Vancouver-based national carrier Telus is launching a new set of rate plans and device financing options for customers in an effort to create simpler, more transparent wireless offerings for Canadians.
The launch includes three new programs: ‘Telus Easy Payment’ device financing, ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Simple Share’ rate plans and the Telus Family Discount.
“This is a program we’ve been working on for quite a while,” said Telus’ president of mobility, Jim Senko, in an interview with MobileSyrup.
“We believe the three things together really advances our customer-first orientation.”
Easy Payment brings transparency and simplicity to getting a phone
Easy Payment will give customers access to any smartphone in Telus’ lineup starting at $0 upfront, with financing options over 24 months. The carrier boasts Easy Payment will have transparent billing. The significant benefit here is that Easy Payment separates the cost of the device from the plan subscribers select.
In a document Telus shared with MobileSyrup, the company outlines how Easy Payment works using an iPhone XR as an example. It outlines how customers can pick from several Easy Payment options, which come down to how much they want to pay upfront versus how much they want to pay per month.
For example, ‘Zero Upfront Easy Payment’ means customers pay $0 up front, plus the cost of tax for the phone (in the case of an iPhone XR, that’s $137.80). Then, the customer would pay $44.17 per month for 24 months for the device. That totals up to $1,060.08 for the phone.
If you were to buy one directly from Apple at full price, an iPhone XR would cost $1,029.
While you end up paying a little more in the long run, it’s cheaper and more straightforward than Telus’ current plans and subsidies. Typically, you’d have to pick a subsidy tier for the device, such as Premium or Platinum.
That determines the cost you pay per month. With the current model, to get a $0 iPhone XR, a subscriber would have to pick the Platinum tier with plans that start at $125 for a plan with unlimited nationwide and 3GB of data. To compare, the new base plan (more on that below) plus the monthly financing cost works out to $119.17 before tax each month.
There are other options as well, such as ‘Low Upfront Easy Payment,’ where customers pay $130 plus the $137.80 tax upfront, and then $38.75 per month for 24 months. Additionally, customers can go with ‘Low Monthly Easy Payment’ where they pay $530 plus the tax upfront and then $22.08 per month for 24 months.
“We really wanted to create transparency around devices, not only what their functionality is but also what they cost,” Senko said. “This now separates the device payment from the network payment and gives our customers lots of choice on how much device do I need versus how much do I want to pay. Along the way, we’re providing zero percent financing to help them with that.”
New plans offer lots of data for not a lot of money
The second part of this initiative from Telus is the new rate plans. Senko said these plans were non-promotional.
“We’re launching six new rate plans, and that will be our new rate plan suite,” Senko said.
The new plans fall into two categories: no overage and sharing plans. The no overage plans, now called ‘Peace of Mind’ plans, are very similar to the No Overage plans that Telus previously launched — those plans were promotional, and availability ended on July 2nd.
The Peace of Mind plans start at $75 for 10GB of high-speed data. Subscribers can jump up to $95 per month for 20GB or $125 for 50GB of data as well. Again, this data isn’t shareable, and when users hit their high-speed cap, Telus will throttle the speed to 512Kbps. Additionally, these plans include unlimited nationwide talk and text. Further, the prices include all provinces of Canada, except Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
On top of that, Telus is launching three ‘Simple Share’ plans that match the Peace of Mind plans at $75 for 10GB, $95 for 20GB and $125 for 50GB. The difference: Simple Share plans have overages ($10 per 100MB), but you can share. So, if two customers get the $75 10GB Simple Share, they have a 20GB pool between them.
Other minor differences include how the plans handle tethering. Peace of Mind plans will allow you to tether other devices to your smartphone up until you hit your high-speed cap, while the Simple Share plans always allow you to tether, regardless if you go over.
Family Discount lets you save for each line you add
Telus’ new Family Discount program offers savings to those who have several lines. In the earlier example of two customers getting the $75 10GB plan, for the two lines Telus offer’s $5 off each line. In other words, both users would pay $70 per month instead.
If you have three lines, you get $10 off per line. If you have four or more lines, you get $15 off per line. Further, this applies to both Simple Share and Peace of Mind plans, so whether you want to add your whole family together and share a giant pool of data or give everyone their own bucket of unlimited data, you can do that.
So, if you had four people sign up for the $75 10GB Simple Share plan, each person would pay $60 per month, and the group would have 40GB of data to share.
Further, these plans are available for new subscribers, renewing subscribers and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) rate plan changes.
For Telus, this means greater simplicity in plans and pricing, and customers will benefit.
“The previous pricing construct in the industry was very complicated,” Senko said. “If I’m a customer wanting to upgrade, I’d have to navigate my way through multiple voice plans, multiple data plans, subsidy tiers. It was really confusing for customers, and frankly confusing for our employees. This basically means we end up going from 200 different rate plans down to six.”
Telus’ new rate plans, discounts and device financing options are shaping up to make the carrier’s offerings more clear and transparent for customers. Plus, wireless service is set to get much more affordable. You can learn more about these plans when they go live on Telus’ website, or you can click through to read more about Senko and why Telus is launching these plans.
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