[cowcow]

WIND mobile has been given approval by the CRTC to be able to provide mobile services to Canadians. They will be open sometime this week (most likely December 16).

Here are the rumored plans. All plans come with caller id, call forwarding and call waiting. Actual plans will be announced on Wednesday also i believe.

Chat: $15 per month
Unlimited WIND to WIND calling (Canada wide)
Unlimited incoming text
100 province-wide voice minutes
50 text messages

Always Talk: $35 per month
Unlimited WIND to WIND calling (Canada wide)
Unlimited province-wide calling
Unlimited incoming text
50 outgoing text messages

Always Shout: $45 per month
Unlimited Canada-wide calling
Unlimited incoming /outgoing text messages
Voicemail

Data Plans
Infinite Mobile: $35 per month (used with any voice plan)
Unlimited internet for phones (tethering too)

Infinite Laptop: $45 per month
Unlimited internet for USB data sticks

Possibly there will be a web on your phone only type data plan for $10/mn.

BlackBerry data plans
Social BlackBerry: $10 per month
Unlimited instant messaging, Facebook and MySpace.

Infinite BlackBerry: $35 per month (used with any voice plan)
Unlimited internet for BlackBerry

Addons:
Voice: 10c Per Minute with the $15 plan
SMS: 10c each
MMS: 20c each
Voicemail: $5

Long Distance:
$20 for unlimited North America

[PTGregD]

I've been looking at those plans for the past few days and they are pretty awesome when compared to what Rogers/Bell/Telus give us. This is good news for everyone; either you jump onto the Wind Mobile band wagon and get a great deal, or you can leverage your current provider into matching these prices.

I'm going to be checking them out at the blockbuster by my house when they open this/next week.

[cowcow]

There are no contracts, instead WIND will follow the same method as Koodoo and have a "tab" feature. Basically meaning you pay off your phone over a prolonged amount of time instead of paying the full price of the phone right away. The only thing you have to do if you choose to leave WIND is to pay off any outstanding debt you have which includes your voice/data plan and the "tab" you have with WIND themselves.

[sew12]

The text messaging options on those rumoured plans are a little lacking. Only 50 outgoing texts a month on both of the lesser plans, and you can only get unlimited text with a $45 a month plan? I'd consider myself a relatively light texter for our generation (compared with someone like my sister who sends 1000+ texts a month) and I send approx 130 texts a month.

I know the options here are shitty but I guess since my family are long time Roger's customers we managed to get a pretty good cellphone plan from them.

The biggest benefit I see with WIND is the in province local and the no charge for basic services like Caller ID. The main thing I want from Rogers that I don't have is Caller ID but I'm not willing to pay their prices for it. Also I totally agree that the next city over being long distance is total crap, its not like I'm trying to call China, I'm trying to call someone in Oakville and its long distance, umm what?

[huzaifa47]

Chat: $15 per month
Unlimited WIND to WIND calling (Canada wide)
Unlimited incoming text
100 province-wide voice minutes
50 text messages

WHAT the? Is it me or does wind mobile sound too good to be true? That $15 plan is just ridiculously awesome!

Plus even their add on minutes are cheaper then my roger at 10c for voice and sms :S

[Marlowe]

Not necessarily too good to be true, just on par with what the states has, and what we haven't had access to yet. Sounds roughly on par with what people in the states have described their service as (on other forums).

Actually, I think my current $35 a month plan with Bell is a fair bit better than their $35 dollar plan (I got it through BMO). But I don't really take advantage of all my minutes or unlimited texting. Switching to the $15 plan might be worth it, just for the long distance savings.

[cowcow]

These plans are only better in terms of what the other companies would give you if you walked into a Rogers/Bell/Telus store and got a phone on a contract. If you renegotiate your own plan with your provider, you will get a better plan than what WIND has has to offer most of the time. Lots of people are able to renegotiate a data plan with Rogers for around $50 a month.

[huzaifa47]

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

Not necessarily too good to be true, just on par with what the states has, and what we haven't had access to yet. Sounds roughly on par with what people in the states have described their service as (on other forums).

Yeah obviously, I was comparing it to the best generic market plans offered by Rogers to me(Without any special hookups with your Credit card company etc).

But its not even close to Pakistan where it was 1/16 canadian cents per minute!

