Death by a Thousand Cuts
Monthly subscriptionitis is a deadly disease and one that is difficult to avoid. Our house currently has monthly bills for internet access, land phone, unblock-us (ip spoofing), Netflix, Mercy’s cell phone and my cell phone. It all adds up to a lot of cash. The cell phones are especially expensive we pay about $180/month. That gives us 400 minutes of talk time ($30 each), 6gb data ($30 each), system fees and some extras (call display, text messaging). Over the past couple of years I’ve used my data for tethering my computer at work, but I think I’m done with subsidizing public education. So I looked into how we could slim down the cell phone bill by cutting back to 2gb of data. Amazingly, it gets more expensive. Our 6gb for $30 has been grandfathered in and is way better than anything offered now.
Checking out Fido or Koodo, I determined that they really don’t offer anything cheaper. However, Wind Mobile does offer a much reduced rate. Reviews on Wind are pretty mixed though, with a lot of complaints about coverage. Their monthly no-contract rate is so cheap that I thought it would be worth checking out for a month. The only problem is that I would need a phone that works on Wind, because my current Note 2 does not.
This is where Microsoft enters the picture. They just started selling the 640XL, a mid-range 5"+ phone for $340. It’s not the greatest phone in the world but the size is good, the battery lasts a long time and the processor is fine. And they have a 30 day money back return policy. So I bought a Lumia 640XL, took it to Wind, and then got a 1 month 2gb package for $35. This package gives unlimited calling, messaging, voice mail and call display.
Wind data is only 4G, so I expected it to be quite a bit slower than my Note 2 on LTE. I wasn’t disappointed. I also found lots of places where the data didn’t work very well, such as at Main and Terminal and Broadway and Commercial. But whatevs. I decided to stick with the phone, cancel my Rogers phone, and save $45/month.
The day after cancelling my Rogers plan I went to Spanish Banks. Lo and behold, Wind wasn’t great there. And you know what? The world didn’t end, no one got hurt and I didn’t get lost with no way of contacting the outside world.
So far I’m really happy with Wind. Sure, their service sucks in places but that’s a compromise I am glad to take. I’m acquainting myself with free WiFi hotspots and it’s all good.
Postscript: my wife called Rogers to cancel my phone and it had already been canceled from when I ported my phone. I couldn’t believe it would be that easy. Rogers also tried to offer my wife a sweet deal. They told her she could have unlimited talk and 5gb of data for $95. Uhmmmm…. their best deal was worse than what she (and I) already had.
