Tales from Telus: The home team

Given the disgusting current state of price gouging in Canada's wireless market I needed to make a plan and do some research. I knew what I wanted from a provider:

• Value for money: Call time minutes and texting is meaningless in a world of smartphones. Data would be the only thing that mattered.
• Network reliability
• Customer service
• Ease of use to self manage accounts

I also knew that I would have to eventually buy out of my existing contracts to move my already unlocked phones.
Just Like The First Time

Telus has been my provider for years but since the smartphone exploded, their service and reliability have plummeted while their prices have sky-rocketed. Telus also had the sheer gall to offer the Nexus 5 on contract at a full $150 over the listed MSRP of $350. Telus is going to have to blow me away to keep my business.

If I were to replace my 2 yr old android with a new phone I would be out of pocket $150 just to buy out of a nearly 3 year old contract. I don't want any new contracts if I can avoid it. My other devices will be an exodus of attrition as the outstanding amounts on the contracts shrink.

The hope is to maintain or increase data caps for the same or less money.

With plans and devices current as of the date of post, Telus offers the following to a new customer. Here are my options to replace two of my three devices with new models.

Phone*	Off contract Cost	On 2 Year Contract
Iphone 5s	$719	$229
Iphone 5c	$599	$129
Galaxy S4	$700	$179
Nexus 5	$500 ($350 from Google)	$49
Lumia 1020	$600	$99
HTC One	$650	$49

*All phones have comparable storage and network connectivity (LTE) unless noted

I love it when a plan comes together

Telus’s plans are incredibly obtuse in how they are presented but they essentially break down into categories of use: Smartphones users (high data needs), Lite Smartphone users (low data needs) and everyone else. They have introduced a new “sharing” feature, which allows, for a price, a customer to purchase a data plan and then pay to share that plan with another device on the account.

These are the plans I would be forced to replace with the new devices except the center plan which is already a share plan:

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

Under Telus new 'share" plans this is how I would achieve parity though it is important to understand that the 6GB plan is nearly completely consumed every month with current behaviour and sharing is not an option. The above student promo user consumes at least 500 MB a month.

Non-Shared Plan

VOICE/TEXT**	FAVORITES Included	Data	Price per Month(before tax &fees)
Unlimited nationwide	n/a	6 GB/month	$125
Unlimited nationwide	n/a	1 GB/month (promo)	$55 + $20 data (promo)
Unlimited nationwide	n/a	1 GB/month	$90
		Data overage	$0.05/Mb
		TOTAL	$290

**Included in all plans: unlimited national text/picture/video messaging, Call display, Voice Mail, Conference Calling

Shared Plan 1GB

VOICE/TEXT**	FAVORITES Included	Data	Price per Month(before tax &fees)
Unlimited nationwide	n/a	6 GB/month	$125
Unlimited nationwide (shared)	n/a	shared 1 GB/mth	$55 + $20 data
Unlimited nationwide (shared)	n/a	shared 1 GB/mth	$35
		Data overage	$.05/Mb
		TOTAL	$235

**Included in all plans: unlimited national text/picture/video messaging, Call display, Voice Mail, Conference Calling

Shared Plan 3GB

VOICE/TEXT**	FAVORITES Included	Data	Price per Month(before tax &fees)
Unlimited nationwide	n/a	6 GB/month	$125
Unlimited nationwide (shared)	n/a	shared 3 GB/mth	$110 data
Unlimited nationwide (shared)	n/a	shared 3 GB/mth	$35
		Data overage	$0.05/Mb
		TOTAL	$270

**Included in all plans: unlimited national text/picture/video messaging, Call display, Voice Mail, Conference Calling

I have a bad feeling about this

Even by taking advantage of current to this post promotions I would only  be able to increase or maintain my data but still pay more for the service. Staying with Telus is clearly untenable.

What about the competition...