[Richa]

Originally Posted by aaront

Students = mobile-phone-users-being-kicked-in-the-groin-by-Bell-Telus-Rogers-Fido-etc.

lolzzz...rightly put in!
I was waiting for the company to launch..but had to get a new mobile immediately..so ended up signing another contract with rogers ( oooh well..atleast i love my phone now )
It would be a breath of fresh air to watch a new company kick rogers/bell/telus/fido as customers will begin to switch as soon as the new idea launches- no long distance charges+caller id fee+all the other happy stuff!! I am excited abt it. It's frustrating to receive insanely long phone bills. And then calling up rogers n talking with them for over an hr, every time kills me by the end of the conversation!

[Chad]

Only problem I see with the plans are OUTGOING texts... only 50? If I look at what I have now with Telus and my Blackberry, it comes to almost the same price...

With Telus I have unlimited nationwide calling to Fav 5, 250 anytime minutes, unlimited text, and 500MB for e-mail/IM/etc. Checking e-mail on my blackberry I never hit anywhere near that limit, so I see my plan as basically unlimited talk/text/email.

On Wind, I would have to get the $45 talk plan to get unlimited texting both ways, and the $35 blackberry plan to get e-mail... that's $80. Not much different than what I already pay with Telus.

Wind needs to come up with an 'unlimited email' option like Telus has that is cheap as an add-on for blackberry users. I don't care about surfing the internet or social networking on my blackberry, the screen is way to small. I just want e-mail

[aaront]

Originally Posted by Chad

Only problem I see with the plans are OUTGOING texts... only 50? If I look at what I have now with Telus and my Blackberry, it comes to almost the same price...

With Telus I have unlimited nationwide calling to Fav 5, 250 anytime minutes, unlimited text, and 500MB for e-mail/IM/etc. Checking e-mail on my blackberry I never hit anywhere near that limit, so I see my plan as basically unlimited talk/text/email.

On Wind, I would have to get the $45 talk plan to get unlimited texting both ways, and the $35 blackberry plan to get e-mail... that's $80. Not much different than what I already pay with Telus.

Wind needs to come up with an 'unlimited email' option like Telus has that is cheap as an add-on for blackberry users. I don't care about surfing the internet or social networking on my blackberry, the screen is way to small. I just want e-mail

Those were rumoured prices. The official list is coming on Wednesday.

The province-wide calling interests me, as I'm sure it does most university students who've moved away from home. No longer would I have to pay long distance either at home or here at school (that is, assuming the plans posted on RedFlagDeals are real).

[sew12]

Originally Posted by cowcow

These plans are only better in terms of what the other companies would give you if you walked into a Rogers/Bell/Telus store and got a phone on a contract. If you renegotiate your own plan with your provider, you will get a better plan than what WIND has has to offer most of the time. Lots of people are able to renegotiate a data plan with Rogers for around $50 a month.

Truth.

If you negotiate with the right people at Rogers/Bell/Telus on contract terms you can get good deals too. This is especially true if you're a long time customer of that company, they don't want you to switch and can give you better deals to intice you to remain a loyal customer.

That's why I personally don't see anything great about these Wind plans. In general they look pretty good but for my family as longtime Rogers customers there really aren't any benefits to switching to other services. When contracts are up or we need something we call Rogers and negotiate with them and they're willing to help us, and offer us good service to keep us as customers. We renegotiated our cellphone contract earlier this year after having a previousy 3 year contract with them and we able to get a really good deal for our needs.

[Marlowe]

Well, more competition = more leverage for you when negotiating. It will hopefully also drive down prices for people who are new customers.

[Taunton]

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

Well, more competition = more leverage for you when negotiating. It will hopefully also drive down prices for people who are new customers.

Not to mention that WIND is a big enough company that there's no worry about Bell, Rogers or Telus buying them out and screwing everyone over :p

[Taunton]

Originally Posted by Chad

Only problem I see with the plans are OUTGOING texts... only 50? If I look at what I have now with Telus and my Blackberry, it comes to almost the same price...

With Telus I have unlimited nationwide calling to Fav 5, 250 anytime minutes, unlimited text, and 500MB for e-mail/IM/etc. Checking e-mail on my blackberry I never hit anywhere near that limit, so I see my plan as basically unlimited talk/text/email.

On Wind, I would have to get the $45 talk plan to get unlimited texting both ways, and the $35 blackberry plan to get e-mail... that's $80. Not much different than what I already pay with Telus.

Wind needs to come up with an 'unlimited email' option like Telus has that is cheap as an add-on for blackberry users. I don't care about surfing the internet or social networking on my blackberry, the screen is way to small. I just want e-mail

It's similar for me.... with WIND, I'd be paying $5 extra to add unlimited browsing to my blackberry (which already has unlimited text, IM and email), and for me, browsing is unessential anyways since I have Wi-Fi... so when it comes down to it, it's not much better than what Rogers is giving me.