 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion Groups General General TopicsGSMBluetoothProviders AlltelATT WirelessCingularFidoNextelSprint PCST-MobileVerizonManufacturers EricssonNokiaMotorolaCountry Specific Australian GroupUK GroupRelated Topics PocketPCPalmMore Topics ... |
Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Fido / October 2003www.cityfido.ca (unlimited anytime local calling)
City Fido Takes to the Streets October 9 in Greater Vancouver: Microcell Launches the First Home and Mobile Service in Canada MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 2003--Microcell Solutions Inc., the national provider of Personal Communications Services (PCS) under the Fido(R) brand name, today announced the upcoming launch of City Fido(TM), the true alternative to traditional wireline telephone service. "Since its inception, Microcell has pursued a path of innovation and built new ways for Canadians to use wireless technology as their preferred everyday communications tool," stated Andre Tremblay, President and Chief Executive Officer of Microcell Telecommunications Inc. "Our vision has always been to give Canadians an alternative to traditional wireline telephone service, and City Fido does just that. This new initiative is supported by various market studies that indicate that a growing number of people are now ready to go completely wireless, and Microcell is proud to be spearheading this new category of service in Canada. It's an enormous leap forward for our company and a critical stage in the evolution of Canada's wireless industry." For a price comparable to that of their current local service, customers can now have a home phone that is also a mobile phone. Attractively priced at $40 per month, City Fido provides unlimited anytime local calling in the Greater Vancouver area. As with Fido Service, customers receive a number of Included Services, such as Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and Conference Call. Other valuable services, such as Text Messaging, Call Display, Voice Messaging, long distance, mobile Internet and data transmission, national roaming on Fido's network and international roaming in 139 countries, are also available at affordable prices with City Fido. In addition, the vast majority of customers will have the option of transferring their existing home or single-line business phone number to their City Fido service and keeping their white pages directory listing, while enjoying the benefits of a fully mobile service. In fact, Microcell is the first and currently the only wireless company in North America to offer Local Number Portability. Customers will also retain access to 911 emergency service and 411 directory assistance. "More than just another airtime package or service bundle, City Fido is a completely new category of wireless service and the first of its kind in Canada. This fully integrated service adapts perfectly to the needs and lifestyles of single urbanites, young professionals, students, SOHOs, and anyone who wants to add the benefit of mobility and larger local calling area to their local phone service," said Alain Rheaume, President and Chief Operating Officer of Microcell Solutions. "It's one phone, one number, one bill, and the only phone service they'll ever need." City Fido includes unlimited local calling throughout the entire Lower Mainland of British Columbia, covering a larger Local Calling Area than the incumbent telephone company. A 25 cent fee for 911 emergency service is added to the monthly service charges. A one-time $50 management fee applies upon activation. There are no additional or recurring charges for system access, white pages listing, or phone number transfer. Customers in Greater Vancouver can subscribe to City Fido starting October 9 by visiting any Fido corporate or retail partner location, or by calling 1 888 481-FIDO (3436). Full details and conditions will also be available as of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to raise the rates and then you will have to go back to your phone company and pay another activation fee. Afterall, it will be hard for FIDO to make any money on this in the long-term. : City Fido Takes to the Streets October 9 in Greater Vancouver: Microcell : Launches the First Home and Mobile Service in Canada [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] : 888 481-FIDO (3436). Full details and conditions will also be available as : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. > My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to raise > the rates and then you will have to go back to your phone company and pay > another activation fee. Afterall, it will be hard for FIDO to make any > money on this in the long-term. How do you know this to be the case...? Cost structures vary by company. : > My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to : raise [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] : : How do you know this to be the case...? Cost structures vary by company. One has to look at history to look forward in the future. The fact that FIDO recently got out of financial difficulty warrants concern. > : > My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to > : raise [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > One has to look at history to look forward in the future. The fact that > FIDO recently got out of financial difficulty warrants concern. Why is that? Microcell isn't really owned by anyone EXCEPT a syndicate of bankers right now. It is judged