Originally Posted by meagankathry

I've been with Bell for like 4 years now, and I haven't had any problems whatsoever with them.
Some of my friends are with Rogers, and have had quite a few problems, unfortunately.
In my opinion, I wouldn't go with Koodo or Wind only because they are such new mobile phone companies, it's hard to actually trust them.. while with Bell, or even Rogers, they've been around for so long... and there has to be a good reason for it.

Trust them? Koodo is owned by Telus.

Lol, yeah Koodo is owned by Telus.. WIND and Mobilicity are the only standalone ones

Originally Posted by blackdragon

Lol, yeah Koodo is owned by Telus.. WIND and Mobilicity are the only standalone ones

And Public

How has nobody mentioned Virgin? I've been with Bell before and they're terrible. I know Virgin is owned by Bell but oddly enough I have found them to be amazing. Great packages, great phones, great customer service. They really target the student age group which I like, and they are available in Hamilton. Check them out!

Thanks for the all the input. WIND looks pretty good but my hometown doesn't lie in their "WIND zone" so I'll have to see. I'm going out later to see the different companies. Thanks again for all the comments.

If your living in hamilton, just get WIND for the school year

From my experience, Roger is more expensive than Bell, but it has better service (ie. you can make a phone call in the basement of TSH and your texts will be sent within a few minutes). It depends what you're looking for. If you don't mind less than perfect service, I'd go with Bell, it's usually cheaper.

I had Rogers --> too expensive, so I switched to Telus --> phone service and customer service was painfully awful, so I switched to Bell --> phone broke early into contract and they weren't helpful, so I switched back to Rogers --> which is a little expensive but I'm happy.

My boyfriend has Virgin, and he's happy with the service. It's a little pricey, maybe on the same level as Bell. My sister has WIND and she's loves it. She gets like 50 minutes talk time and 50 texts for $7 a month, or something equally ridiculous.

If you're interested in Bell, a friend of mine actually has a Blackberry contract she wants someone to take over for her. It's approx. $65/mth for fave 10 (incl. long distance), free MSN messenger and e-mail. There's probably some other details I'm missing but that's basically it in a nutshell. I would be wary with both Rogers and Bell though because sometimes they like to sneak in extra charges, or provide less-than-stellar customer service.

Personally, I switched to WIND from Virgin (Bell) back in March because their rates are decent ($15/mth for 100 mins, 50 outgoing texts, free caller ID and province-wide local calling) and they had a switch-over bonus of $150 credit to your account xD

Basically, if you bring a number over to WIND now, you can get a phone for free (or $150 off their Blackberry), plus I've found their service is good so far so it's definitely worth a look.

Best of luck in your plan-hunting endeavours!

Ive been with wind for a while now and have no complaints. MUCH happier than with rogers. As for BB, WIND carries the Bold 9700 for $450 and has announced its bringing in the newest Curve (much cheaper), as well as a few other phones. Also keep in mind however that any phone with ASW (band4) capabilities can be hooked into wind and its only $10 for the sim card. You could get an older version of the bold on craigs list for well under $200 and just put in a wind sim card.

I'm going to have to say Koodo is the best. They offer cheap, flexible plans. Rogers is bad for flexibility, like really bad. And I think they're a lot more expensive than any other provider. I personally can't wait to get out of my 3-yr plan.

Actually, if you do the math, Koodo isn't as good as it seems. Suppose you go on their $25/mth plans without any add-ons and rack up a tab of 150 for your phone (the current max amount). Now, they only use 10% of your monthly bill towards tab payment which means it would take you 6 years to fully pay for your phone if you don't want to pay off the tab out-of-pocket.

A bit ridiculous? I think so. But that's just me.

Originally Posted by Moo!io

Actually, if you do the math, Koodo isn't as good as it seems. Suppose you go on their $25/mth plans without any add-ons and rack up a tab of 150 for your phone (the current max amount). Now, they only use 10% of your monthly bill towards tab payment which means it would take you 6 years to fully pay for your phone if you don't want to pay off the tab out-of-pocket.

A bit ridiculous? I think so. But that's just me.

Yea but the maximum you will be paying to get out is 150$ and that is is you get out of it right away.

That is a lot better then having to pay anywhere from 300-600 to cancel a 3yr contract.

@Crzyrio: True lol
That's why contracts suck >.<

The best thing to do at the moment I think would be to get an unlocked Blackberry for cheap(ish) and buy the WIND sim card. Their plans seem to be the most competitive for the time being.

Id go for Rogers or Koodo. I was on Bell for a couple years and hated it. Im now on Koodo and only pay $25 for unlimited texting, 100 anytime minutes, free evenings and weekends. On Bell, I couldnt find a plan like that and was constantly going over my minutes and stuff.

Bell has shitty customer service and shittier coverage. Telus uses the Bell networks in Hamilton btw.
Rogers is crazy expensive in my experience, but I'm picky like that so maybe you'll be happier with their prices. Rogers also has a much much better network. Koodo is also Telus btw. Telus and Bell have decided that they're going to introduce SIM cards but don't be fooled. They still won't have GSM/EDGE networks. The new network, HSPA, is still analog (i.e. still crap). I'd go with something digital personally (i.e. Rogers, Fido. I'm not sure about WIND and the newer ones).

I switched from Telus to Fido and got the Curve 8250 recently. The customer service with Fido used to be crap (I was with them before Telus) but it's gotten a lot better now.

I definitely would not recommend the analog networks to anyone. Keep in mind that now they're in renovation (switching from CDMA to HSPA) and that afterwards they'll most likely be just as unreliable.

I was with Telus for 3 years and I experienced every problem imaginable. I could write a book on the horrors of their networks. It's crazy how outdated their technology is.

So if your decision is purely between Rogers and Bell, I'd def go with Rogers.

I can't comment on their plans because I have no need for minutes so that's never been a contributing factor for me. Fido gave me all the data I needed tho for a reasonable price and that makes me happy enough to stick around for my full 3 yr contract.