Cellular Telephone Plans Compared
When I purchased my very first cellular telephone, I found myself among a select club of early adopters who were regarded by those not so equipped as necessarily well to do – most probably enjoying some fabulous lifestyle which involved jetting around the globe, brokering deals with oil barons and the like. While status was not the reason behind my technology acquisition (I just love cool gadgets) it became readily apparent that people viewed me differently when I toted my new toy around. The fact that in the early 90's I was modestly employed and living beyond my means would probably not have occurred to them.
I took my phone everywhere; being universally accessible was in fact a point of pride for me. I left it on 24 hours a day, closed business deals while in my kayak and even answered it if I was in the shower. The problem was that if people knew you would answer, they would call; regardless of whether it was 3am and they happened to be intoxicated or not.
14 years and 6 handsets later, after finally becoming frustrated with the expense and seemingly everyone on the planet having access to my cell number (including a battalion of telephone solicitors), I decided to cancel my service. I figured if it was that important to get ‘hold of me, they'd just leave a message.
For a while it was bliss... no more anxiety over battery life and coverage areas, no more rude awakenings, no more replacing ‘defective' handsets that had in actuality met with kayak related aquatic misadventure. The world was my oyster.
In the interim however, the communications landscape had changed without me having been aware of the shift. Now when people asked you for your contact details they automatically assumed your mobile number would be included. When you informed them of the fact that you didn't have a cell phone, they would look at you as though you had two heads. It had become tantamount to saying "Terribly sorry, I seem to have left my pants at home".
This was, though somewhat irritating, ultimately ok with me; that is, until my car broke down on the freeway, in a traffic jam, a heat wave and, as good fortune would have it, the fast lane. Suddenly my CAA card didn't seem particularly valuable, save as a fan. Waving it about on the side of the road however would have certainly elicited some attention – though most probably not of the variety I was at the moment interested in.
So, after a year of being phoneless, my resolve had finally broken and I determined to acquire a new mobile handset. My criteria was as follows:
- The plan had to be inexpensive;
- The coverage must be excellent;
- The phone had to be cool.
As this is the ‘Back to School' issue, I polled some students to discover what was important to them in a cell phone only to find it interesting that the above (though with less emphasis on number 2) meshed exactly with their requirements.
In my research I discovered that unfortunately there are such a dizzying array of rate plans available, they defy adequate comparison – which I believe is done by design. Eventually however, I did come to understand that to reduce my monthly charges to a minimum, the best deals were to be had in the ‘Pay as You Go' plans now offered by every service provider. I decided to use the one measure they all had in common to gain perspective upon which to base my decision: the flat rate ‘anytime' per minute charge. My findings were as follows:
Cellular Provider |
Pay as You Go Anytime Per Minute Rate |
Days Before Expiry |
Minimum Purchase for this Plan |
Bell Mobility |
$0.35 |
60 Days |
$25.00 |
Rogers Wireless |
$0.33 |
30 Days |
$10.00 |
Telus |
$0.33 |
60 Days |
$25.00 |
Fido |
$0.15 |
60 Days |
$30.00 |
Virgin Mobile |
$0.20 |
120 Days |
$25.00 |
Given my coverage requirement and the fact that Virgin Mobile is only available in select cities, my choice from a pricing perspective became obvious. It worked out that with Fido, instead of paying an average minimum monthly charge of around $30.00 when all is said and done on a contract plan, I could stretch that exact sum over two months – doubling my value for money. Sure, I wouldn't get as many monthly minutes – but who needs to take on average more than 6 one minute cell calls every single day? Not me. Even if I were to burn through 200 minutes in a month, that would still leave me at the same pricing threshold as the contract plans, and I could top my account up with minutes any time over the ‘net. I also wasn't about to be fooled by ‘cheap' phones included in monthly plans as my first year savings in aggregate would more than pay the full cost of the handset – everything else was gravy.
Next on my list was coverage. Rogers Wireless has the largest integrated voice and data network in Canada with Bell running a close second. Telus on the other hand has fairly impressive coverage too, but depends on analogue service for a substantial portion of it. Fido, having just announced an arrangement which allows their customers to access the Rogers cellular network, and the fact that their GSM service is available in over 165 countries is now also among the largest. With this fact, when combined with the pricing structure above, the nod again went to Fido.
