Solo Mobile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Solo Mobile is a brand run by Bell Mobility on their network to compete directly with Virgin Mobile Canada.[1] Started in 2005, the brand markets to people in the 13-35 age bracket and currently offers 4 phones (note: all prices are in Canadian dollars): The Sanyo 3100 which is available in brown ($129), blue and pink, The Motorola RAZR v3c, ($400, 30 MB), available in black, The Nokia 6275i ($350), available in black, The Sanyo Katana (6600) ($250), available in black and pink, and The Sanyo 2400 ($119), available in black, which replaced the original Sanyo 2300. They have six monthly plans to choose from, including four monthly plans ranging from $20-$35 per month and two urban plans priced at $35 and $45 respectively. Not only does Solo offers prepaid options for their customers, they also introduced Solo Share plans in November 2006, for couples, with prices ranging from $35/month to $55/month, plus S.A.F. and 911-fee.
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[edit] Targeting Fido instead of Virgin Mobile
As of Friday August 11, 2006, in a move to compete with Fido, Solo Mobile revised all of its monthly plans and its prepaid rates. Monthly customers who subscribed before the aforementioned date got to keep their plans, but the 2 attractive monthly plans with unlimited browser, text, and weeknight/weekend minutes were gone; instead it installed 4 different Solo plans, ranging from $20 to $35 in price (plus $6.95 monthly system access fee and $0.50 monthly 911 fee). Also, it duplicated Fido's urban calling area plan, in which for $30/month you get unlimited incoming calls and 400 minutes in your urban area. Weeknights have been extended to run from 7 PM to 8 AM. Prepaid rates went down to $0.01/minute for weekends/weeknights and $0.40/minute briefly (as a 2-week promotion), before rising back to up $0.05/minute for weekends/weeknights and $0.40/minute. Free browsers were removed, but can be accessed for $0.03/KB or $5 for unlimited browser (with prepaid). Free text was removed also, and so was caller ID with all but Solo 35 and prepaid.
[edit] Introduction of contracts and hidden fees
Also as of Friday August 11, 2006, Solo Mobile ended its famous "monthly plan with no contracts" by introducing "agreements". Solo contracts range from 30 days to 3 years, and the benefits include phone discounts, bonus minutes, etc. Cancellations of the contract will require the customer to pay a fee, calculated by multiplying the number of remaining months by $20, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $300. Solo Mobile has also implemented several hidden fees. The company was originally attractive and famous for charging only the price you see, but now they include a $6.95/month system access fee and $0.50/month 911 fee for all plan subscribers. Browsers are $0.03/KB, text messages sent within Canada are $0.15/message, and a third-party MSN Messenger software costs $3/month to run.
[edit] Customer service and care
As of September 2006, Solo Mobile released UDoIt, a service to manage your account and review usage information via 2-way text messaging. In October 2006 eCare was introduced, which is an online account that displays your balances, usage information, cell phone(s)' information, and an option that allows you to pay your bill online.
