semi-useful feature is ‘undo send,’ and even that’s a tough sell — it’s just a streamlined version of the current solution for fixing tweets, which is tapping the delete button and typing it again.

“At launch, we felt strongly about keeping the cost of the subscription as low as possible while we tested, learned, and gathered feedback. We’ve since refined the vision for this product, conducted significant research, introduced new enhancements with more in development, and as such we are updating pricing,” a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.

Maybe these “in development” enhancements will make the $6.49 price worthwhile, but as is, Blue is a collection of features that arguably should be part of the default Twitter experience. Well, except the NFT profile pics — those alone should cost money because it’s incredibly funny that people would pay for the digital equivalent of having a ‘kick me’ sign taped to their back.

Source: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

Bell to increase cost of international roaming plan come May 12

Bell is increasing the cost of its international roaming plan by $1.

The plan covers over 200 destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico, Central and South America, Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Middle East.

The change will take effect May 12 and applies to both the home data and 500MB option. The cost will increase from $14 a day to $15.

The U.S. plan will not see an increase, and still includes coverage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Island and costs $10 a day,

Bell’s two 500MB roaming plans. Image credit: Bell

Both roaming plans include unlimited outgoing calls from roaming destinations to Canada, incoming calls, and texts.

MobileSyrup has asked Bell why it’s increasing the cost of the international roaming plan and will provide an update once available.

This isn’t the only wireless plan Bell has upped the cost for. Earlier this month, it increased the cost of its 45GB plan from $90 a month to $95. 

Source: Bell