 DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada
3 edits |
WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service Plans'This Just In'
It looks like WIND has stopped offering PAYG/Prepaid plans altogether, possibly only today.
I checked their site just now, and cannot find any pages for PAYG plans.
Don't think that I had such pages bookmarked, so I cannot tell whether the PAYG pages exist and have been orphaned.
EDIT : And look what they have introduced instead !
= = = = =
EDIT : I have chosen to rename this thread to 'WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service Plans' instead of 'WIND Mobile Stops PAYG-Prepaid Service Plans', to reduce confusion about terms of reference which had caused the topic to drift.
But to ME and so many others, PAYG and Prepaid mean the same thing, and so I will find the habit of using the two terms interchangeably to be a hard habit to break. |
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 HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2014-Apr-8 9:19 pm
Re: WIND Mobile Stops PAYG-Prepaid Service PlansIt does appear that its only monthly plans now on their website. |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON |
to Davesnothere
They may not offer the pay per minute plans anymore, but every plan they offer at the moment is still available in prepaid and postpaid form. |
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to Davesnothere
I had their per-minute PAYG pages bookmarked, they no longer work. IMO this is a major loss for Canadian consumers. |
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| Dreyfus |
to yyzlhr
said by yyzlhr: every plan they offer at the moment is still available in prepaid and postpaid form. Paying for exactly what you use (PAYG) is a different issue than prepaid/postpaid. The unused amounts roll over to the next month - it appears that this is no longer possible. |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON |
yyzlhr
Member
2014-Apr-8 10:41 pm
I get that. The OP just sounded like Wind was getting rid of prepaid altogether which is not the case.
I don't see the point of Wind offering a pay per use plan anyways. This market was already adequately served by the incumbents and MVNOs. If Canadians want Wind to have any chance of surviving they need to allow them to bring in higher ARPU and more valuable customers. |
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DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada
1 edit |
said by yyzlhr:I get that. The OP just sounded like Wind was getting rid of prepaid altogether which is not the case.... I was interpreting the term 'Prepaid' to be equivalent and interchangeable with the term 'PAYG' (Pay As You Go), when I guess they today SOMETIMES can mean different things, though originally they DID mean the same to the vast majority of the public, in that you bought a phone card (the original Prepaid definition), dumped its value into an account, and then used minutes according to the ToS until the money was spent. So by YOUR definition, exactly what sort of Prepaid service DOES WIND still offer, if not what I had assumed in my above explanation of my original interpretation ? |
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| Davesnothere |
to Dreyfus
said by Dreyfus:I had their per-minute PAYG pages bookmarked, they no longer work. IMO this is a major loss for Canadian consumers. My point in a nutshell ! |
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| Davesnothere |
to yyzlhr
said by yyzlhr:....I don't see the point of Wind offering a pay per use plan anyways. This market was already adequately served by the incumbents and MVNOs. If Canadians want Wind to have any chance of surviving they need to allow them to bring in higher ARPU and more valuable customers. WIND was growing anyway, and stands also to gain some of the disgruntled PM customers, once the full consequences of new owner Telus's changes sink in. There is no reason why WIND cannot have both types of customers. They could even RAISE their most recent previous PAYG rates somewhat and still blow away the 'Big 3' on PAYG price per minute, especially if they continued to maintain the simplicity model of only one price per minute for the whole province or country (or was it even Canada & USA ?). |
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Davesnothere
2 edits |
Anyway, here is an article about the changes, which apparently were already in effect on April 3rd : » mobilesyrup.com/2014/04/ ··· options/The below chart is from the article, and there seems (to me) to be a dead link (someone in a later post called it a 'broken image') on the WIND site's plan detail pages, which may lead to the same chart. |
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Davesnothere
1 edit |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON
1 edit |
to Davesnothere
