Comments on: So You Think We Have It Bad? A Look At Canadian Termination Fees

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:53:42 +0000

Personally, I don’t care that I’m locked in – every year Telus allows me to sign another 3 year renewal (3 years from signing not 3 years additional) and gives me a new BlackBerry for free. I’m grandfathered on an old plan that basically gives me 1000 minutes, per second and free after 6pm, $0.10 long distance and $15/BIS for about $150 tax in. They’ve given me so many phones for free that if I ever had to cancel and pay the $700+ cancellation fees, I’d still be WAY ahead in the game.
I don’t care about the minute differences between the carriers and I know that, for the most part, the coverage/service/prices are all the same. I’m actually happy with what I’ve got.

By: dan

dan — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:01:06 +0000

FWIW, with Bell the Data portion is much like Telus. You may remove it after 1 year without penalty. But it’s an extra $200 if you remove it early.

By: smiley

smiley — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:42:32 +0000

that is why i brought the Storm without a contract.

These guys are a rip off. Even at $600. i still save enough for couple of Lattes.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:18:54 +0000

I don’t think Ronen’s intentions were to state that 3 year terms were required…I think he was implying that without the 3 year contract, the retail price of the item was more than buying it “grey-market” thus making it pointless to buy it retail and just take the contract…or buy it grey market!

The other problem is that the providers offer better pricing for the service when taking an agreement. For example, the data value packs on Rogers, while a great deal, require a 3 year data term…which in term requires a 3 year voice term. Telus’ equivalent “value packs” I believe also requires a data term (although, their data term is only 1 year).

By: Nikolaus

Nikolaus — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:51:06 +0000

Not BB related but still interesting. I had Clearnet (now Telus) in Ontario in 2001 before I moved to the US. With Clearnet I paid $5/month for unlimited e-mail on my Sanyo. When I got the same Sanyo phone from Sprint in the US I would have to pay $20/month for the same thing. Voice and ETFs were similar. At least back then it seems Canada had better services.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:56:15 +0000

Indonesia is the best.

There are three carriers and all are about the same. You pay full price for your Bold, about $800 USD. I am on the XL network. I have a post paid account paying about $20 USD a month for unlimited data and 100 free minutes on the same network. To top that up, from 8 pm to 8 am, I pay nothing for calls on the same network. Best of all, there are no 1, 2 or 3 year contracts.

Now, on my Storm, I use the same network on a pre-paid account. I pay about $0.50 USD per day for the BIS service and my calls cost me about $0.10 for the first call and then free from Midnight till 5 pm calling the same network.

Both the storm and the Bold cost me less than $50 a month and both are on unlimited data.

Just can not go wrong here. Maybe Canada and the US can learn a bit from the Indonesian carriers.

By: Valmore

Valmore — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:09:42 +0000

Hello,

You should see how it is the thing here in Venezuela; Movistar for example sales the Bold with a contract for USD 1865 with a 500 MB monthly plan for 33 USD (just the BlackBerry plan) plus a mandatory voice plan; you are in heaven there; here operators do with customer all they want to and also do not take care of the service and customer support (people that works in operators hardly know what a mobile phone is LOL)

Regards

Valmore

By: Eldon

Eldon — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:04:55 +0000

3 Year contracts are NOT required for data devices.
They are ONLY required to get the phone at a 3 year discount price.

People can take a 2 year or one year and pay more for the phone… heck they can take a month to month even.