[BGY11]

Toronto, ON – July 28, 2010 – chatr wireless today announced its entry into the Canadian market offering Canadians unlimited talk and text on a trusted network. chatr will offer cost certainty with zone-based plans including unlimited talk for just $35 per month and unlimited talk and text for just $45 per month, without term contracts. The service will be available in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and soon in Montreal with future plans for other Canadian markets.

Main site with phones & plans is here:
http://www.chatrwireless.com/

 

[BGY11]

One oddity I noticed so far: Their "unlimited" calling plan ($35/month) also costs 25 cents per minute to retrieve voicemail? That's a new one.

 

[recneps77]

Can't believe this has gone so far.
It's clearly predatory pricing, yet nothing has been done? Not even the competition bureau saying "we'll look at it?"

 

[BGY11]

Looks like the main difference between Wind is that voicemail is "included" in the $35/month plan.

I love one of the promos Wind is using right now: "They chatter, we listen"

 

[TorontoColin]

Wind's $35 plan doesn't include voicemail, that's Mobilicity.

To me the big difference is that Wind offers data options. Plus I'm a little annoyed that Rogers would so obviously target the new providers. Their plans are almost a carbon copy of Wind.

 

[BGY11]

Well now that I read back my post, I see how confusing it was. I meant to say that the main difference between Wind & Chatr is that voicemail is "included" in the Chatr plan (I put quotes in there because you do pay a bit to retrieve messages).

I sure hope Wind and the others can survive the Rogers juggernaut here.

 

[jshel101]

IMHO, Wind should merge with Mobilicity, or buy them out. I think that will be the only way that they can beat Rogers. Wind should also bring in a lot more phones ASAP, including some high end smart phones to take advantage of their unlimited data service.

I hope Mobilicity will be successful in their court case against Rogers, and the competition bureau does something about it. It is really obvious what Rogers is doing. They launch in just cities that Wind operates in, and that Mobilicity will operate in the future, and offer the exact same two plans that Wind has. This is not competitive, it is trying to drive out the smaller players. If they succeed, how long do you think that Chatr will be in business for? Rogers will close them up since there will be no competition anymore. Then they will probably raise their rates to try and recoup the money Chatr lost.

 

[outinthornhill]

It's difficult to understand the people who say chat-r is s copy of Wind and Mobilicity and then put chat-r down for not having data.

When the chat-r website went live yesterday morning there was a note in the FAQ section that data would be coming in the future (can't remember if it said "soon"). By late afternoon, the FAQ had been re-written to say chat-r does not offer data because the goal is to serve subscribers with basic voice and text needs. I would have to interpret that change to mean data is not on the near horizon, although anything could happen in 6, 12, 24 months. Who thought Rogers Communications would launch a discount brand two months ago.

I would guess chat-r thought its $35 voice mail plan (free to deposit, 25-cents to retrieve) would look better than Mobilicity's strategy of forcing user to upgrade to get VM. Chat-r may be reconsidering the 25-cent fee now. The next few weeks will tell.

Wind and Mobilicity are at a big disadvantage when it comes to phone models. The market/demand for AWS phones is just too small, in relative terms, to motivate the manufacturers to roll out a lot of phones for them. This may change but not anytime soon.

 

[TooSmooth]

I hope chatr fails, rogers is trying to become monopoly, fido is fine enough for cheap plans..

 

[Arthur Dent]

It's difficult to understand the people who say chat-r is s copy of Wind and Mobilicity and then put chat-r down for not having data.

When the chat-r website went live yesterday morning there was a note in the FAQ section that data would be coming in the future (can't remember if it said "soon"). By late afternoon, the FAQ had been re-written to say chat-r does not offer data because the goal is to serve subscribers with basic voice and text needs. I would have to interpret that change to mean data is not on the near horizon, ...

Whatever the FAQ says, the only purpose of Chatr is to kill the new entrants. I can't believe they dared to launch such an unlawful action in such an open and shameless manner, I guess they want to test Canada's anti-monopoly legislation.
As for data and voice mail and other changes - their strategy is more than obvious too. If Wind and Mobilicity still exist, and the courts haven't shut Chatr yet, they will add data. If the mission is accomplished before that, they won't bother. With or without court order, Chatr will disappear very soon, or its customers will be forced to accept the same Rogers rates - Rogers have already done that with Fido, they know the drill.