This Govt Employee Plan worth it? From Baka Mobile (authorized Bell dealer)

[droidacolyte]

I am a government employee and thus I am eligible for this $22 talk & text plan (It's a personal use plan. Not a corporate plan). Hopefully there are some users on here who are familiar with this plan. If I add data ($25/500 MB minimum), I can get a brand new subsidized smartphone on a 3 year term. There are no promo plans for data. It's just the regular rates. $25/500 MB, $35/1 GB, $50/3 GB, $60/5 GB. I wasn't planning on getting a new phone anyway but if they are going to throw in a subsidized brand-new smartphone for a $47/month plan on a 3 year.

Ontario Government INDV 250 Rate Plan $22/month

250 Anytime Minutes
6PM-8AM (Early Start) Evenings And Weekends
Unlimited Local Incoming Calls
Unlimited Text Messaging
Digital Call Display
Message Centre (Voicemail)
Call Waiting
Conference Calling
Call Forwarding
Detailed Billing
Activation Fee Waived

Optional Add-Ons

Unlimited Canadian Long Distance: $15/month
Unlimited local calls to and from Bell Mobility phones: $10/month
iPhone visual voicemail: $13/month (wtf? awful)
Unlimited Candian Long Distance evenings and weekends: $35/month (why would they offer this for $35 when they have a straight up unlimited Canada-wide for $15? Is there something I'm missing?)

Additional Fees:
Additional anytime minutes: 10c/min
Canadian long distance: 8c/min
US long distance: 15c/min

Off-Contract Add-Ons (if I just get a SIM and keep my current phone or buy a new one outright)

Ontario Government Unlimited 10-4: $11.25/month (WOAH! This would give me unlimited airtime for 20/24 hours M-F)


Right now I'm with Koodo with a -$136 Tab (I got a $150 Best Buy gift card on the Tab as a BYOP client) and I pay $30/month for talk & text plus whatever I use for data on my data flex plan

Canada-Wide 25

100 Canada-wide anytime minutes
Canada-wide unlimited 7pm evenings and weekends
Caller ID/Voicemail 10
Call Waiting
Conference Calling

Active Add-Ons

Unlimited International text and picture messages: $5/month
Data Saver Data Flex Plan:
$5 : 25 MB
$10: 100 MB
$15: 300 MB (my general bracket. Though Koodo has a flat-rate $15/500 MB Data Connect add-on now. I'm thinking of switching to that one)
$20: 1 GB
$30: 3 GB

My friend (mobilesyrup regular) thinks I should jump on the Government Plan since the government plan is "amazing" for $22 (fair enough). He says that I probably don't really need the Canada-Wide that bad. Or worrying about details like US/international messaging and picture messaging since I almost never use those features. But I remain skeptical of this Baka Mobile. I understand at the end of the day it's still Bell Mobility. But if I have to go through Baka Mobile for the plan, I don't trust it. What happens if I want to add things to my plan in the future? Like Unlimited Canadian Long Distance. With Rogers, Bell or TELUS and the sub-brands, changing your plan is no problem. But what if you have to go through these third-party guys with a special government employee plan? And I bet I probably can't get $30/6 GB with Bell if I go through these guys on a government plan (not that I need 6 GB. But $25 for 500 MB is such poor value that you might as well).

Plus what do they mean by Unlimited Text Messaging? Is it the standard Bell Mobility unlimited text, picture and video messaging to Canada and US? Do I have to pay extra for US messaging? for picture messaging?

Also Koodo's plans are Canada-wide and I have been taking advantage of that recently making calls to the Guelph LCA without having to resort to a phone card/local access number. And if she gets a call from me from my regular number (and not my local access number) outside of 7pm evenings (she's with Koodo too), it won't use up her airtime because she has a 5 numbers add-on. I also had the 5 numbers ($10) add-on myself briefly when I was using more daytime minutes. But I haven't been using daytime mins much recently. Canada-wide is $15 extra with this employee plan (and other Bell plans) while Koodo's Canada-wide is included for "free."

And reading their terms and conditions, it seems like you have to pay not only Bell if you cancel your contract (up to $400 + $200 DECF) but also pay in full to Baka Mobile for the hardware discount (I guess it's because it's a cheap, special government plan?). Which is in the neighbourhood of $490. It seems shady to me.

I don't know, personally I'm weary of going into unfamiliar territory. If Bell Mobility offered this plan directly, I'd trust it. But I don't know about these Baka guys.

My sister works for the Ontario government too and she wants to get an iPhone 5 when it comes out on a 3 year on this $22 plan plus the $25/500 MB. I think for her, this plan would suit her. My brother has been on a Ontario govt family plan for about a year now and it works for him. Though he's not knowledgable enough about cell phone plans to be micro-managing add-ons and being nitpicky about things like I am. Or being outraged at contract terms. If I'm making a 3 year commitment to a company, it better be a brand I can trust or they should at least have a reasonable cancellation policy.

If I go off-contract and just get a SIM, I should be off the hook as far as obligations go though (that's how it should be anyway). But with Koodo I can already get all the daytime minutes I need at the moment for $30 (and I can upgrade as needed all the way up to Canada-wide unlimited) plus 500 MB ($15) for a plan total of $45/month. And I don't go over my limit. If I need more daytime minutes, I add a 5 numbers add-on ($10, bringing the plan to $55). Baka's crappy $25/500 MB data plan (which is there to subsidize smartphones on a 3 year basically) offsets whatever savings I get from the $22 talk and text plan. But yeah that is a sweet talk and text plan for $22. I'm a cheapskate at heart but I'm a "what if..." type of person and I don't like to inconvenience others just so that I can save money (Bell proper doesn't have Canada-wide included for "free" but everyone on Bell/Virgin I know who calls long-distance has a Fab 10 and not a phone card/local access number).

