When WIND and Mobilicity launched, the idea was that their entry into the marketplace would stir up the competition and cause Rogers, Bell, Telus to lower their prices. Well they got Rogers to launch Chatr and Bell to re-launch Solo Mobile, but the real competition looks like it is between WIND and Mobilicity itself! This is inherently bad for the industry from a consumer standpoint, because the already-not-profitable entrants are now slashing their own prices to fight each other.

I’m on WIND currently, and I pay $39.55 per month all in. In the 3+ months I’ve been with WIND, I’ve never exceeded my caps or had to use my phone outside of the WIND Home zone. A recently launched Mobilicty plan is causing me to think about porting out to Mobilicity. With Mobilicity, I can get an unlimited local talk+text plan (vs my 100+rollover/50+rollover mins/text I currently have) for $25; but if I prepay for a year, I can get 33% off that rate = $16.50. I can then add unlimited data for $10 (vs $20 for 500MB I currently have) bringing my monthly total to $29.95, or a savings of almost $10!

I have reservations with switching because it will cost me ~$20 for a new SIM card, and the Mobilicity network is not as large as WIND’s (especially towards Niagara). Also there are reports that Mobilicity caps its data rate.

On the other hand, WIND is offering an (unadvertised) plan for $45.20 ($40+tax) which gives unlimited talk+text, calling with North America, global text and data. It’s tempting, given that I used WIND’s data connection extensively, and it is relatively fast and reliable. But the $15/month is a lot for the marginal extra features. If only the package was $10 cheaper, I would stay with WIND.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: cellphones, mobilicity, windmobile