on EBITDA. Relative to this barometer it is doing extremely well. When compared to the Microcell prior to restructuring, it is performing amazingly better (read positive EBITDA vs negative EBITDA). > Why is that? Microcell isn't really owned by anyone EXCEPT a syndicate of > bankers right now. It is judged on EBITDA. Relative to this barometer it is > doing extremely well. When compared to the Microcell prior to restructuring, > it is performing amazingly better (read positive EBITDA vs negative EBITDA). Microcell had positive EBITDA prior to bankrupcy and had it for quite a few quarters. However, once you factored in debt payments, interests etc, Microcell was dead. What this crisis did however is force Microcell to convert itself from its .COM wasteful personality into a lean and mean organisation. It closed unprofitable subsidiaries such as I5, and merged connexions with solutions to streamline operations/management. It also layed off people. In short, it forced Microcell to turn itseld a .com "money is no limit" into a more mature organisation that is accountable to its shareholders: the banks. You'll notice that Sirois was shunted to a siding in the process. He is the architect of such failures as Teleglobe. (Yes, it was Sirios that setup Teleglobe for a fall, Bell was just stupid enough to buy it after the timer had been set for Teleglobe to implode). Microcell now has an unfair advantage afforded to it by bankrupcy. With its debts essentially wiped out, it has a lot mroe freedom to act. This is in many ways similar to Air Canada when it was privatised. When the fed govt sold AC's shares to the public, instead of the proceeds going back to taxpayers, it went towards paying Air Canada's debts. So in the late 1980s, Air Canada was debt free. Problem is that it went on a spending binge, consistently spending money to hurt Canadian Airlines, and growing its fleet just so that AC could advertise more flights than Canadian on certain routes. As long as Microcell is reasonable with its new freedom, it should be able to come out of this quite strong. But if the CityFido turns out to be a spending binge for Microcell, then Microcell will slowly sink into bankrupcy again. Second time around though, there may not be anyone to rescue it. > My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to raise > the rates and then you will have to go back to your phone company and pay > another activation fee. Afterall, it will be hard for FIDO to make any > money on this in the long-term. I am not sure of that. At this pont in time, if Fido has some unusused capacity in its network, it essentially costs it nothing to provide this service. The real problem comes if too many people sign up for this deal and this degrades the Fido network with lots of "system busy" messages preventing folks from making calls. At that point, either Fido starts to get a very bad reputation, or it has to spend the money to upgrade its network to add more capacity. My guess is that there is a limit to the market Fido is after. They'll get young urban professionals without kids. Also, one has to consider busy hours. During the day, the urban professional is at his job, with landline phone service provided by his employer. Fido already provides unlimited calling for evenings and weekends in many packages, so after work hours, that urban professional probably won't be using much more resources than if he had an unlimited eveniongs and weekends package. And the one market Fido will get is the small percentage of folks to whom their landline number was dear and now that they can move it to a mobile phone, they will jump on the opportunity. This is probably a market that will develop over time as new generatiosn grow up without an attachement to a landline. But I see a progressive adoption of mobile as principal phone, not a revolution. >This is probably a market that will develop over time as new generatiosn grow >up without an attachement to a landline. But I see a progressive adoption of >mobile as principal phone, not a revolution. Does anyone happen to know if the Finns are living without land lines; since they are the ones supposed to have more cell phones than anyone else on this little globe of ours. After all, if they can do it so can Microcell. ;-) >Does anyone happen to know if the Finns are living without land lines; since >they are the ones supposed to have more cell phones than anyone else on this >little globe of ours. Seems to me that I recall that some Finns do just that for their vacation homes anyway. I think Nokia had some sort of interface so they could use their mobile phones at home by docking the phone in a cradle and then they could use their regular wired phones while they were at their place. