Koodo, Fido, Virgin Plus try (and fail) to match Freedom with $34/50GB offers

The Big Three flanker brands, Koodo, Fido and Virgin Plus, have all rolled out $34/50GB plans to match offers from Freedom Mobile and Public Mobile.

Except, their offers don’t match up particularly well and I can’t think of a single good reason to go with one of these providers over Freedom or Public. The plans from Koodo, Fido and Virgin don’t have 5G and don’t have Canada-U.S. usage, making them a worse value by comparison.

You can pretty much stop reading here and head to either Public or Freedom to get the better plan (Update 05/03/2024 at 3:37pm ET: Public has removed Canada-U.S. usage from its $34/50GB plan, but it still has 5G, meaning it’s still better than the below offers. Public also has a $39/60GB 5G plan with Canada-U.S. usage now). But for the sake of posterity, I’ll detail the changes with Koodo, Fido and Virgin’s plans below.

Koodo

Telus-owned Koodo replaced its $39/mo 30GB 4G plan with the $34/50GB plan over the weekend. Nothing else with Kood has really changed and, humorously, the provider still lists its $40/mo 10GB 4G plan (which you absolutely should not waste your money on when $34/50GB plans exist). Also funny: Koodo lists the $34/50GB plan as ending on January 3rd, 2024.

Koodo’s $34/50GB plan is only available for bring-your-own-phone (BYOP) customers and includes unlimited Canada-wide calling and messaging. Customers can also pick one free perk from the following options: premium voicemail, unlimited international SMS sent from Canada, rollover data, or unlimited long-distance pack.

Check it out here. Or don’t, since it’s not really worth your money.

Fido

Like Koodo, Rogers-flanker Fido added a $34/50GB 4G plan to replace existing offers. Except, Fido replaced two plans, not one. Previously, the wireless provider had a $39/30GB plan and a $49/50GB plan. Both of those are gone in favour of the $34/mo offer.

However, it’s worth noting that Fido actually charges $39/mo for the 50GB plan but knocks off $5/mo when customers sign up for automatic payments. So, if you want that $34 price, you must use autopay. And if you don’t want to use autopay, don’t sign up with Fido and save yourself $5/mo.

Fido’s plan includes unlimited Canada-wide calling and texting, plus international texting when sent from Canada. Check it out here, though I don’t really recommend it, given the other options out there.

Virgin Plus

Finally, Bell’s Virgin Plus also has a $34/mo 50GB plan with 4G LTE data. Like the others, Virgin’s plan replaces the $39/30GB plan it had before. The $34 plan is limited to new activations and BYOP.

It’s worth noting that Virgin limits the quality of video streamed over data to 480p, so if you’re a big video watcher, Virgin might not be the best choice for you.

And, in this situation, Virgin really isn’t the best choice since you can pay the same $34/mo elsewhere and get 50GB of 5G data instead. But, if you really want, you can find Virgin’s plan here.