Telus EDCF

[DCloud82]

Can someone confirm for me if its $50 + the greater of $5/m or $200?

I was wondering, because I thought with Rogers the most you pay is $100? Assuming you signed up for a voice+added data, and not voice data plan.

[B407]

Would help if u posted when your contract started as telus has revised its cancellation policy.

[DCloud82]

I have not signed a contract as yet. I am waiting until this Sat Feb 25,2012 for my current contract with Rogers to end.

Honestly, I don't see myself using too much data on my phone. Only when you get a voice + data plan, you have better looking phones.

I want to get data, along with a seperate voice plan, and try it out for a month. If it occurs that in fact I don't need data, then I'll cancell the data. 6 gb for $30.

I was wondering if Telus and Rogers has the same early data cancellation fee?

[bubble.tea]

Sorry to TJ:

I'm curious, how have you decided on Telus?

From the prevailing comments out there, Koodo & Virgin appear to be the ones with the cheapest new activation plans no?

To go from a no term Rogers plan, to Telus seems quite odd.

I would give Rogers retentions a good couple of shots before calling it quits.

If Rogers has poor coverage where you are needing your cellphone, well then even if they offer you a 90% discount it won't address your problems then lol., but otherwise, why throw away tenure?

YES, I know tenure doesn't mean that much anymore, but it costs you nothing to give it a good educated couple of attempts.

[DennyCrane]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry Bold 9900: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9900; en) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.190 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Let's clarify the acronyms just to ensure you get an applicable answer.

ECF - Early Cancellation Fee
DECF - Data Early Cancellation Fee
EDUF - Early Device Upgrade Fee

The DECF doesn't apply to new contracts, as data is no longer part of the contract requirements. New promotional contract requirements are to maintain a minimum overall plan of $50 including add-ons, but excluding taxes. If you drop your plan below the $50 threshold, I believe you need to pay half of the pro-rated device subsidy back (someone correct me if I got that figure wrong).

For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note is $799.99 MTM. On a 3 year contract with a $50 plan you can get it at a subsidized price of $199.99. So that's a $600 subsidy, divided by 36 months = $16.67 per month that you cancel early (ECF). In the case of dropping your plan below $50, you'd be required to pay back $8.33 (half of $16.67) for each month that you have remaining.

[Que_Ball]

The current telus fee to lower your plans below $50 per month on a phone that requires a commitment of $50 or more is half of the remaining device balance.

So if you buy a phone with a $500 discount and you remove some feature that drops you below $50 per month then you would immediately be charged for half of the balance which would be $250 within that first month.

The amount goes down over time as your balance is paid down. The current balance is printed on your bill and available online if you are ever curious about how much remains.


The early device upgrade fee is simply the remaining balance has to be paid back and you can renew.

To cancel you add $50 administration fee on top of the remaining balance (Except in Quebec where their fair trade law only allows for the remaining balance to be charged and no extra fee)

The old $100, and $200 fees for cancelling data in the first year are gone. Any new contract is under the new rules.


You are not required to keep data, but you must keep the total cost of your plan and add on features above $50 at all times to avoid the penalty. So a heavy voice user could keep a plan and features worth over $50 but still cancel the data feature and not be charged a penalty. Telus no longer cares that you keep data, just that you are paying at least $50 per month to get a premium phone subsidy. You can even cancel your voice and go data only on some of the data only business plans if you wanted.

[DCloud82]

Sorry to TJ:

I'm curious, how have you decided on Telus?

From the prevailing comments out there, Koodo & Virgin appear to be the ones with the cheapest new activation plans no?

To go from a no term Rogers plan, to Telus seems quite odd.

I would give Rogers retentions a good couple of shots before calling it quits.

If Rogers has poor coverage where you are needing your cellphone, well then even if they offer you a 90% discount it won't address your problems then lol., but otherwise, why throw away tenure?

YES, I know tenure doesn't mean that much anymore, but it costs you nothing to give it a good educated couple of attempts.

Whose TJ?

