Wind Mobile – Rate Plan Comparison

16. Dec, 2009 21 Comments

Update: Be sure to vote in our Wind data plan poll.

I decided to see just how Wind Mobile’s new offerings stacked up against the competition so I spent some time and did a rate comparison. I compared the 4 companies across two metrics: The power user who wants to really use their device, and to see what they offered for a $40 a month plan.

Power User: Talks a lot, uses a lot of data, and wants a high-end phone. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 was the phone of choice here, and all plans were as ‘unlimited’ as I could get them without purposely getting the most expensive options for the sake of it.

The $40 Plan: With so many options available out there, I spent several hours trying to piece together a fair comparison of plans. I found my job became much easier when I decided on a $40 a month budget and saw how far it could get me with an emphasis on talk and text.

To ensure parity across all plans, I opted for the no contract options on the Bell/Rogers/Telus plans. Also, for tax purposes, I ensured all plans were selected to be in Ontario (5% GST, 8% PST).

Power User – BlackBerry Bold 9700 – No Contract

Bell Rogers Telus Wind
Plan Uber 60 Fab 5 + Blackberry Social 30 + call display $45 Personal Voice + 5GB Blackberry Data Smart 100 PDA Always Shout + Infinite Mobile
Minutes 600 400 500 Unlimited
Evenings and Weekends Unlimited 9pm Unlimited 9pm Unlimited 6pm Unlimited
Data 1 GB 5 GB 3 GB Unlimited*
Unlimited Talk 5 national numbers 5 national numbers 5 national numbers All national numbers
Text Messages Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Due now $677.95 $621.49 $734.49 $508.50
Monthly Payment $117.91 $127.58 $129.95 $90.40

Due Today: Wind looks to win out here with the lack of an activation fee and lower handset prices which lets them offer a lower start up cost. Of course you can do better with the competition if you are willing to enter a contract of 3 years; 2 year contracts don’t help very much.

Monthly: Again, Wind is priced significantly lower than the competition and manages to offer unlimited talk time as opposed to “so much it might as well be unlimited”, and unlimited data. Of course you have to stay close to home in order to do this well for now, but if this describes you, then Wind seems to be your choice.

The $40 Plan – No Contract

Bell Rogers Telus Wind
Plan Uber 40 Talk and Text $40 Personal Voice Phone 40 Always Talk + Unlimited Text
Minutes 250 250 250 Unlimited
Evenings and Weekends Unlimited 9pm Unlimited 9pm Unlimited 6pm Unlimited
Unlimited Talk Evenings/Weekends Evenings/Weekends Evenings/Weekends All provincial numbers
Text Messages Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Features Call Waiting | Conference Calling | Call Forwarding Call Waiting | Group Calling | Call Forwarding Voice Mail 3 | Call Waiting | Conference Calling Caller ID | Missed-call Alerts | Call Forward | Call Conferencing | Call Waiting | Call Hold
Monthly Payment $40 + tax + 911 $40 + tax + govt regulatory rec fee + 911 $40 + tax + 911 $40 + tax

Monthly: For $40 you definitely get more with Wind. The competitors all offer pretty much identical service here, with Telus offering a slightly more attractive feature set. Wind gives the most extensive feature set and unlimited talk time. I did not include tax, 911 fees, nor a government regulatory recovery fee (Rogers), as it is not entirely clear on the websites as to what is included. Except Wind of course. No extra fees there, so your Wind bill is likely to be a little bit lower than the others.

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Canada, Globalive, Wind Mobile
  • ariane c design

    Is anybody, but anybody, looking to see why Wind doesn’t offer iPhone?

    • maria

      first of all wind mobility is a new company and doesn’t have the experience that all the other old companies might have. They don’t have the ability to know that there are people out their in the world who are waiting for them to launch iphones

      • http://www.justincredible.net Justin Credible

        WIND and Mobilicty run on the new AWS frequencies, and Apple does not manufacture a device which works on these networks. But really, it does not matter. I’ve been with WIND for 6 months and most people want Blackberries and Android phones nowadays.

        Get the Nexus One or Nexus S. They both work on WIND and you’ll never go back to iPhones.

        • Jklew

          I just cancelled out of Bell with two years remaining. The ECF will be high but I will be
          saving money in the long run with Wind’s unlimited plans. Now I can listen to my radio
          App without worrying exceeding my data although
          I only use less than 500mb per month since I have
          wifi at home. My one year old iPhone 3gs is now just an IPod basically and may just sell it to recover some costs.

