Tag: unlimited talk and text

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Mobile Syrup

It’s not just flanker brands — Rogers, Bell, Telus hiked talk and text plan prices too

Over the last week, MobileSyrup detailed how the Big Three flanker brands, Koodo, Fido and Virgin Plus, raised the cost of unlimited talk and text plans.

Well, they aren’t alone — the Big Three did too.

A tipster told MobileSyrup that Rogers would increase the cost of its talk and text plan from $33/mo to $35/mo on Friday — sure enough, the company’s website lists the plan at that price as of 11:13am ET on April 14th.

MobileSyrup also confirmed that Bell and Telus charge $35/mo for their unlimited talk and text plans, though it’s not clear when they made the change.

This is only the latest chapter in the saga of steadily increasing talk and text costs. Koodo, Fido and Virgin used to charge about $30/mo for unlimited talk and text. In August 2022, they briefly charged $27/mo as part of a promotion — since then, costs have steadily increased.

$30/mo was already arguably steep for a basic talk and text plan with no data, but $35/mo is just downright frustrating.

If you’re looking for a talk and text plan, avoid the Big Three and their flanker brands — you can get a plan with unlimited talk and text and usually about 1GB of data for about $25/mo from other providers, including Freedom Mobile, Public Mobile, Lucky Mobile and Chatr Mobile.

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Mobile Syrup

Virgin Plus increases unlimited talk and text plan to $34/mo

Bell flanker brand Virgin Plus increased the price of its basic unlimited talk and text plan by $1/mo again, roughly three months after the last price increase.

Virgin’s website now lists the unlimited talk and text plan as $34/mo. The plan doesn’t include data, which means any data use gets billed at the pay-per-use rate (which costs an absurd $20 per gigabyte up to 8GB — $160 total — followed by $0.02 per megabyte thereafter, which still works out to about $20 per gigabyte). It’s worth noting that Virgin’s data overage rate increased last month.

Back in January, Virgin and Telus flanker Koodo increased the cost of their unlimited talk and text plans to $33/mo. In January 2022, the plans cost $30/mo. There was a brief period in August 2022 when Virgin, Koodo, and Rogers flanker Fido lowered the cost to $27/mo — something approaching fair for a talk and text plan — but that was short-lived.

Virgin Plus talk and text plan as of April 10th, 2023

At the time of publication, only Virgin had increased the talk and text plan to $34. Koodo still offered the plan for $33 at the time of publication. Fido, on the other hand, charges $38 for the plan but markets it as a $33 plan because of the $5/mo automatic payments discount. Fido added the auto pay discount in January, but instead of offering the discount on existing prices, it increased every plan by $5/mo so that customers need to choose automatic payments to get the same pricing as before the discount was offered.

Canadians in the market for an unlimited talk and text plan should definitely look elsewhere. Lucky Mobile, Public Mobile and Chatr Mobile all offer a $25/mo plan with 1GB of 3G data and unlimited talk and text. Freedom Mobile also has a $25/mo plan with 1GB of LTE data and unlimited talk and text. And that’s just a few of the options out there.

Source: Virgin Plus

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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.