[droidacolyte]

Thanks for clarifying. I have some additional questions.

- Can you change your add-ons (like Unlimited Canadian long distace, government unlimited 10-4 and unlimited MMS) with this $22 employee plan? And are there are any limitations on how often you can change your add-ons? Or any admin fees you have to pay to do so?

- The off-contract $10 Unlimited On-Device Data will work on an Android phone (specifically my HTC)? That sounds too good to be true even without the tethering. Apps and everything on-device works over the mobile data network? The $10 unlimited mobile browsing from Bell, Rogers and MVNOs was a featurephone add-on and it was for "mobile browsing", not straight up unlimited data (so you couldn't use some apps with it).

- How much extra is tethering? Or is tethering completely disabled?

- How do you get the $10 Unlimited On-Device Data and $5 Unlimited MMS add-ons? Do you have to call in or go there in person to request it? I don't see those add-ons when building my plan from the $22 base plan on the site (there is a login username and password my employer gives out to us to order the devices/sim-only plans.)

- Since my sister is going to be getting a subsidized iPhone for sure, is the cancellation policy exactly like Bell's? $400 max + $200 max DECF? From what I read in the terms and conditions, it sounds like you have to pay off the hardware subsidy to Baka and then pay the standard Bell cancellation fee on top of that.

[lauriem]

Is this plan available to any Government of Ontario employee or is it the OPSEU plan?

[droidacolyte]

Thanks again.

So I read up on this UMB add-on on RFD. A lot of the users are concerned that post-paid clients may get hit with a surprise bill one day from Bell since we're not authorized to use the UMB on smartphones. Seems risky to me. When I removed the smartphone from my cart on Baka's site, I was able to see the $10 UMB add-on (what a pleasant surprise!). In the description it mentions "this feature is not applicable for Blackberry's and Smartphones". But yeah according to RFD, it still works with non-Blackberry smartphones. But it's supposed to be a Grandfathered Plan. Why is Baka still offering it? On the thread someone with a Samsung Galaxy S II called in to complain to Bell about a billing error and then a Bell rep actually took away his UMB on the spot because his device wasn't compatible (BAKA asks you for your ESN/IMEI btw if you are porting your number)

I'll let my sister know about the cancellation fee stacking. She's not going to leave Bell within 3 years anyway. It's not like Rogers or TELUS are anymore competitive or anything. She's happy with the $22 talk and text plan. The $25/500 MB data is a rip-off but Bell needs to pay off the subsidized iPhone somehow and 500 MB should be enough for the mainstream iPhone user (she plans on tethering to her Wi-Fi iPad 2 on the go but she would still be fine I think). And my sister would be hard-pressed to find anything better than a $47/month plan for a subsidized iPhone on a 3 year.

Personally I'm leaning towards staying with Koodo since the idea of paying $25/500 MB doesn't sit well with me. It seems wrong when we have been accustomed to seeing $30/6 GB. I could get a subsidized phone for that plan but the stacked ECF thing is crazy.

[jattdesi]

^ if Koodo suits your needs then stick with Koodo

[gundagordy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.666 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Whoa, Unlimited 10-4. That is an old school feature. I don't even think any current Bell Mobility handsets support this feature.

Unlimited "walkie-talkie." It was on most Sanyo CDMA phones.

[droidacolyte]

Would Bell pull a **** move and out of the blue one day charge people pay-per-use for data if they use a hspa+ smartphone? Since that plan isn't supposed to support smartphones. I don't want to find myself with a $350 bill one day using 6 GB at 5c/min or whatever the ppu rate is.

Also UMB is fully compatible with Google Play (Android Market) and all the Android apps I currently use over HSPA+ data? And HTC hotspot but no USB tethering. I got that right?

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using HowardForums

[droidacolyte]

K. I'll get a SIM-only activation and add the UMB for $32/month total and then add unlimited Canadian long distance and mms as needed in the future. I saw on my call history that I only had 71 Canadian LD minutes last month. More of minutes with her were incoming which is free with this plan (within my LCA). At 8c/min, I'd need to use 3 hrs+/month to justify unlimited.

Can you add a Fab 5/10 add-on by any chance? In case I need extra outgoing daytime mins (I don't now)

Also I switched to Koodo in January and gotta settle my tab on the way out (which I'm ok with. No crazy ECF). Does it hurt your credit rating to switch cell phone companies frequently like that on post-paid? Since I'll be getting another credit check.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using HowardForums

[droidacolyte]

I heard something about hard enquiries affecting credit. My Koodo activation was a hard enquiry. I ran my credit report recently. But I didn't get my score. That costs extra.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using HowardForums

[Jynx786]

What is the name of this actual plan?

I asked a friend who works at Bell about it and he searched by Ontario Government and couldn't find anything??

Thanks!

[droidacolyte]

Also 6 GB/$30 = subsidized phone. $10/UMB = no-contract.

I don't think you can get $30/6 GB with this corp plan though. Or can you? Outside of retentions naturally.

[HP_John]

The plan is so much better than what a reg new customer would be paying, so I say go for it.

[nikkk]

My buddy and me have this plan. We got it from our HR department. My buddy tells me that we can get a discounted device each year as long as we renew our contract for another 3 years. Is that true? I find it hard to believe.

[Spazmogen]

And I'll weigh in here as well; I love my new Bell plan. I just ported over from Rogers.

I am with the "community safety and correctional services" ministry. I did experience some difficulty in obtaining the 6gb data plan, but I did eventually succeed.

Stick with it. I can confirm the 12 month upgrade as well.

Attachment 83908

This plan will be tough to beat.

[drhollett]

Is there any federal government deals to? Both my fiancé and I work for the federal govt but when we check with HR they didn't know of any. Not to say there isn't any available.