Finally, I wanted something that was cool – a phone with at a minimum a camera, Bluetooth (so that it could interact with my Palm PDA and support wireless headsets), colour screen, Internet access, text messaging and infra red (to connect to my notebook)... and I didn't want to pay more than around $300.00. While each cellular provider indeed has devices that meet these requirements, none save Rogers and Fido were also able to meet my pricing criteria. The top contenders were the Nokia 6620 available from Rogers at $304.00 with no monthly plan and the Sony Ericsson T610 from Fido for $300.00. Both of these phones had everything I wanted, yet the Nokia had a better screen resolution (176x208 vs.128x160), the ability to play MP3s and higher camera resolution as well (640x480 vs. 288x352) The T610 is on the other hand a little smaller.
As my PDA already allows me to play MP3s and I have a Nikon D50 digital camera should I wish to take a decent photo, these differences when added to the plus column for Rogers did not tip the scales in their favour when contrasted with Fido's stronger pricing scheme. In the end I went with Fido and the T610.
Final impressions? Alas, as always, the devil is in the details. I am not often foiled by fine print, but in this case, it seems I was. Fido's much vaunted expanded network and per second billing are only available to those on a monthly contract – and the former at a premium of $5.00 per month. Still, I am happy with my acquisition and it's very cool to be able to surf the ‘net on my PDA or transfer photos wirelessly from my phone via Bluetooth.
Fido does make it quite painless to transfer over to a contract (what a surprise) and their terms are among the most reasonable in the business. Resistance, it seems, may be indeed futile – but I haven't given up yet!
Article originally published in HUB magazine Connected column, August, 2005, by columnist Ray Richards.
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Article Index
- Digital New Year's Resolutions - January 2009
- Networking Basics - June 1996
- Networking Basics Part 2 - July 1996
- The Media PC - April 2005
- WiMax - Metropolitan Networks - May 2005
- Digital Rights Management - June 2005
- Digital Rights Management - Part 2 - July 2005
- Adobe Creative Suite 2 Review - August 2005
- Windows Rant, Alpha Rave - August 1998
- DEC AlphaServer Lineup - August 1998
- The Year in Retrospect, 1996-1997 - August 1997
- Bluetooth & Wireless Networking - Nov. 2000
- How to Win Government Contracts - Oct. 1999
- Mobile Phone Plans Comaprison - August 2005
- Clones Versus Brand Name PCs - June 1998
- Adobe Illustrator vs. Corel Draw - March 2000
- Illustrator vs. Draw - Part 2 - March 2000
- The Death of Customer Service - August 2000
- Customer Service Solutions - September 2001
- Data To Diamonds - February 1998
- Data To Diamonds - Part 2 - March 1998
- The End of the Internet? - December 2000
- Your Digital Legacy - March 2008
- Disaster Recovery Planning - September 1997
- Threat and Risk Assessments - October 1997
- Dr. Jeff Williams Interview - November 1997
- Jeff Williams Interview - Part 2 - December 1997
- Magma's Data Center - October 2000
- Magma's ADSL Service Interview - January 1999
- Magma's ADSL Interview - Part 2 - January 1999
- Distributed Computing - September 2001
- Distributed Computing - Part 2 - October 2001
- Gaining Internet Exposure - Part 2 - May 1999
- Enterprise Resource Planning - October 1998
- Powering ERP Applications - April 1999
- Flash Versus LiveMotion - April 2001
- FreeBalance Financials - March 1999
- Globalization - May 2001
- Barriers and Benefits of Globalization - June 2001
- Google Desktop Review - May 2006
- Graphic Design Fundamentals - February 2000
- IBM Plant & Headquarters Tour - January 1997
- IM's Effect on Society & Culture - September 2005
- Compaq Servers Review - May 1998
- Citrix Winframe Review - May 1997
- Smart Cards Overview - July 1997
- Online Anonymity - October 2008
- An Introduction to Java - December 1996
- ERP: PeopleSoft - December 1998
- Photopaint vs. Photoshop - May 2000
- Photopaint vs. Photoshop - Part 2 - June 2000
- Starting a Small Business - Admin - July 1999
- SOHO Accounting Software - August 1999
- Accpac, Simply Accounting Review - October 1999
- Rogers Rant, Quickbooks Rave - November 1999
- Intuit Quickbooks Pro Review - December 1999
- Quickbooks Pro Review - Part 2 - January 2000
- SAP R/3 Review - November 1998
- How Standards Affect Everything - March 2001
- Teleworking - Your Office at Home - April 1998
- The Ultimate Office - February 2008
- Unicenter TNG - June 1997
- Virtual Private Networking - November 1998
- Web 3.0, The Semantic Web - July 2008
- Basic Web Design Principles - February 1999
- Women in High Tech - September 1995
- Windows Driver Nightmares - January 2001
- Post Y2K Commentary - February 2001
- Bored With Technology - July 2001