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To send an email reply send to GSMthemobilestandard (@) yahoo.com : Does anyone happen to know if the Finns are living without land lines; since : they are the ones supposed to have more cell phones than anyone else on this : little globe of ours. : : After all, if they can do it so can Microcell. ;-) The european market is different than ours. They are more advanced than we are in North America. : I am not sure of that. At this pont in time, if Fido has some unusused : capacity in its network, it essentially costs it nothing to provide this service. [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] : up without an attachement to a landline. But I see a progressive adoption of : mobile as principal phone, not a revolution. I don't know, Rogers High speed cable pops to mind: A few years ago, Rogers was signing up everyone and their network took a major beating. Connectivity was very poor. The network went down often. They signed on more people than their network could effectively support. Ultimately, they sold their rights to the West to Shaw Cable. The problem with this unlimited calling, is it encourages people to yap on their bloody cell phone. This not only cloggs up their radio towers, but more importantly, fills up the LIMITED number of interconnecting lines with the outside world. I have never had so many "WE'RE SORRY ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY< PLEASE TRY YOUR CALL AGAIN LATER" messages when trying to call friends and clients on Fido as I have had lately. I even went as far as calling Telus, and after waiting on hold for 15 minutes (I guess I was one of the lucky ones that got through after 15 minutes) the operator said they have been getting many complaints. Many people do not even know they are calling cell phones, and they are calling the same old number they always called. (including myself) The operator said that Fido does not have enough CO lines to serve their customer base. With conventional metered cellular, since people are paying to use the phone, they tend to limit the length of the calls, and the wireless providers have been well served by having 1 line available for 100 wireless customers. Back when many carriers started offering free evenings and weekends it became clear that 100:1 loading was not good, and the major carriers installed extra capacity to handle the extra load. The phone companies will not disclose what their exact capacity is, but it is suspected that it is in the 25:1 ratio by the major carriers these days. With fido offering unlimited free calling, and the rate that prople are signing up, and engaging in long, care free phone calls (mainly the teens and young adults) the ratio between CO lines and users is closer to 2:1 if not 1:1. Well they are not even close. The person at telus that I spoke to said, and I will quote "They have 1,000 lines for 50,000 subscribers. Once those 1,000 lines fill up, you are going to get the recording, and there isn't anything you can do but keep trying your call untill someone hangs up the phone." It took me 45 minutes to get a call through between 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. Today I tried calling another friend that changed their home service to fido, and I had to call 6 times to get through. 4 times I got the telus operator telling me all circuits were busy, and 2 times the call did not go through. Things are only gonna get worse, and my fear is that fido will continue to load up the network, and will not expand their CO lines to interconnect to the outside world. This only affects calling the outside world. Aparantly they have oddles of bandwidth for calling from one dog phone to another. >> My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to raise >> the rates and then you will have to go back to your phone company and pay [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] >up without an attachement to a landline. But I see a progressive adoption of >mobile as principal phone, not a revolution. > Things are only gonna get worse, and my fear is that fido will continue to load > up the network, and will not expand their CO lines to interconnect to the > outside world. This only affects calling the outside world. Aparantly they have > oddles of bandwidth for calling from one dog phone to another. FUD. You make up conjecture to try and scare the masses, huh? I've made, maybe, 125 calls this week and most were to numbers outside the Microcell network. I also received a ton of calls this week and no complaints of.. "man.. I've been trying to call you for the last half hour dude.. and the call doesn't go through...", my acquaintances would have told me (they would have reason to). These occurred at varying times (day and evening) and didn't have one issue.. well.. that's not quite true.. every call went through without the problems you noted.. I guess that's an issue when compared to your posting. >It took me 45 minutes to get a call through between 4:00 and 5:00 in the >afternoon. Today I tried calling another friend that changed their home service >to fido, and I had to call 6 times to get through. 4 times I got the telus >operator telling me all circuits were busy, and 2 times the call did not go >through. I havn't had any problems all weekend. All calls connected just fine. Maybe it's just the location you or your friend are in? Regardless, I wouldn't switch to Telus or Rogers under any circumstances. If you've been following the news, there's reports that Telus may very shortly face huge daily fines imposed on them by the CRTC for failing to provide adequate minimum service levels. Sounds a lot more to me like the problem is on Telus's end and not Fido's... >My concern is that either Fido will go belly up or that they decide to raise >the rates and then you will have to go back to your phone company and pay >another activation fee. Afterall, it will be hard for FIDO to make any >money on this in the long-term. OIC we're back to the doom and gloom of Fido's death prediction. I wondered how long it would be before someone brought it up again. