Bell Canada to charge $10 tariff for HSPA+ access?

By on Oct 18, 2010 at 8:31 AM
Exclusive October 18, 2010

We’re not sure if we should blame U.S. wireless carrier Sprint for coming up with this idea, or Bell Canada for running with it. BGR has just obtained a memo that indicates Bell customers will have to fork over a $10 per month premium for access to the company’s HSPA+ wireless network. The memo seems to indicate that the first set of devices to succumb to this fate will be a “Turbo Stick” and “Turbo Hub”; the memo is vague enough (mentioning “high speed devices”) that it could include smartphones. This may be the unfortunate reality we’re all going to have to deal with as carriers go to 4G; or in this case “4G.” If you’re a Bell customer, feel free to sound off and let us know what you think.

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22 Comments

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  • 3 Phones Jugglin

    Hate it, love it, indifferent about it….but Sprint seems to have set the standard for 4G premiums that others are starting to follow.

  • http://gadget-leaf.blogspot.com Eric

    Typical. Bell charges for every little thing already, so it’s no surprise that “premium” data access would cost extra. I’m with Bell (iPhone 4) and I’m not pleased with the amount they charge for the little things, such as $7/month for Call Display. But I suppose if this is an optional add-on, then it’s not so bad. Customer’s choice, I guess.

    • Roger A

      Call Display aka Caller ID should come standard. Hell, most landlines even provide it free now. There is no reason to pay $7 CDN or $6.50 USD for that.

  • Jeeverz

    Stay classy Bell. I would expect Telus to try a stunt like this… But not you.

    I also hope other carriers don’t follow

    • http://www.sightandsound.nb.ca Larry Dickinson

      They will unfortunately.

  • Shawn R

    It sounds like they are preparing to offer tiered speeds for their “Turbo Stick” and “Turbo Hub” offerings, along with new devices capable of communicating at these higher 4G speeds. There’s nothing to suggest all wireless customers will be getting charged a premium, but perhaps it could happen in the future with newer 4G devices only. This is a lot like how broadband speeds are today in the wired world – pay one rate for basic high-speed, pay premiums for higher/fastest available (like 4G) speeds. I’m a Bell customer and I’m not concerned. If I want 4G speeds, I’ll happily pay for it.

  • fidel castro

    Sprint = 4G Party spoiler
    Bell = Douchebag Copycat

    Consumers = Getting played big time.

  • Bob

    If they continue to limit us to 5-Gigs per month then there is no advantage. If the additional $10 gives us more speed and more transfers, then it is worth looking at.

    • Roger A

      Its the networks own fault anyway. They didnt have enough people using these data networks when they were deployed, so they gave us unlimited, then it got oversaturated and now they have too many people… So whats the solution? Jack up the price, limit the usage and then charge $10 additional for 3G or 4G (in Sprint’s case) thereby making the customers pay for their retroactive use.

  • Logicknot

    I think they are upgrading the HSPA plus to 42mb/s. an austrialian company did it a few months ago and i think devices taht can use the upgrade hspa+ will have to pay a $10 premium to use the faster speeds.

    Still lame IMO. Its just a brand new system access fee with a different name.

  • riverdale1974

    Wish they spent more time getting the kinks out of the HSPA+ network before they charged more. The network was down (downtown Toronto) for most of the last week of September… and it’s been going up and down since 6:30 this morning!

    • http://schultzter.ca schultzter

      I second that! The number of times I have connection issues, while a commercial plays on TV touting how great the network is makes me sick!!! Fix the existing network first before you start charging people access to the non-existent new network!

  • Jehu

    I can assure Telus and Bell will announce this within the next two weeks.
    What a joke…thanks to the good old CRTC that always sides with Bell.

  • GNRambo

    @Logicknot is correct. It says doubling current speed of what customers currently enjoy, which is 21mbps. So in Q4 Bellus will be launching 42mbps HSPA+.

  • Phonemodo

    It looks like this will be for access to the higher speed 21mbps/42mbps network. But gah that is such crap. In BC most of their towers for their HSPA network are running at 1900MHz, giving mediocre indoor coverage. If they’re going to charge more for HSPA+, they best be tossing up some 850MHz modules to improve the network

  • wekebu

    I pay the $10 monthly to Sprint and I will never see 4G (living outside a small town, inside a walled canyon). I don’t mind the $10 because I get true unlimited data. With at&t I got 2GB monthly for $25 and no option of unlimited.

    • Roger A

      Guess what… In your rate plan, 3G data is Unlimited anyway. And its true unlimited 3G data. The only limit is “roaming” – which is 300mb or majority of kb – meaning if you used 5GB of data on Sprint and 4GB of data roaming, they couldnt charge you anyway.

      So, dont think $10 makes it true unlimited, because it was true unlimited for all 3G capable phones previously, and currently.

  • Mr. Bill

    I would have expected Robbers(Rogers) to try this first.

    Though Bellus doing it means, its pretty much set in stone now.

    Whats another $120,240 or 360 over the course of their contracts…. Bleeding us for access,lovely.

  • Tdot34

    What a bloody cash grab, if Bell does this, it is safe to say Telus and Rogers will follow suit by the end of the week.

  • NanoAl

    What’re they gonna do when their actual 4G LTE network goes live? 20$ premium data? Tiered speed is pretty much the way that wired internet works, so its not a total surprise.
    Bell is expensive already, but rogers and telus suck so very much. how much more is useable service worth?

  • kevinb

    no way will the CRTC will allow this to happen they will get there hand slapped for that.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • Moosebump

    whah whah. And Porsche should sell its 911 Turbo for the same price as a Boxster. Whiners.

    My problem with this is that they never actually deliver anything close to the “up to” speeds they advertise. I should theoretically be getting 7Mbps now but never get much beyond 2-3Mbps (Rogers, iPhone 3gs). I don’t want to pay $10 for the upgrade to 21Mbps only to find it just gets me to 7Mbps.

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