This must be the day of revamping wireless plans in Canada – both Koodo and Fido made ‘adjustments’ with their pricing and data allowances. The price increases are lower than Fido – $2 vs $5 in most cases – and Koodo is also lowering the data allotment in its higher tiered plans. It is a little strange why they slightly upped the prices AND slightly lowered the data, although it may be that many customers will only notice the price change and not that some of their data was taken away.
In the old $52 plan your received 800 Canada-wide calling minutes and 1GB of data – the revised $54 plan slightly ups the minutes to 1000 but slightly lowers the data to 750MB…a strange trade-off. The unlimited calling plans just decreased the available data – the old $62 plan now costs $64, still gives you unlimited minutes but lowers your data from 1.5GB to only 1GB. The $74 plan dropped data from 2.5GB to 2.0GB.
Koodo also let their promo plans expire as well: they had a $50 plan that offered 1GB of data and unlimited minutes and a $60 plan with unlimited minutes and 2GB of data. Those are much more reasonable plans for the money – hopefully you were lucky enough to sign up for one of those promo plans while they offered them.
Koodo and Fido seem to be doing a strange dance together – Koodo used to be slightly cheaper and Fido, but are now practically the same as the Rogers owned subsidiary. Koodo does have the extra $74 plan with unlimited minutes and 2GB of data that Fido does not offer. Even in its Max category, Fido does not offer any plan over 1GB of data. These plans are definitely geared towards talkers and people who text a lot, not data users. Both companies do charge the same on data overages – $5/100MB in the lower $39 – $54 plans and $5/250MB for the $64 plan, and on Koodo, the $74 plan.
If subsidiaries are important to you, then Fido has a slight advantage over Koodo and you could end up paying less up front. For example – the Nexus 5 costs $500 on either network. Fido charges $100 upfront on a two-year Smart plan, but Koodo will want $150 upfront with a Tab Medium plan.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page if you are a Koodo subscriber and what you think of the changes in their plans.