Hi everybody,

Need advice from smart people.
Everybody in the house has Rogers mobile for years now. My phone is iPhone and plan: 200 min (20.00), 6GB (30.00), smart phone essentials (15.00), system (6.95), 911 (0.50) + taxes.
* I use about 70-90 minutes and 100 TXT.
* Bills for 4 of us range from 350 to 600 dollars which I find crazy.
* We use 2 iPhones (me and son) and 2 Blackberry Curves (wife and daughter).

Everybody loves their phones but this is getting out of control. Yearly bill is like 5000 bucks. Has to stop now!
I was hoping that somebody else will show up with GSM service but it looks like even those new, low cost, no frills providers are all stuck on CDMA (??) while whole World is GSM.
Anyway, I am looking at Koodoo. Their pay as you go and plans are really affordable and easy to manage yourself on the WEB. I am thinking about canceling whole service with Rogers and taking LG Slyde phones (TXT!) and take 20-25 bucks plans. That cuts costs by factor of 3 or 4.

What do you think? Any suggestions are welcomed!

Regards,
Zack

None of the new providers will be CDMA...even Koodoo is migrating away from it in the near term.

Thanks for input. I looked at ABOUT and they are mentioning CDMA there only. What they will switch to? When?

Have you considered what the cancellation penalties will be if you cancel all 4 phones?

All carriers will eventually migrate toward LTE. It's a bigger migration for Telus/Koodoo, and Bell/Solo/Virgin, than it will be for Rogers/Fido.

If you can hold out for a couple of more months, the path and your options may become alot more clear. With the introduction of 3 new wireless providers on the horizon, and with Bell/Telus on the verge of launching their new combined network in time for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (of which BELL is a MAJOR contributor and sponsor), things are about to change drastically in the Canadian cellphone market reason being the last thing Bell & Telus want to see is all those foreign phones coming to Canada roaming on Rogers network.

I'd hate to see anyone get sucked into yet another long-term fixed rate contract based on the rates and trends of today. Competition is looking to heat up, a slew of new phones are about to be released, Telus is already starting to distribute SIM cards for some of their House and Discount Brand (IE: KooDoo) phones. There's even rumors floating around that the Iphone will finally be available through Telus very soon.

What is LTE?
Yes, I would have to cancel all 4 phones. Rogers will freak out on me and charge arms and legs. I don't have a clue how much, have to call them up.

I looked up Telus and Bell yesterday and they are as expensive as Rogers is. So far only Virgin and Koodoo are in reasonable levels. Koodoo has 20/25 bucks plan to start with, unlimited TXT and that would be fine with me. However, at this time they are still CMDA.
I saw in daily papers that new providers will startup phone companies but nothing is out there yet.
OK, I should listen to you (Stilgar, cdn_tbird) and wait another 3-4 months and make my move then. I love our phones and will probably unlock them so i can take it to new provider and keep the phone and keep the number. Checked the Koodoo and I can keep the numbers which is another plus.

Hi there,

Looking around to change provider and just found out happy news how much Rogers charges for cancelation of the phone contract. I have 4 phones that expire sometimes in mid 2011.
Rogers wants 20 dollars per month per phone (almost 2000 dollars in my case.
They want 100 bucks if I cancel data service on my phone.

Anybody has any experience to add?

The ECF (Early Cancellation Fee) is a standard fee that all wireless providers charge and is clearly stipulated when you sign the contract. It shouldn't be a surprise if you read the agreement when you signed the contracts.

Dude, your cancellation is $400 for the phone/phone plan, 100 for the data plan, and if you have bundled, $100 dollars for each phone ... so that all adds up to 600 a phone and $2400 for all four of you. I am a VERY DISGRUNTALLED Rogers customer, sick of getting screwed over for everything! I will soon be leaving them!!! I am now out of contract and starting to look at plans, so far for me ... BELL is the direction I am looking. For my needs seems to be the cheapest, bell has decent plans right now! Hoping they get better before I jump!!!:o

What is LTE?

LTE is the next evolution from the current GSM / HSPA network. It will be backwards compatible with current Rogers / Fido phones, however you won't get the full benefit with current phones. Both Bell & Telus (and their discount brands) need to migrate from their current network to HSPA first. They are already building the network, and will eventually stop selling CDMA phones.

cdn_tbird: thank you for explanation. That tells me to wait a bit to see what will future bring next.

randdon: 100 bucks penalty is if I want to drop data plan only, 20 bucks a month for remainder of contract is if I cancel whole plan. Yesterday i spent some time reducing a plan and only thing I managed is to drop to 5.00 from 15.00 for TXT add on and to 25.00 from 30.00 for data plan.

I also read article in paper saying that Canada and USA (being a bit better) is paying highest cell phone usage fees in the world. What kills me the most is that freaking 3 year plan so you can't switch providers easily and without paying exorbitant fees.

ZackP:

Signing a plan with one provider is all about not switching to another provider when you feel like it, hence the word CONTRACT.

I'm not defending Rogers or other Wireless providers, but if you took advantage of a 3-year plan on sign up (reduced phone price) and then complain about it when you want to get out of it seems rather silly. Again, you should have known what you were agreeing on when you signed. Perhaps you should have considered the advantages and disadvantages of what the contract entailed at the outset, rather than looking at the initial cost savings.

And the reason Canada and US have higher cell phone usage fees is because conversely, we have a much a better land-line infrastructure in comparison to other countries. Hence the other countries were able to build and provide a newer/faster/cheaper wireless cell phone network (that covered significantly less geographical areas) to meet their modern telecom needs.

My point is that I paid 199.00 dollars for the phone taking it and by paying about 70-79 dollars a month I believe I paid and overpaid a cost of phone by factor of 2 or 3. 70 dollars per month works out to be 1260 dollars in 18 months + 200 initially comes to 1460.00.
It was actually much, much more. Every TXT from from USA is about 0.60, every minute about 1.20, for that matter more of any service gets charged arms and legs.

Low cost no frills carriers are proof that it doesn't have to be like that.

No, I don't work for Rogers, although it's quite comical to be accused of such just because I'm pointing out a policy that ALL the other wireless providers stipulate, i.e.: the ECF.

Again, seems to me that you're complaining about high usage fees AFTER you signed an agreement with the wireless provider.

True, Koodo, Virgin, Fido operate at lower initial cost, so the question that begs to be asked is, why didn't you sign with one of them in the first place?

ZackP, its clear that you didn't understand what you were getting into when you signed a contract with Rogers. You shouldn't be taking cheap shots at other members for your failure to read the rules of the contract you signed.

Paying a penalty for breaking a contract is standard business practice in every industry so being rude to someone who points that out is immature.

I am closing this thread because its going nowhere and we really don't need flames here.