Rogers, Telus and Bell have all put out new low-cost and occasional-use wireless plans in compliance with a CRTC directive to do so by today.
The directive was part of the outcome of the CRTC’s recent review of mobile wireless services and required each of the three national companies to provide customers with three new low-cost mobile plan options.
The Commission mandate says the carriers must include unlimited Canada-wide calling, unlimited text messaging, and a minimum of 3 GB of data. Fido (owned by Rogers), Koodo (owned by Telus) and Virgin (owned by Bell), are all offering such low-cost plans for $35/month. Sasktel was also given the same mandate and has launched the plans, too.
The second type of plan the CRTC is requiring is a postpaid occasional-use plan, which must include at least 100 “anytime” minutes for outgoing Canada-wide calls, unlimited incoming calls, unlimited text messaging and at least 250 GB of data. Fido, Koodo and Virgin are all offering such plans for $15/month.
Finally, the CRTC is requiring the companies provide the option of a yearly prepaid occasional-use plan, which must include at least 400 “anytime” local minutes and at least 400 text messages (incoming or outgoing). Fido and Telus are both currently offering yearly prepaid plans. Bell is still working on putting out a yearly prepaid plan, a company spokesperson confirmed via email.
Where data is included as part of the new plans, all three companies are offering it at 3G speeds. The CRTC, in its decision indicated that this was appropriate because “While access to LTE has advantages, 3G speed does not prevent the user from navigating the web and using most applications. As such, plans limited to 3G speeds would generally well serve the segment of the population looking for lower-cost options. Therefore, 3G plans can be considered responsive to a consumer’s most significant needs.”
Plus, the brands already offer similar GB data plans at $45/month at 4G speeds – and so to prevent a potentially costly exodus of customers to the lower priced CRTC-mandated plans, making it slower, 3G-based, was likely the only way to differentiate it and try to prevent such revenue losses.
