WIND mobile launches in Vancouver

[twoNeurons]

And no bogus fees. Funny how WIND doesn't nickel and dime you by tacking on 911 fees and SAF.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Telus axed that off a lot of their plans finally. I think wind would be a lot more competitive if smart phones were cheaper. My options were them with a nexus one, or telus with a droid. The price difference was pretty tiny, so I went droid.

[SpongeG]

the store on west 4th - pic by me

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

I think wind would be a lot more competitive if smart phones were cheaper.

The thing is, since customers aren't locked in to their service, they can't sell phones at a lower price. It's not like the big three companies where they are guaranteed three years of monthly concessions. I mean, I would agree with you, but I can understand why they price their phones the way they do.

And believe me though, these phones are worth a lot more at a retail level than what Wind is selling them as.

My biggest problem with their network is their AWS frequency. I don't normally buy phones from operators, and there aren't many phones with HSDPA 1700.

[Alex Mackinnon]

I know that. But say that hypothetically the Nexus One came to the market at $300 USD like was speculated for a long time instead of $500 USD. It would make their service a lot cheaper. I don't doubt that there's a lot of room for price reductions in smart phones. Just look at the amount of hardware that goes into a netbook compared to an average smart phone. There should be more margin, and eventually there should be cheaper product on the market.

[twoNeurons]

Yeah... but don't forget that the big three charge extra for the retail price of their phones.

Fido sells phones for $250 which are only work $80. Practically all their phones are 3 years old. Trust me, the subsidy isn't much.

The new smart phones have a higher initial value which is why they try to lock you into an extremely high margin data plan... which has its own ECF, I might add.