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To send an email reply send to GSMthemobilestandard (@) yahoo.com I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price very long and maintain their current quality of service. At some point, Fido will increase their rates. Probably sooner than later. Congestion will be a major issue for them. Again, this is the competition talking. And they have no plans to offer this kind of service for this price. BTW, I was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of 5000 hours/month. : City Fido Takes to the Streets October 9 in Greater Vancouver: Microcell : Launches the First Home and Mobile Service in Canada [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] : 888 481-FIDO (3436). Full details and conditions will also be available as : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > And they have no plans to offer this kind of service for this price. BTW, I > was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of 5000 hours/month. Who cares what the competition says, like they would ever tell the truth. Just because robbers network is maxed out and always has fast busy signals doesn't mean that Microcell doesn't have tons of capacity in any given market. People the the ted should STFU and worry about improving their own crappy network instead of trying to predict how their competitors will perform. > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price > very long and maintain their current quality of service. At some point, > Fido will increase their rates. Probably sooner than later. Congestion > will be a major issue for them. Fido will simply need to stop advertising its local-phone service if congestion becomes a problem. And I don't think this plan will really be that different from those which provide unlimited night/weekend calling. The big difference is number portability. >>that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price >>very long and maintain their current quality of service. At some point, [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > And I don't think this plan will really be that different from those which > provide unlimited night/weekend calling. The big difference is number portability. I suspect that this is the reason for rolling it out in Vancouver first, to see how the demand is. As I can see it Fido/MCell already has good coverage over the Lower Mainland, better than the competition, and give it is 1900MHz, probably more towers. They have spare capacity, significant. They will not need more towers until they have a good revenue stream (lots of subscribers). If it is successful, they have the money for more towers, if it is not successful, they are still better off (since that capacity is not being used). It could be tremendously successful if you get lots of teenagers using the service. The big concern is what is the potential loss of higher paying users switching to CityFido. At worst, they upset some people in Vancouver, drop the push, and they have learned something with a little extra revenue. If it works, they can spread it across the country. Andrew >As I can see it Fido/MCell already has good coverage over the Lower >Mainland, better than the competition, and give it is 1900MHz, probably [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >successful, they are still better off (since that capacity is not being >used). Well, "airtime" costs nothing to Fido, aside from tower maintenance and building new towers if demand increases, so they might as well increase usage until they're approaching network capacity (which is apparently far higher than what's currently in use). The majority of Fido customers were probably on a $20-30 plan before CityFido came around (or even on prepaid plans), which means anywhere from a $10-20 or more increase in revenue per-subscriber. If roumers of 40,000 accounts being changed over to CityFido are correct, that's $400,000 - $800,000 a month or more in additional revenue, not counting if people wants extras such as voicemail, etc. >It could be tremendously successful if you get lots of teenagers using >the service. Exactly. And their drive towards having people's Fido cell phone as their "main contact phone" is pretty brilliant. A lot of people are reluctant to let go of their cell phone number, and this is another case where a good plan makes it even more likely that people will stay on the Fido network, and possibly bring their friends too. >The big concern is what is the potential loss of higher paying users >switching to CityFido. To be sure, they'll lose some higher-end users, but the vast majority of cell users probably is at, or below the $40 price mark. So switching users over to CityFido isn't all that dangerous to Microcell. If you got the network capability, use it ;P > To be sure, they'll lose some higher-end users, but the vast majority > of cell users probably is at, or below the $40 price mark. So > switching users over to CityFido isn't all that dangerous to > Microcell. But it is to Telus and Rogers in Vancouver.. >> To be sure, they'll lose some higher-end users, but the vast majority >> of cell users probably is at, or below the $40 price mark. So >> switching users over to CityFido isn't all that dangerous to >> Microcell. > >But it is to Telus and Rogers in Vancouver.. I think that's the idea :) All of my friends with Fido phones have now switched to CityFido, and those of my friends with Telus phones are crying the blues because they're on contract (and because they don't want to lose their phone number). Shame that Fido can't switch numbers from other cell carriers over - they could DECIMATE Rogers and Telus :) >Shame that Fido can't switch numbers from