I ported from Virgin two years ago. I had bad reception, so I moved to Rogers. I have no problems with Rogers, in fact I might stay with them. My work offers a good plan voice + data with Telus for $55 tax included.

My concern, as I am extremely careful with contracts and such, more like I'm indecisive?(pardon my spelling). I don't want to be stuck for 3 years with Telus if the reception sucks. I live in Scarborough, Ont., basically its Toronto.

Apparently any discussion regarding best carriers or reception, or any discussion in general, there are always different views. In other wards, try it for yourself to see who has better reception. Better pricing vs taking risk on rception.

Back to Rogers, I like them but 72 a month for voice and data seems okay for only ppl who uses data all the time. I work to often to have a chance to use it, howevet I have specific reasons to want data, but its not that important.

[DCloud82]

Thanks dudes for the info, will read it over when I get home from work.

[bubble.tea]

...So if you buy a phone with a $500 discount and you remove some feature that drops you below $50 per month then you would immediately be charged for half of the balance which would be $250 within that first month. ....

Any new contract is under the new rules.

You are not required to keep data, but you must keep the total cost of your plan and add on features above $50 at all times to avoid the penalty. So a heavy voice user could keep a plan and features worth over $50 but still cancel the data feature and not be charged a penalty. Telus no longer cares that you keep data, just that you are paying at least $50 per month to get a premium phone subsidy. You can even cancel your voice and go data only on some of the data only business plans if you wanted.

Very interesting!!!

That first part sounds exactly like what the clawback was back when the iPhone was firstintroduced at Rogers. They'd charge you for the HUP Subsidy if you dropped below a certain amount, BUT...that was gone a loooooooooong time ago.

This new policy makes fair sense....unfortunately!

Whose TJ?

I ported from Virgin two years ago. I had bad reception......

TJ-thread-jack
Isn't Virgin a subsidiary of Telus? SO...if you already had tried them (IE, use the same towers as Telus), then your signal shouldn't be different? Although....Two years should've been enough time to have reinforced the network since you last used it.

I always forget Telus/Virgin & Bell/Koodo? or is it the opposite?

[Positive Climb]

Very interesting!!!

That first part sounds exactly like what the clawback was back when the iPhone was firstintroduced at Rogers. They'd charge you for the HUP Subsidy if you dropped below a certain amount, BUT...that was gone a loooooooooong time ago.

This new policy makes fair sense....unfortunately!

TJ-thread-jack
Isn't Virgin a subsidiary of Telus? SO...if you already had tried them (IE, use the same towers as Telus), then your signal shouldn't be different? Although....Two years should've been enough time to have reinforced the network since you last used it.

I always forget Telus/Virgin & Bell/Koodo? or is it the opposite?

You've got it backwards. It's Telus/Koodo and Bell/Virgin.

[Que_Ball]

Yeah, the new Telus policy for renewal, cancellation, and minimum cost for a subsidy is pretty fair in most aspects. At least it's the closest thing to a brand new fair policy I have seen a big company like Telus do in some time. The only place where they can play games is in the full unsubsidized cost of the phone. If you look at the Note you can see what I mean.
the no term pricing for Galaxy Note:
Telus: $779
Bell: $729
Rogers: $699

So Telus has inflated the price by $80 which makes the cancellation, early renewal, etc fees just a little bit higher than they should be if they were competitive on pricing for this device.


Virgin and Solo Mobile is owned by Bell. If DCloud82 has been on the CDMA network with Virgin it would be a different system than Telus as they used the Bell CDMA network. 2 years ago, pretty good chance it was CDMA so not likely any comparison to the brand new HSPA network they would be using today.

Telus owns Koodo.

Bell, Telus, Virgin, Koodo, and Solo HSPA phones would all be using the exact same radio network today. So same signal strength and reception properties on all those brands.
If people are still using CDMA phones then it's two separate networks except in rural coverage where they have network sharing between Bell and Telus for CDMA. Not sure if the sub brand clients have access to that CDMA sharing or not, not really worth worrying about as everyone is going to the fully shared HSPA network on their newer phones.

[bubble.tea]

Correction, I shouldn't have used 'fair'.