said by Davesnothere:said by yyzlhr:I get that. The OP just sounded like Wind was getting rid of prepaid altogether which is not the case.... I was interpreting the term 'Prepaid' to be equivalent and interchangeable with the term 'PAYG' (Pay As You Go), when I guess they today SOMETIMES can mean different things, though originally they DID mean the same to the vast majority of the public, in that you bought a phone card (the original Prepaid definition), dumped its value into an account, and then used minutes according to the ToS until the money was spent. So by YOUR definition, exactly what sort of Prepaid service DOES WIND still offer, if not what I had assumed in my above explanation of my original interpretation ? As mentioned earlier, ALL of their current monthly plans are offered in prepaid form. Prepaid from an industry standpoint has always referred to a service where payment must be made before services are rendered. It's not my definition or interpretation. Pay as you go is simply the marketing name Rogers developed for their prepaid service. |
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yyzlhr
1 edit |
to Davesnothere
said by Davesnothere:said by yyzlhr:....I don't see the point of Wind offering a pay per use plan anyways. This market was already adequately served by the incumbents and MVNOs. If Canadians want Wind to have any chance of surviving they need to allow them to bring in higher ARPU and more valuable customers. WIND was growing anyway, and stands also to gain some of the disgruntled PM customers, once the full consequences of new owner Telus's changes sink in. There is no reason why WIND cannot have both types of customers. They could even RAISE their most recent previous PAYG rates somewhat and still blow away the 'Big 3' on PAYG price per minute, especially if they continued to maintain the simplicity model of only one price per minute for the whole province or country (or was it even Canada & USA ?). Subscriber growth does not equal profits. They need to start making money in order to survive. Wind Mobile charged 20cents per minute on their old pay over use plans. That the same rate PC mobile charges and only 5cents per minute lower than what many other MVNOs charged. If Wind raised their rates they would end up being uncompetitive in the prepaid segment. |
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DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada
1 edit |
Looks like they have not yet updated their FAQ page.» www.windmobile.ca/my-win ··· 00f64c51There are other examples, but this one mentions names of now-discontinued plans without specifying any grandfathering conditions, nor to whom each Q&A applies. Can I disable AWAY service to control costs?
If you'd like to be extra careful about AWAY charges, we recommend that you stick with a Pay Before or Pay Your Way account for total control over your pay-per-use charges.
If you'd prefer Pay After service you can disable AWAY data usage through My Account.... |
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 ·TekSavvy Cable
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to Davesnothere
Re: WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service PlansNow I am nervous (current Wind pay per use customer) but hopeful as in the past they have left existing subscribers pretty much alone. Currently still have unlimited incoming calls and a $5/50MB per month data addon both of which have been unavailable to new subscribers for a while. |
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to yyzlhr
Re: WIND Mobile Stops PAYG-Prepaid Service Planssaid by yyzlhr:Wind Mobile charged 20cents per minute on their old pay over use plans. That the same rate PC mobile charges and only 5cents per minute lower than what many other MVNOs charged. One of the major differences between Wind & everyone else was that you can use a prepaid block (whether it is an hour of voice/text, or fixed amount of data) for $2, but you are not charged for overages for a 24 hour period. It was essentially prepaid unlimited 24-hour usage. |
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to Davesnothere
Re: WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service PlansI have 3 lines on Pay-Your-Way (Myself & Parents). I have the grandfathered unlimited incoming, and I just activated my parents lines last month.
For people that don't talk much on the phone, and just need a phone for emergency use it's a great deal. At $40 every 6 months, plus reasonable rates (compared to Rogers), I really can't complain.
Really sad to see this go, just leaves the MVNO's really for anything close to this kind of deal on Prepaid pay per minute with the incumbents. |
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 BGBWants moar interwebz
Premium Member
join:2009-07-09
Waterloo, ON |
BGB
Premium Member
2014-Apr-9 11:11 am
My guess is that it was not popular enough for them to keep that. I would imagine they would grandfather people though that already had it. |
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DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada |
said by BGB:My guess is that it was not popular enough for them to keep that.