other cell carriers over - >they could DECIMATE Rogers and Telus :) Would like that very much :-))) > >Shame that Fido can't switch numbers from other cell carriers over - > >they could DECIMATE Rogers and Telus :) > > Would like that very much :-))) couldn't care less what happens to rogers, but want telus to burn in hell. worst compnay ever in the history of the world. >>>Shame that Fido can't switch numbers from other cell carriers over - >>>they could DECIMATE Rogers and Telus :) [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > couldn't care less what happens to rogers, but want telus to burn in hell. > worst compnay ever in the history of the world. You've never been on Rogers, have you? ;) > >>>Shame that Fido can't switch numbers from other cell carriers over - > >>>they could DECIMATE Rogers and Telus :) [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > You've never been on Rogers, have you? ;) Nope. Never been on any other celleular plan except fido. My bad experinces come from Telus home service. Being kept on hold for three hours. Having customer "service" reps speak abusively, and refuse to give thier name before hanging up. Phone line diconcted without cause, twice in the space of a month, on acount of a billing error that Telus made. Telus using "creative invoicing:", that is, adding long distance calls to places I have never, ever called, like say, Montana. <snip> > Nope. Never been on any other celleular plan except fido. My bad experinces > come from Telus home service. Being kept on hold for three hours. Having [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > invoicing:", that is, adding long distance calls to places I have never, > ever called, like say, Montana. Okay, I've had a few of those and some other ones with Rogers, but 3 hours?!? You win! > couldn't care less what happens to rogers, but want telus to burn in hell. > worst compnay ever in the history of the world. Did Telus inherit more corporate philosophy from BC Tel or from AGT ? > > couldn't care less what happens to rogers, but want telus to burn in hell. > > worst compnay ever in the history of the world. > > Did Telus inherit more corporate philosophy from BC Tel or from AGT ? I would say they inhertied most of thier bad traits from AGT. BCTel was a decent, if not great company. I know two people who have worked for Telus for more than 20 years, and both say that it was an excellent company to work for until the "merger", which was not really a merger at all. Telus ruined clearnet too. <quote who= Just a Guy You Know email=novalid@nowhere.here.com/>: > Shame that Fido can't switch numbers from other cell carriers over - > they could DECIMATE Rogers and Telus :) Anyone know what the percentage of switches also include a landline switch? I'd be curious to know how many are using this plan to rid of their landland and how many are treating this as simply a great plan and keeping their landlines.. J  SignatureJustin F. Knotzke jknotzke@shampoo.ca http://www.shampoo.ca "Let's go first class... the whole bag." - P.E.T ><quote who= Just a Guy You Know email=novalid@nowhere.here.com/>: > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >and how many are treating this as simply a great plan and keeping their >landlines.. Call Telus on your Fido phone and ask. ;-) >I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel >that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >And they have no plans to offer this kind of service for this price. BTW, I >was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of 5000 hours/month. That's interesting. There is only 8,760 hours in a year. I believe that is suposed to be minutes. >>I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel >>that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >That's interesting. There is only 8,760 hours in a year. 5000 hours per month? Guessing you mean minutes - as in a 30 day month there are only 720 hours. > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 71 lines] > : 888 481-FIDO (3436). Full details and conditions will also be available as > : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. Rrrright. Sorry about that. I called Fido today, directly. They say that there is NO cap. It doens't matter to me because I'll never get that close anyways. : 5000 hours per month? Guessing you mean minutes - as in a 30 day month : there are only 720 hours. [quoted text clipped - 94 lines] : as : > : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. It is minutes, which works out to about 2 1/2 hours a day. >5000 hours per month? Guessing you mean minutes - as in a 30 day month >there are only 720 hours. [quoted text clipped - 94 lines] >as >> : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. >It is minutes, which works out to about 2 1/2 hours a day. There is no cap - it's just in there for legal reasons so Fido can go after people who abuse the network if the need arises. > >It is minutes, which works out to about 2 1/2 hours a day. > > There is no cap - it's just in there for legal reasons so Fido can go > after people who abuse the network if the need arises. Hehe, "unlimited service", yet "abuse" is still possible??? I think the legal situation would be what "unlimited" really meant... The Fido site does mention Fido reserves the right to ask you to reduce your usage if you go over 5000 minutes, 2500 sms, or 1gb data. This was most likely put in place for their unlimited packages available prior to City Fido. My isp has traffic quotas and will bill me