UMB will be gone June 30th, 2013 | Page 2 | 7-Eleven Rates and Plans | Consumer forum

PAYG is in general more expensive.

I am an extremely frugal user(even though I have unlimited and unrestricted data on SO) and I still net about 30MB/month on my iphone 4.

All I do is turn on data when I am back to/from work, download text based news(not website) and sync email. So 20 days a month for no more than 10 minutes connected time each day.

So at 10c/100K, I would be paying 30/month. I am not happy with this rate.

Just to give you some perspective we are talking about.

Stephanie said:

Frankly I'd be happy with true PAYG data. 25 cents a minute voice and 25 cents per 100kB data? I'm h appy. 10 cents per text, or 10 cents per 50kB data? I'm happy. (I don't know if these figures are realistic one way or another - all I'm saying is I want to keep the actual cost down, and would rather use less data to save money, than have to spend more money for data I would never need.)
(edited for some clarity)

25c/100kb is still pretty expensive. That would be $2.50/MB which is way more expensive than Wind's $1/MB of which you wouldn't use because iphones don't work on the wind network.

not necessary true. LTE can accomodate a lot even for the same spectrum, comparing with UMTS.

chimpanzee said:

iamdrumming said:

CBuck said:

Looks like one of the main reason to subscribe to SO is out the window. I wonder how many subscribers will opt out of SO

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Many people I know have SO just for the 365 day expiry (and a cheap emergency phone). Not everyone used UMB or needs data.

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though those people would not top up 100. SO definitely used some tactics here. I received multiple 'reminder' email about the 25 bonus expiry but nothing about this and this one is announcement AFTER the bonus offer.

The net effect is if people are thinking top up to cover their UMB usage, they end up having more balance than needed otherwise. Sure it can still be used over time(or for the new rate) but obviously not something it is intended for.

Well, the end of the web browsing package is not a deal-breaker for me – I hardly ever used the P.O.S. browsers available in the Nokia C3, although having the e-mail was convenient, but not essential. to

[Nokia C3: 56 MB internal memory. OS uses 48.5 MB of this internal memory to operate the phone. Phone cannot use inserted microSD card memory to extend system memory. It does rather beg the question: what web browser and pages can be accessed and function correctly with 7.5 MB of RAM?]

What's got me really, really steamed is that I learned yesterday that the "buy $100 airtime voucher" and get $125 worth of airtime has been on through March and April.
I have been dealing with an elderly, sick relative since January, and so have not had much opportunity to get on the 'net at check the Speakout site, or this site. However, the poster I've quoted says, " I received multiple 'reminder' email about the 25 bonus expiry".

I didn't receive _any_ email announcements or reminders about this plan being on, and that really ticks me off. My nearest local 7-11, where I top up on gas every 2 oe 3 weeks, had nothing at all posted in the store about this promotion, and I even went so far a couple of times as asking the manager there when the promotion might be on again. Her reply – the usual shrug of shoulders and "we don't get told in advance when promotions are coming up". This would have happened _TWICE_ during the time the promotion was actually on.

I called Speakout Customer Service yesterday with an issue regarding long-distance calling, and while I was on the phone I mentioned this "oversight" and that I was really unhappy. The predictable answer was that "there's nothing we can do about that, Every store is run independently".

OK. So, I should have been more proactive in checking the web site every few weeks, but with an 87 year-old who just had a knee replacement, being on the computer has not been at the top of my list. I've been answering my e-mail and that's about it. The fact that I have a) been reading my e-mail daily, and b) responding to it every day means that no "reminder e-mails came in during March or April. And that stinks.

The $25 won't kill me, but i'm on a fixed income disability pension and so it's not trivial. I have a monthly plan – minutes plus web browsing, but 99.5% of my phone use is simply telephone calls. I do almost no SMS texting, and if I receive a text that _has to_ be answered by text, I do it on the "pay-per-use". So, there's really no call for me to have a monthly "airtime plus texting" Value plan.

I don't know if anyone else here was "mushroomed" about the recent $100/$125 promotion, but the attitude of Speakout Customer Service about it made me very angry. I've been a Speakout customer since about 2005, and except for the last 18 months a voice-only customer. When I've had service problems, CS has been extremely helpful and efficient, in contrast to Bell and Telus (I had "company" cellphones on both networks before retiring on disability – they both stunk).

I don't think I'm likely to switch to another carrier, unless there's a really drop-dead great deal available. The main reason I've used Speakout has been the 265-day airtime minutes retention policy, which nobody else in the Edmonton area offers, to my knowledge.

If Speakout do go to offering data plans, I have an unlocked and wiped Samsung (I think) Galaxy, about 3 years old, which I received as a gift from a university classmate who had been working for one of the big cellphone companies developing Android software. When it first arrived, had a brief try at getting everything working on it after swapping in the SIM – voice, e-mail, and web browsing, but was never able to get all functions to work properly. When the medical issues at home came up, that bit of business went onto the shelf for later, and I kept on using the C3.

I'll be following the disconntinuation of voice+data value plan issue with interest. When I asked the CS rep yesterday what the voice + data plans would "fall back" to when discontinued, she said she had no idea, nor did her supervisor.

So, they're going to pull the rug on voice + data, but not give any indication of what will happen to subscribers who currently have the plans. Will they "fall back" to "voice only" value packages, or will the user just be left operating on straight minutes?

Speakout don't know, and if they don't know, who does? This, plus the lack of notification of the recent promotion, suggest that their Customer Service has gone right down the drain in the last 6 months or so.

just FYI.

the voucher no matter when it was bought is not going to get you 25 more. it is the time when you top up that matters.

so just wait a while as they will have it sometime later(well that was the case in the last few years).

btw, sign up the online account management if you want the 'reminders'. that is how they get my email anyway.

My guess would be they are not saying what's coming because they had the rug pulled out from under them and are now negotiating for something. Rogers is in control, I would think.

The writing have been on the wall (Regarding to UMB being gone) for a loooooong time.

We just need to know what the new Data plan is to asserts our plan. Right now? Hopefully it is something reasonable like $1 per 10 MB +/-. Failing that, will just stop using data and switch to PC Mobile. Even though they have a 60 days expires for their balance, they also have a $5 for 100 MB/month data on Anytime plan. Or Petro-Canada Mobility, which still have $10 a month for UMB even though their expires time on balance is more tight.

if they can have 1c/100KB without commitment, I am fine(that is 10/100MB anyway but I don't need 100).

However 50MB is really IMO the min one can squeeze under. I have described how I used it and still nets 30MB.