  • http://www.bbycks.com Meraki

    The iPhone isn’t compatible with WIND’s 1700mhz cellular frequency, so they won’t be carrying it unless Apple changes the specs on the device.

    Also, the Bell “Uber 60 Fab 5 + Blackberry Social 30 + call display” includes nationwide Fab 5, not local.

  • http://wifitalk.ca george

    Hi ariane: Meraki has it right, the current iPhone hardware isn’t compatible with the 3G AWS band that Wind has license to use.

    I do have some information about possible updates to the iPhone hardware which I will post as soon as I get it all written up – hopefully tonight.

  • http://wifitalk.ca george

    Thanks for the correction Meraki. It’s been updated.

  • Sunny

    You showed the price for the Rogers 5GB plan and then lower said it only gives you 3GB. Probably a typo.

  • http://wifitalk.ca george

    Thanks Sunny. The typo has been corrected.

  • http://www.hotmail.com Natalie

    But when you look at the coverage, Wind only covers pretty much Edmonton and a few surrounds cities, so unless your in the local calling area your screwed. Bell and Telus use alot of the same towers, but Bell overall has the best coverage out of anyone.

  • http://www.hotmail.com Natalie

    Bell and telus dont have a system access fee anymore or 911 fee.

  • http://noooo taranjot

    hi…i try rogers ,wind and mobilicity but wind and mobilicity both are the way cheapest……trust me.both has good coverage in only city’s.

  • Windy

    the iPhone 4 works with Wind Mobile and Mobilicity….it is capable of using the new spectrum for AWS

  • ralph

    just a question, what does unlimited talk cover? you put “all national number”, do you mean its free nation-wide calling?

  • Soccer_man_win

    Wind is not a good company to go with, they will hit you huge with charges for going outside of your zone. If you just take care of your phone for two years with one of the other companies you can get a hardware upgrade and continue on your way. Wind and mobilicity and chattr are terrible companies for wireless, not to mention once you use 200 or 300 mb of data they slow your phone down so others on the network can use data.

    • rambo

      Please stop spreading rumors, unless that’s your job as a Rogers employee!

      Wind zones are almost similar to Rogers zones. And yes, Rogers has you zoned in as well. If you are from Toronto, go live in Niagara Falls for a few day sand use your phone. Let me know what your bills were like for those days. So, long story short, there is no ROAMING included in Rogers either. Even though you are roaming in Rogers’ own network, Rogers will charge you roaming fee. Not just that, they are actually going to charge you twice, they will take the minutes out of your included bucket and at the same time charge you extra per minute.

      Only roaming included with Rogers at the moment is for data. Which is good, but with the limited quantity that you get, I don’t see how you can find it attractive enough. As for me, my data requiremetns tend to be around cities where Wind does have zones.

      Oh and by the way, Wind Mobile gives you the best roaming rate period. Go to US and you can make and receive calls to/from anywhere in US and Canada for 25 cents/minute. With Rogers you will pay $1.35 per minute for calls. Even within Canada Rogers will charge you 35 cents/minute to roam in their network while you are out of your Rogers home zone. Wind will charge 25 cents/minute whether you call local or long distance within North America.

      So, please stop with the rumors about how Wind zones are so limiting. A sane person will choose wind zones over Rogers over priced crap any day….

      My 2c.

      • rambo

         Additionally, with Wind, if you are from Toronto, you can use your phone in Ottawa, Calgary etc etc i.e. ANY OTHER WIND ZONES!!! without paying a penny extra. All your services are available for your use for the same cost at any wind zones.

        Try using your Rogers phone for talking/texting from a different Canadian city. Yes Rogers will be there, but they will be charging you extra too.

    • Lazyflyies

      Soccer Man…  Stay in your wind zone and stop using your phone outside the zone…  You know the rules so i’d say thats your idiot tax right there.  The other companies charge you absurd amounts each month to cover the cost of your so called free phone and as far and throttling your data speed its only after you have used up your 3gig or 5gig cap and most of the other providers do the same when offering unlimited data plans.

  • Rmpn

    Wind is great. Do the pay before payment plan and you will never have pay for something you don’t want again. Love wind

  • Bananna_brain

    is wind a good company to go with?

  • rogers suck23

    i was thinking of switching from rogers to wind because of rogers customer service people keep lieing to me when i call and ask them why i cant send text messages and to find out they have been messing with my account. But a couple of people have been telling me not to swtich to wind because its a bad phone company and people have had so many problems with them and there service sucks apparently is that true and is it worth me switching from rogers to wind help please

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