if I go over the one for my level of service.. If you get to use the 5000 minutes in a month try comparing that to any plan cost wise.... Funny thing, last week the competition was at my workplace doing the "can you hear me know thing" to figure out where the dead spots are in our building. We're in a corridor where they had no signal at all when my phone rang. The competition guys looked at my phone and said yours works. That's when I pointed out my phone is on Fido. > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 71 lines] > : 888 481-FIDO (3436). Full details and conditions will also be available as > : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. yayaya. Keep spouting BS cause you CANNOT find a credible reason why people should sign up with you rather than cityfido// > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 71 lines] > : 888 481-FIDO (3436). Full details and conditions will also be available as > : of October 9 at www.cityfido.ca. > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > And they have no plans to offer this kind of service for this price. BTW, I > was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of 5000 hours/month. lemme repeat what i've said countless times online in other boards. i live in GVA and use Fido. since Oct 9 i haven't encountered any network degradation in GVA. i'll just leave it at that. i'm just so tired of elaborating my experiences with the Fido network over and over again when people who don't even use Fido says they hear it from "other people". who are these other people ?? Robbers/Telus/Bell dealers ?? i've seen other posts by telus dealers who made claims about the microcell overloading blah blah blah. if you're a telus dealer i won't take it word for word for what you say about your competitors' network. use logic and your brain before you believe everything you read and hear ! your entire post is based on the competition says. since when has macdonald's said burger is better or air canada says westjet is better ?? as for the 5000 minutes, every provider has such clauses (altho they may not explicitly state 5000 minutes) to cover their a&&es in case of abuse. the 5000-min limit is just a "soft limit". if any of you feels like signing up for CityFido. go ahead. if you don't like it, get network congestions problems as some people who don't even use it and quote the competition for its words (and stupid enuf to take it), you have no contract to sign. you can get a full refund if returned within 15 days (if you cancel after 15 days then you get charged the hardware subsidy but if before 15 days then it's a full refund.) > > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > you get charged the hardware subsidy but if before 15 days then it's a > full refund.) Yes the service is unlimited, there is no 5000 minute 'limit'. The user agreements are on the www.fido.ca website, the reason they are not on the www.cityfido.ca is because it does not apply. This is a totally different service, and not just another plan but a landline replacement. It says unlimited on the website, and it is unlimited. You will get tagged for abuse though, 18000 minutes per month..think about it, any provider would call that abuse. Mark, take your biased head out of your a.s. The Fido techs have been working on the network for the past four months, they know what they can handle..you don't. : Mark, take your biased head out of your a.s. The Fido techs have been : working on the network for the past four months, they know what they : can handle..you don't. Geezus, how some people get their panties in a knot. I'm just bringing in a different perspective. It's not surprising that this is the kind flaming one would get in a FIDO newsgroup. However, I'd expect a bit more analytical opinions rather than biased ones. A few replies to my posts have been. And I never said I was a tech nor have I implied this. All I know is what I have been told. I have no idea how anyone came to the assumption that I was a tech nor do I know all the facts that's why I posted. Perhaps you and those that don't know how to read and understand English should take an English class so that you can better understand comprehend the English language. And while you're at it, take one in logical reasoning too. But, don't be too hard on yourselves if you get an F. And whatever happens with the Fido network as a result of this new development, one would have been a total ignorant dumb a.s if one did NOT explore the [possible] consequences or assumptions of switching over. In this marketing game, one really cannot believe either Fido or his competitors. Both want your business. For some, switching back and forth will be more costly if the service declines with Fido or if Fido increases their rates. Simply put, switching back may not be an option for some or many consumers. It's too soon to tell what the service will be like in the near future. They'll be nothing worse than if someone needs to make a 911 call and they can't because the network is busy or down. Only time will tell. >BTW, I >was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of 5000 hours/month. Unless they have this written into their advertising they will have a law suit on their hands if they try to enforce 5000 hours. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To send an email reply send to GSMthemobilestandard (@) yahoo.com In the past, even if prices increase or price plans change, Fido has always allowed you to keep your current plan with no changes. There are a lot of Fido subscribers who are currently on plans that are not available any longer. Although I have seen no mention of this, if CityFido does decide to increase it's rates or cease the CityFido service, it is likely that those who have signed up for their $40/month unlimited service will be able to keep it. That is mere speculation based upon past experience; I have not heard this directly from Fido/CityFido. At the same time, as with many things, when the novelty of having "unlimited" airtime dies down, people will likely not use the phone as much and those who do use it a lot (for business and other uses) will probably use it about the same without abusing the system. How many people use their home phones continuously because it is unlimited? Joe > I talked to a few people today about this: the competition and they all feel > that this is a lure by Fido. Fido will not be able to sustain this price [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > And they have no plans to offer this kind of service for this price. BTW, I > was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of 5000 hours/month. > In the past, even if prices increase or price plans change, Fido has always > allowed you to keep your current plan with no changes. Wrong. Fido imposed a 1000 minute limit on call forwarding and this wasn't grandfathered to existing customers. One was not allowed to keep the old $20 package with $48 annual fee. One was forced to pay the $27.00 monthly package without annual fee. When Fido ruined the SMS, did those on the $2.00 package retain that package ? I know that on Fidopro, the Fidopro was changed to reflect the damagaged SMS pricing. No longer able to receive SMS sent from Web or TAP without paying for it. Also, when Fido chenged from answer-to-end to send-to-end, all subscribers got the effective increase in price, and weren't even told about it. In fairness, early subscribers to the $20 package did see an automatic doubling of allowed minutes from 100 to 200 minutes. And voice mail users were allowed to use a landline to access voice mails without incurring mobile airtime. >And voice mail users were > allowed to use a landline to access voice mails without incurring mobile airtime. You still can... >> >And voice mail users were > > allowed to use a landline to access voice mails without incurring mobile > airtime. > > You still can... But initially, one couldn't. The "free" landline access to voice mail came to counter the bad news of the imposition of limits on call forwarding. > >> >And voice mail users were > > > allowed to use a landline to access voice mails without incurring mobile [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > But initially, one couldn't. The "free" landline access to voice mail came to > counter the bad news of the imposition of limits on call forwarding. I don't know where you got that idea from, I've been with Fido since before there was a limit on call forwarding and have never been charged for accessing my VM from a land line. TTYL > I don't know where you got that idea from, I've been with Fido since > before there was a limit on call forwarding and have never been charged for > accessing my VM from a land line. TTYL It was deducted from your airtime. Not an additional charge. > > I don't know where you got that idea from, I've been with Fido since > > before there was a limit on call forwarding and have never been charged for > > accessing my VM from a land line. TTYL > > It was deducted from your airtime. Not an additional charge. No, it wasn't. I never lost one minute of airtime due to accessing my VM from a land line. TTYL I see where you are going with this, and all are valid points but I was referring to things like the $30 plan that gave you 100 minutes during the day and unlimited evenings and weekends, or the FREEDAY plan, or one of the myriad of other promotional plans that they have come up with over the past several months. Even though the plan itself is no longer offered, subscribers are permitted to keep the plan until such time that they switch plans. Joe > > In the past, even if prices increase or price plans change, Fido has always > > allowed you to keep your current plan with no changes. [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > doubling of allowed minutes from 100 to 200 minutes. And voice mail users were > allowed to use a landline to access voice mails without incurring mobile airtime. > BTW, I was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of > 5000 hours/month. Perhaps I'm doing my math wrong here, but in a 31 day month, there are only 744 hours total. 5,000 hours is 208 days nonstop. Did you mean 5000 minutes per month? That's 83 hours, of course, which works out to just over 2 hours and 40 minutes per day. Could be a concern for anyone that has multiple teens in the house. Jason That cap on City Fido os BS. There is NO cap!!! It's just Rogers and Telus ppl spouting BS cause their business is getting hit and they're probably sick of hearing about Fido.. For the regular unlimited eves/weekends, there IS a SOFT cap of 5000 minutes but even if you achieve that, you shouldn't have any problems. I know people that use 10-12,000 a month with no letter about abuse.. This is all scare tactics by the "big 3" which by the way all have soft caps as well. > > BTW, I was told that the unlimited calling has indeed a cap of > > 5000 hours/month. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Jason |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.