Tag: speed caps

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Rogers rolls out ‘5G+’ branding, caps data speeds at 250Mbps or 1Gbps

Toronto-based national carrier Rogers made some updates to its ‘Infinite’ plans, adding new 5G+ branding and speed caps.

The Rogers website now lists the various ‘Infinite‘ plans as having “access to [the] 5G/5G+ network” (spotted by iPhone in Canada). However, it’s not immediately clear what 5G+ means in this case, although presumably, Rogers is referring to 3,500MHz spectrum the company started rolling out in June. MobileSyrup has reached out to Rogers for clarification.

Both Telus and Bell have added similar branding. Bell announced its 3,500MHz spectrum rollout under the 5G+ branding, while Telus has used the ‘+’ sign to differentiate between tiers of its ‘Unlimited 5G’ plans. In Telus’ case, the 5G+ branding doesn’t appear connected to 3,500MHz spectrum.

Rogers is also jumping on the speed cap bandwagon, locking its $85/mo ‘Infinite Essential’ 25GB plan to a maximum speed of 250Mbps, and its other Infinite plans to a maximum speed of 1Gbps. The ‘Infinite Lite’ plan for additional lines is also capped at 250Mbps.

Rogers Infinite plans with 5G+ branding and speed caps.

Frankly, it’s surprising Rogers waited so long to do this. Telus added speed caps back in February, and Bell did the same in April. Even Rogers’ own flanker brand, Fido, beat it to the punch with speed caps in June.

MobileSyrup also asked Rogers why it made the switch to capping mobile speeds. This article will be updated with any additional details the carrier provides.

Speed caps are a frustrating new restriction on mobile customers

Speed caps mark a fairly significant shift for mobile data, which for years in Canada has been offered with restrictions on the amount of data customers could use each month, not how fast it was. Instead, data was served at effectively the fastest speed available based on network conditions and other factors.

Now, that’s flipping — at least, it is with the Big Three who offer “unlimited” plans. Rogers, Bell, and Telus all have plans that let people use as much data as they want, although the carriers throttle speed at a certain point. With the addition of speed caps, the carriers now restrict data speeds at all times and the restrictions still become more severe after a certain amount of use. That squeezes customers at both ends, and I don’t see mobile data moving entirely to a speed-based system like home internet, where most plans offer unlimited use with different tiers of speed.

The change is even more frustrating at the flanker brands, which still have hard caps on monthly usage as well as lower maximum speeds.

Sure, 1Gbps is likely more than fast enough for your mobile internet needs. Heck, 250Mbps is probably overkill for most people too. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Big Three all now offer plans with worse value than before, for the same price as before.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Bell adds speed caps on its two cheapest wireless plans

Bell has added speed caps on its ‘Essential’ and ‘Lite’ wireless plans, as pointed out by a MobileSyrup reader.

The telecom company confirmed to MobileSyrup that the change was made on April 13th and applies to new customers.

The ‘Lite’ wireless plan costs $55 a month and offers 10GB of data with speeds now capped at 150 Mbps on a 4G network.

The ‘Essential’ plan has 25GB of data for $85 a month. It offers access to their 5G network but it’s important to note this is not the fastest service Bell has to offer. The 25GB plan is only available at speeds up to 250Mbps.

In comparison, Bell lists data access for its ‘Ultimate’ and ‘Ultimate 50’ plans “on their fastest available 5G speeds.” This text is not available under the ‘Essential’ plan.

A similar change was also made on Bell flanker brand Virgin Plus. Their bring your own phone plans have long offered services at 4G speeds. But that service is now capped at speeds up to 150 Mbps.

Bell is following in the footsteps of Telus. The company added speed caps of 250Mbps and 1Gbps on its mobile plans in February. 

Thanks James

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Telus adds speed caps of 250Mbps and 1Gbps to its mobile plans

Vancouver-based national telecom Telus has added speed caps to its “unlimited” data plans.

According to the details listed on Telus’ website, the carrier’s three primary plans cap speeds at 250 megabits per second (Mbps) or 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). These speed caps differ from the reduced speed Telus applies to customers who go over their data limits.

The carriers plans, at the time of writing, remained unchanged:

  • ‘Unlimited 20 5G’ – $80/mo 20GB (250Mbps speed cap)
  • ‘Unlimited 40 5G+’ – $90/mo 40GB (1Gbps speed cap)
  • Unlimited 50 5G+’ – $100/mo 50GB and Canada-U.S. talk and text (1Gbps speed cap)

These speed caps apply to customers’ data buckets — once you go over that allotment, Telus will still throttle speeds to a maximum of up to 512Kbps as before.

Considering Canada’s ‘Big Three’ carriers tend to copy each other, Telus’ addition of speed caps is rather concerning. That said, it’s worth noting that as of publication, Rogers and Bell still only applied the 512Kbps speed cap to data beyond the plan’s bucket. Moreover, it’s frustrating to see yet another restriction applied to what are already some of the most expensive mobile plans in the world.

There are ways carriers could add speed caps that might be good. For example, a system similar to home internet where customers pay based on speed but have unlimited usage could appeal to some users. Alternatively, offering speed-capped plans with a discount may also be an option. But applying speed caps to already-limited (and incredibly expensive) data buckets isn’t acceptable.

Not to mention that 5G in Canada remains sub-par. Since I switched to 5G, I haven’t seen mobile speeds exceed about 150Mbps on my phone — on my old LTE plan, I frequently saw speeds as high as 300Mbps.

Source: Telus