From the Customer side, it's more screwy, and less favourable to getting a really good deal on a subsidy, without immediate penalties. From the PROVIDERs' side, it's clear, that after YEARS, of seeing people get out of a potentially $500 subsidy by only paying $100/$200 for a data ECF, the stakeholders demanded something be remedied, hence they implemented this bottom-line-addressing policy.

I think after pioneering the belt-fed introduction of smartphones and providers taking a huge hit on the bank account then seeing people pay the DECF and their potential recuperation forecast be shot to $0...heheh, they had no choice really.

Hasn't 3G been released +2yrs ago? Agreed if OP was on the cdma/tdma network it would be a different story. But even if it was on the 3G network, there is definately a good chance that the signal has improved quite a lot since then.

FWIW: By self-proclaimed afficionado's., apparently Telus & Bellus' networks are far more robust & reliable than Rogers' is.

[Que_Ball]

Certainly the old $100/$200 rules gave you an advantage if you just planned to cancel your data plan right away or after the 1 year was up. You still had to keep some kind of voice plan going after cancelling the data portion so it wasn't like you were free of your obligation.

BUT...

The new method is more fair in general.
They no longer force you to get any data plan. it just needs to be a combination of plans and features that total up to $50.
There are plenty of smart phones that do not require the $50 minimum if you want to keep the monthly plan cheaper.
Features now count toward your spending total. Before on the old rules they only counted the voice plan plus the data plan cost to meet the minimum spending. Features never helped meet your minimums.
The penalty is in proportion to the device you get. If you decide to buy a cheaper phone your penalties and early upgrade are that much lower too.
Early upgrades are no longer some black magic that the computer adds as a magic offer that just appears on your account out of the blue depending on how their last quarterly statement looked for subscriber churn.

So for all the complaints that myself and others post here about Telus and the other major carriers, I want to recognize that at least in this area overall Telus has done a good thing.

[DCloud82]

Very interesting!!!

That first part sounds exactly like what the clawback was back when the iPhone was firstintroduced at Rogers. They'd charge you for the HUP Subsidy if you dropped below a certain amount, BUT...that was gone a loooooooooong time ago.

This new policy makes fair sense....unfortunately!

TJ-thread-jack
Isn't Virgin a subsidiary of Telus? SO...if you already had tried them (IE, use the same towers as Telus), then your signal shouldn't be different? Although....Two years should've been enough time to have reinforced the network since you last used it.

I always forget Telus/Virgin & Bell/Koodo? or is it the opposite?

Did I jack a thread? Sorry.

I think Virgin/Solo/Bell are the same, and Koodo/Telus are the same. Also, I have learned that since Telus/Bell share towers, I suppose that makes their coverage even bigger. When I used Virgin years ago, I had no reception in the basement or the underground parking. This however may have been associated with the cheap phone I was using, it was a Samsung, flip phone with the antenna pulled out. Actually the phone was good overall, except for the crap reception I was getting.

I used to have my internet service with Primus, and let me tell you it sucked and they sucked! I've been there dealing with a bad company with bad service, again everything is matter of personal opinion and/or experiences. I am not saying that Telus has bad reception, bad service, etc., because I don't know. I know that I had no problems with Rogers, reception or customer service, billing error, etc.

I just want what works for me, I would like a BB Bold 9900, with which ever company that I will eventually decide to go with. Telus offers a cheaper rate, while Rogers is reliable for me. I'll decide next week.

[DCloud82]

Let me correct myself... its DECF not EDCF, which I actually found while googling it....

I noticed for the BB 9900, the cost was higher then of Rogers and Bell. I think the idea is to not have the need to cancell your services before the contract ends. Personally, I do not always want a new and better looking phone etc., my needs are balanced I guess. I'll sign a contract and live with it for the next three years, I don't think I would need to break contract, for any reason. Regarding which company is better, as far as I know, sticking with the Big Three, which ever one works for you, is the best way. They all have had negative and positive reviews from customers right? As someone once typed, "Pick your poison".

Thanks guys/girls, reading your posts makes me more informed.