Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Tales from Telus: The Hypothetical-Videotron

The recent spectrum auction resulted in the major players buying up piles of spectrum, along with Quebec's Videotron, which has lead analysts to speculate if the Quebec telecom giant is planning a national rollout. Given Videotron has some of the best rates in the country, this bares exploration.

The Lineup 



Phone*
Off contract Cost
On "Tab"
Iphone 5s
N/A
N/A
Iphone 5c
N/A
N/A
Galaxy S4
$649
$49.95 (promo)*
Nexus 5
$499 ($350 from Google)
$0 (promo)*
Lumia 1020
N/A
N/A
HTC One
N/A
N/A
*On contract which requires a minimum plan commitment of $69.95 recurring monthly


While Wind does not offer Iphone 5 for sale it does support them depending on the model. 

Plan in the Ass

A reminder of my current plans that would be replaced with a new device or a new provider:

VOICE/TEXT
FAVORITES* Included
Data
Price per Month(before tax &fees)
200 Local
8 favorites #’s(local & LD)
6 GB/month
$70 (promo plan only offered for 60 days)
Unlimited nationwide
n/a
1 GB/month (promo)
$55 + $20 data (promo)
200 Local
10 favorites #’s(local & LD)
1 GB/month
$55 (student promo)


TOTAL
$205


Videotron plan:

*No connection fee found online

Non-Shared Plan across 3 devices (out of contract)
VOICE/TEXT**
FAVORITES Included
Data
Price per Month(before tax &fees)
Unlimited North America
n/a
6 GB/month
$71.95
Unlimited North America
n/a
 1 GB/month 
$49.95
Unlimited North America
n/a
 1 GB/month 
$49.95


Data overage
n/a
TOTAL
$171.85
**Included in all plans: unlimited North American text/picture/video messaging, Call display, Voice Mail, Conference Calling


Videotron's Plan is significantly less than my current bill but requires I buy out of my current contracts on which I owe the following:
  • 2 year old Android (on contract)= $152.44/9 months left
  • 1 brand new Android (on contract)= $479/22 months left
  • 1 3 yr old iphone (off contract)=$0
  • 1 wife-destroyed windows phone (on contract)=$294/19 months left
Upfront costs: 

Wind's AWS network does not support the old iphone nor the wp7 should we choose to fix the screen, which means at least one new device purchase (nexus 5).
  • $925 contract buy out
  • $350 device cost
Total: $1275 with monthly recurring fee of $45 less a month and 80% data.

This is pure speculation given they are only available in Quebec and Ottawa but the rates and services are extremely competitive.

No comments: