As MobileSyrup exclusively reported last month, Fido has implemented some significant changes through its lineup while following owner Rogers in a modest brand refresh.
The Rogers flanker brand has refreshed logo featuring a slimmer, more modern font, though its doghouse companion has remained. The website has also received a nice overhaul; the new layout and colour combo feels airier, though the site is still not responsive.
Though Fido has done away with its FidoDollars loyalty program for its new plans, the company has implemented significant changes to its plan lineup, eliminating data from its low-subsidy Standard tier ($200 max), focusing instead on its Smart plan lineup ($350 max subsidy), which comes under the Fido Pulse brand.
While two years of free Spotify and Daily Vice content is the headline here, Fido has made small changes to its data allotments, adding 3GB and 4GB options, for $80 and $90 respectively, which, like all plans above 1GB, come with unlimited nationwide calling and texting.
Fido has also lowered the cost of its 1GB plan by $5 to $60, while replacing its $45/300MB and $50/500MB options with a $49/400MB. The $55/750MB plan is unchanged. The top-tier plan, $99/5GB plan, is also unchanged, though BYOD customers get it for $85.
The company has also shifted its BYOD options, replacing the standard 10% discount on all accounts with a more easily-understood $5 to $15 discount, depending on the plan.
Fido Max plans are still present, with their $450 maximum subsidy, but they can only be obtained on a 2-year plan, whereas the Standard and Smart plans come with bring-your-own-device discounts. Max plans all offer unlimited nationwide calling and texts, but cycle between 500MB, 1GB and 3GB of data for $80, $85 and $105 respectively.
Rogers’ deal with Spotify is notable here, since the Premium service regularly costs $9.99 per month. While the agreement is clearly meant to boost Spotify’s subscriber numbers in Canada, for millennial streaming music fans – Fido’s target audience here – it’s something that many would be choosing to subscribe to already, provided they’re not already paying for Rdio, Deezer, Google Play Music or many of the other paid streaming offerings in Canada. Rogers verifies users by their phone number, presumably authenticating using the Spotify API, so logins can’t be redeemed and applied to another account.
More interesting here is Daily Vice, a new app exclusively created for Fido customers. Last year, Rogers and Vice Media announced a $100 million content partnership, which included rights to all of Vice’s content and a deal to create a Toronto studio for original material.
Daily Vice is meant to be a companion to Vice’s existing online and television content. Fido customers can access a six-minute video prepared every morning, Monday to Friday, focusing on Canadian and international news. On Saturdays, Vice Daily will release a longform interview with “the biggest news and cultural influencers in Canada,” according to the company.
The deal is to provide Daily Vice free to Fido customers for two years, at which time subscribers will presumably charged a weekly or monthly fee for the content.
Right now, Daily Vice is available to everyone, Fido or not, for free for three weeks starting today at vice.com, but after that only Fido Pulse subscribers will be able to access the content. Fido Pulse users can authenticate their phone numbers for free Spotify or Vice access at FidoHub.
Like Rogers has done with its Share Everything Plans, pushing legacy customers towards more lucrative options with promises of value-added freebies like Shomi and NHL GameCentre Live, Fido’s new plans offer tangible benefits for new and exiting subscribers. That none of the plans are demonstrably more expensive than their legacy counterparts is a bonus.
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
