Rogers to Launch Chatr, a New Low-end Brand to Compete With WIND

[artbungler]

Forgive us for keeping this really short, but there’s still a lot of information we don’t know. Over the last few days, we’ve been hearing a lot of Canadian birdies singing that Rogers Wireless is planning to launch a new wireless brand in Canada. To be known as Chatr, the carrier is said to have been created solely for the purpose of putting wireless upstarts WIND Mobile and Mobilicity out of business by offering affordable handsets and great rate plans. It is said that the training of employees will begin in earnest as of mid-July, and will be followed shortly with the official launch of the brand in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Ottawa. We do not have specific information about pricing at the moment as that is still being worked out by the high ups, but we do know for a fact that the handsets Chatr will offer include the Nokia 1661, Nokia 2680 slide, Samsung Gravity and the LG Sapphire. We’ll be back with more as we get it.

Thanks, X.!

Source: BGR

[guardianflash]

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/...ete-with-wind/

What a dirty move. They creating new Chatr cause they don't want existing Fido and Rogers customers to all suddenly go on their new cheap plans.

[Jonavin]

Looking at the handsets that they will be selling, it looks to be all 2G GSM phones. The Chat-R brand might be their 2G only brand.

What's the reason for this? Imagine, all HSPA phones have 2G GSM as fallback. So they can steal customers from just about any carrier in Canada. That includes Bell, Telus, Solo, Virgin, Koodo, WIND, Mobilicity. But if they only sell 2G phones, the only choice that somebody on ChatR has when they want to leave ChatR is to take their phone to Fido or Rogers. That seems like a good strategy for them.

Maybe cheap voice+text plans with unlimited GPRS/EDGE data in the same fashion as WIND and Mobilicity?

[xero9]

All I can say is wow. It does seem like a Rogers move though.

They can offer me unlimited nation-wide calling for $10/month and I still won't subscribe. Rogers is Rogers, period.

[Justdoitagain]

Also heard that they are going to use their AWS bandwidth to carve out a separate network for this. This is the proverbial rock they are throwing off the cliff, not knowing that it is tied to their foot. Well, what else can I say. You can put lipstick on a pig.....

[guardianflash]

If Roger's Chatr kills Wind and Mobilicity, you can bet they'll raise Chatr prices and we'll all go back to paying expensive plans.

[RdotA]

the chatter is that they will offer unlimited local province and Canada wide calling with unlimited edge data..the idea is to kill off wind ..i have an inkling that many people will jump from toronto especially to chat r from wind because of all the problems wind is having in Toronto

[artbungler]

the chatter is that they will offer unlimited local province and Canada wide calling with unlimited edge data..the idea is to kill off wind ..i have an inkling that many people will jump from toronto especially to chat r from wind because of all the problems wind is having in Toronto

Source?????????

[hellium]

Oh that's quite interesting!
I don't think the plans will be as good as wind or mobilicity as robber's president recently said that canadians don't need unlimited(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cgF7mg7ZNI)
I dont expect them to offer data plans, just cheap txt + talk
they might be trying to steal customers from Koodo and virgin mobile because the phones that are offering are superbasic

[likebutta]

Honestly, I have been and will be continuing to stick to my guns on this. I will keep my business to the new entrants wirelessly, telephone-wise and also internet. Granted, while being a customer of TekSavvy does not completely stop my dollar from going to Rogers or Bell, it's enough to see that TekSavvy grows (which they have been as can be seen by their expansion of services and other goals in motion). I don't care if Rogers/Bell undercuts WIND by a few bucks or even 10 bucks. In order to ensure that competition is sustained, some people (not necessarily all, as some people have no choice financially but to go for the bottom dollar) have to be willing to put themselves in the thick of it.

Otherwise we all go back to where we were.

[Faruk88]

As much as I think that Rogers are being crooks by launching this new "sub-brand" instead of lowering their own prices... I'm hoping that the additional competition will force Wind to drop their prices even more.

For example, SMS should be free or almost free.. Charging 10 cents per message is like 1000% profit. It's pretty funny how they offer unlimited Wind-Wind calling on all plans, but not Wind-Wind SMS... Even though SMS is cheaper than voice.

[Faruk88]

I just realized something:

"...followed shortly with the official launch of the brand in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Ottawa"

Only launching in the cities that Wind has coverage, even though Rogers already has a national network? We've yet to see their pricing, but there's a chance that Rogers could get taken to court for predatory pricing...

[canadiancow]

Why would they only offer the brand in those five cities? Are they really going to try to get only those customers who could already be on WIND? And then it comes back to questions like "What is Toronto?"

Either way, with only EDGE (assuming this is the case), they won't get my business. I could stay with Rogers if I got a plan that better suited my needs, but I've been using an AWS Nexus One on Rogers for over four months now (I'm waiting for WIND to come to KW), and it's just not worth it. No one on WIND's $35 data plan would switch. I doubt anyone on the $20 plan would switch. And then there's the whole issue of simultaneous voice and data. My mom once called me, asking me for directions somewhere. I was out, and at the time, had my iPhone 3G on Rogers, so I was able to open Google Maps and get her directions, while keeping her on the line. There's a reason why someone might not even want to switch off the $10 plan.

[zivan56]

The main reason I switched to WIND was in order not to give money to Robellus. I did the same with my internet service ages ago by switching to Novus. Shaw tried to do the same dirty trick with them by offering below cost internet/cable in the buildings where Novus had their infrastructure. However, only people in those buildings could get that price (dirty and illegal tactic considering it is price discrimination). You can see details here: http://www.p2pnet.net/story/25783
Video explaining it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo5pGxGExfk

[lukeiphone]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.714 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Damnn I really hate rogers now