Bell Was The One to Beat

I started looking at the various CDMA providers in BC: Virgin, Bell and Telus. Of the three, I noticed the Bell website (Bell.ca) was listing a sale on HTC Touch phones where I could get one for free if I signed up for 3 years. The voice rate plans were reasonable enough and they also offered an unlimited data plan 'add-on' for an extra $7 per month, but only with the HTC phone (that price recently went up to $10/mo).

This represented a huge savings for me over what I was paying to Rogers (their rates are ridiculous), and my immediate reaction was 'where do I sign' ... although I won't normally commit to a long contract period, I had no hesitation because I already knew what an HTC Touch was (and liked it), and an unlimited mobile data plan for an extra 7 bucks a month was unheard of.

The Canadian data rates for mobile activity are long overdue for rationalization with the rest of the world, and I believe this is the beginning of some serious competition between the service providers. Rogers and Telus claim to have $7/mo unlimited plans, but if you read the fine print, you'll see they are nowhere near as good as the Bell plan. For more info and some comparisons, see my article: How Unlimited is Unlimited?

So what's the catch? Well, you have to pay regular data rates if you tether your laptop to the phone and use it as a modem. Nevertheless, I was willing to accept that limitation because the phone itself is very usable, without connecting my laptop to it.

I also found a remote control program that allowed me to see the Touch screen on my laptop and use the laptop keyboard and mouse, so I could write longer messages with my regular keyboard that I am used to. I would then disconnect from the laptop and send the message. This is NOT tethering (using your phone as a modem) and does not violate the Bell TOS (Terms Of service).

I followed the ordering procedure on the website, and about 5 days later my pre-programmed HTC Touch arrived in the mail. I turned it on and it worked perfectly, and has done so ever since.

I then downsized my Rogers plan to the minimal family plan, keeping it active for the occasional case where CDMA was not available and GSM was, or if we were roaming in a country like Mexico that uses mostly GSM.

The overall net result:

• I cut my total mobile costs easily by half
• I gained the additional coverage of both networks
• I get unlimited bandwidth almost all the time, unless I only have GSM coverage, in which case I just move if I need to. 

Now it is no problem doing things like online banking, adjusting our servers, updating websites, pulling up tide tables, checking the weather, and sending photographs.

NEXT: The HTC TyTn GSM Phone - Predecessor to the Touch