[sareon]

I am almost done my three year contract with Bell. I don't mind them so I don't mind staying with them. I want the N4 and I talked to retentions about what I could get post-plan if I brought in my own phone. They seemed quite confused and couldn't give me any better deals than a new customer. If I had gotten one of their subsidized phoned on a new 3-year deal they would have been able to give me a better deal. I would even be willing to go on a 1-2 year deal with an N4 but alas they seem like they don't know how to deal with this situation.

I could just go with the Samsung Galaxy SIII which wouldn't be a bad phone but it wouldn't be carrying the vanilla Android but rather Bell's variant (which I am not sure how bad it is).

I've looked at other carriers, Koodo, Fido, Wind and Moblicity. Either their deals aren't any better than I have now or they have little coverage. Wind is much better than Moblicity in coverage so I am not sure how much roaming with them would cost me on average a month.

So I am not sure which way I should go with my new phone.

[alanctgardner2]

If you live in a covered area Mobilicity is awesome. I'm in Ottawa, and it's going to be $25 a month for text/talk/data (what Telus currently charges me $60 for). Even if you consider the amount of subsidy they provide, the price differential is so wide. They also recently added free roaming minutes every month (50 minutes), for when I visit my family.

[shinratdr]

I can't speak to Ottawa but in Toronto Mobilicity coverage in the areas they claim are covered is pretty awful.

Rogers charges you through the nose but I get LTE coverage almost everywhere and 3G coverage everywhere, while my Mobility friends have no data connection to speak of when in most buildings.

[goatforce5]

The Canadian carriers don't seem very interested in doing favorable deals for bring-your-own-phone customers.

Either it's still too small a segment or (perhaps more likely) they've figured out they can lock people in to more 3 year contracts if there's no difference in the month-to-month prices.

I've seen Bell occasionally do promos where you can take $5/$10 off any plan if you have your own phone, but not much besides that.

I'd be very happy to be told I was wrong and there was a way to get better pricing, BTW. :)

[alanctgardner2]

See my (brother?) comment, this phone will work on an AWS carrier like Wind or Mobilicity, and their plans are between 50% and 75% of RoBelus