[hugh]

New unlimited prepaid plans from Solo out today


The new plans are clearly an effort by Bell to stop the onslaught of Wind Mobile which now has over 100,000 customers.

Not surprisingly, the new plans are only available in the five cities where Wind Mobile is operating: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa. The plans are not availble in other major cities, such as Montreal, where Wind Mobile does not operate.

The new plans from Solo include: Unlimited Talk and Unlimited Talk and Text.

Unlimited talk is $35 a month and provides users with unlimited local calling and unlimited outgoing province-wide calling when dialing from inside your local calling area. Voicemail is $5 more per month.

Unlimited Talk & Text is $45 per month and provides users with unlimited local calling and unlimited outgoing Canada-wide calling when dialing from inside your local calling area, unlimited texting with Canada and the U.S. and voicemail.

 

[TorontoColin]

It's important to note that these plans are exclusive to Bell's CDMA network. In order to use one you must purchase a CDMA handset from Solo, you can't bring your own.

This is basically a clone of Rogers' Chatr. I'm curious to see Telus' response, if they have one.

 

[mr weather]

Unlimited texting or unlimited data. The former would be useless to me.

 

[BGY11]

It wouldn't be unlimited data. It's similar to Chatr and Wind's voice plans.

 

[mr weather]

Understood. Wind still offers unlimited data.

 

[outinthornhill]

It's important to note that these plans are exclusive to Bell's CDMA network. In order to use one you must purchase a CDMA handset from Solo, you can't bring your own.

This is basically a clone of Rogers' Chatr. I'm curious to see Telus' response, if they have one.

The plans are similar, with the exception of how they treat voice mail, but Solo will have a difficult time competing, at least among those who know a thing or two about phone hardware, selling only locked phones. One of the nice things about chat-r is being able o use any Rogers phone (apparently they don't have to be unlocked, although this may change) or any unlocked phone bought on-line, at an Asian mall, etc. Chat-r users can have both inexpensive rates and a fashionable phone and can take their phone with them when they travel outside Canada. Not so for Solo.

It's just my hunch, but I'm thinking people looking for an unlimited plan also tend to know more than the average customer about handsets.

 

[PFD]

Not sure if this has ever been updated or not. But I notice when I log into the "Selfserve Manage my account" on my solo phone, under Add A Feature-Internet and Email, it lists Unlimited Mobile Browser (TM) for $10.

The description says Access the internet on your phone. Surf the Web, get live news feeds, downlaod games, ringtones and screensavers, access personal email accounts and more."

Sounds like an unlimited data plan, no? I already pay $10 for 100mb, so I imagine this would be $10 on top of that. Anyone know?

 

[TorontoColin]

Unlimited mobile browsing will only give you WAP access, and probably only works on CDMA non-smartphones.