I am looking into getting a family plan on Telus and move 4 numbers over. I have a couple of questions that I can't seem to find on the Telus website.

1) The base plan ($80) how many numbers does that include? With the rogers one it says $100 for the first 2 numbers and $40 for each additional number thereafter.

2) If we get a smartphone share plan can we mix and match phones? for example can we put an iphone 3G a new blackberry 9700, a Storm 2 and a 'dumbphone' on the account? or do they all need to be smartphones?

many thanks

Depends on what you're looking to move over. There's Share Plans, Share Plans for iPhone, and Share Plans for Smartphones. The only difference is that the latter two include data.

You can mix and match the lines on your account. As long as they're Share Plans then the minutes all pool together. Features and data are all individualized.

The plans you see on the TELUS site are for 1 phone. So if you wanted a price for 2 phones you would pick 2 plans and add it up. For example, if you have your own main line and want to add someone who does not talk too much, then it might look something like Clear Choice Share Plan 30 + Clear Choice Share Plan 20 = $50.

It would be a Share for smartphones. So I can use a combination of CDMA (Storm2) and then an unlocked iPhone 3G, Blackberry 9700 and then a regular phone?

For that it would be two Clear Choice Share Plan for Smartphones + Clear Choice Share Plan for iPhone + Clear Choice Share Plan. Minimum I suppose you would be looking at is $50 + $50 + $50 + $20.

how does that work? whats the point in having 'a share plan for smartphone' when i have to get 4 individual plans? the point of the family sharing plan is to consolidate all into one plan.

They still work out to be chaper then Rogers do that math. Telus share plans are the best you can pick any share plan, so one can go on share 100 the other one go on share 20. So for a total of $120 you have two share plans and your minutes are pooled and unlimited nationwide calling between the phones. above is just an example. You can pick any share plan. So can pick share plan $30 x 4 and then add data as an add on. These are just examples. you can mix and match

Personally I find the concept of a Share Plan to be better than a Family Plan. With a Family Plan you had a large bucket of minutes that anyone can go into, but the problem was you would never know how much everyone else had taken.

For example, let's say you had a family plan with 400 minutes. For all you know, your other line could have taken 399 leaving you with 1. With a share plan though, you both might have 200 minutes each, so that gives you an idea of your own limits.

Let's say one line uses 250 while the other uses only 50. The remaining 150 would transfer to the 250 to avoid any overusage charges. It's still LIKE a family plan in that combined you have 400 minutes, but it's easier to manage in that you all have your own separate allotments.

And for families that want each member paying their own share, they now know what their share is. With a Family Plan it was $35 for the first member, then $15 for additonal members. On the bill it breaks it down like that, but between 2 lines is it fair for the second one only to pay $15?

Does 1 line need a feature but not the other? With the family plan you paid 1 price and all your lines would get the feature. With the share plan 1 line can take a feature and the other doesn't have to. Again, making it easier to manage and understand.

^^ That's what i'm thinking as well.

So, correct me if i'm wrong .. but every member of the share plan needs to have an individual share plan, right? its not like two cdma phones (or sim cards for their new network) are given out for one share plan, correct?

Each line needs to have it's own plan. Always has been that way, just presented in a different way with the Family plans. In the past there would be a primary, would who carry the bulk of the plan and additional lines would be $15 to link on.

So for example, in the past there would be the Family Talk 50. It's $50 for 2 lines, but when you look at your invoice it would be broken down into $35 for the first line then $15 for the second. It wasn't a $50/$0 or $25/$25 split.

The main selling points of the Family plans were combined minutes and calling between each other was covered. Those points are still in the Share Plans as the minutes combine and you're still able to call each other. However, the way Share Plans work is easier to manage and understand.

Consider this, you start off with a small Family plan, but then your needs grow and you need more minutes, you have to change for everyone. But as time goes on, as we've seen, the plans get kind of worse. For this example, let's say it was during the time when 6pm nights moved to 9pm.

To accommodate more minutes for the one user, all the users lose out now on 6pm nights to shift up to a large plan. With the Share plans though, rather than linking onto a main plan they each have their own and the minutes just merge up. If one line needs to change, the others still keep what they wanted since you're not making changes to all the lines, just the one.

If you really want to do it like the old Family Plans, you can still just get a really large minute plan for 1 line then put the other on Share 20 which is minimal and will just leech their minutes from the other one.