I would imagine they would grandfather people though that already had it. However, YYZ would argue that it was TOO popular and was costing WIND money, thus lowering their ARPU. There is no proof of this, though. The only good thing which I can see so far about WIND dropping PAYG plans is that it simplifies their offerings, which ostensibly will make their remaining plans easier to be understood. But they were simpler than most before, anyway. |
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Davesnothere
1 edit |
to Dreyfus
Re: WIND Mobile Stops PAYG-Prepaid Service Planssaid by Dreyfus:said by yyzlhr:Wind Mobile charged 20cents per minute on their old pay over use plans. That the same rate PC mobile charges and only 5cents per minute lower than what many other MVNOs charged... One of the major differences between Wind & everyone else was that you can use a prepaid block (whether it is an hour of voice/text, or fixed amount of data) for $2, but you are not charged for overages for a 24 hour period. It was essentially prepaid unlimited 24-hour usage. Which means that the raw per-minute rate is not the whole story as some would have us take for granted, if WIND included some extra value for what was being paid, and MVNOs maybe were not. The other point which I wanted to make earlier is that WIND has spent much more on advertising than most MVNO providers combined, during the period since WIND began. This makes them MUCH more visible in at least the HOME regions which they serve, which BTW, based upon my look at their coverage map last night, have grown considerably in number during that time, at least within Ontario, now including many medium sized cities such as Kingston and Woodstock, IIRC.And I am quite sure that most people have never even HEARD of half of the MVNOs. |
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 GuspazGuspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC |
to Davesnothere
Re: WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service PlansMy ballpark estimate is that WIND covers a bit less than a third of the Canadian population. That's by adding up the metro populations of all the cities their coverage maps show as being covered, and multiplying by 0.75 to account for people in those cities living outside the WIND coverage. |
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DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada
1 edit |
If you mean by in their HOME areas, and this is without La Belle Province, that's not too bad for a newcomer, IMNSHO. And since they partner with Rogers for domestic roaming, AFAIK, then they have whatever Rogers has, to supplement that. The one phrase in the Mobile Syrup piece which keeps poking me in the brain is the last paragraph before the comparison chart, which states : Update : WIND Mobile's new plans are now available to all.
The full plan details are below, or check them out here at WIND. Does this mean that all folks, whether located in a HOME or AWAY zone can subscribe to these plans and NOT have to pay extra per-minute airtime/LDX/roaming charges when outside of a HOME zone ? So does EVERYBODY now get to have unlimited talk to all of Canada, no matter where in Canada they live and travel ?That's not how it was before this month's plan changes, and would be a significant improvement to SOME users. BTW, does WIND have an online lookup for what areas in which they offer new phone numbers ? |
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·TekSavvy Cable
1 edit |
to Davesnothere
Re: WIND Mobile Stops PAYG-Prepaid Service PlansThe Wind pay per use plan is/was $0.20 per minute to and from anywhere in Canada and the United States. Most MVNOs in Canada are limited to Canada and charge extra for long distance and roaming.
Virgin Mobile for example is 40c/min + another 40c/min for long distance to Canada/US. US roaming isn't available on their prepaid plans.
PC Mobile anytime plan is 20¢/minute + another 25¢/minute for long distance to Canada/US. |
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DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada |
said by BrianON:The Wind pay per use plan is/was $0.20 per minute to and from anywhere in Canada and the United States.
Most MVNOs in Canada are limited to Canada, and charge extra for long distance and roaming.... So even before the new changes, WIND was blowing EVERYONE away, incumbents, flanker brands, AND MVNOs, on per-minute rates for anything which was not a traditionally defined as a 'local' call, by landline regional standards. And this open rate applied/applies also to their monthly plans, if not already included in the particular plan, IIRC/AFAIK |
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| Davesnothere |
to BrianON
said by BrianON:....Virgin Mobile for example is 40c/min + another 40c/min for long distance to Canada/US. US roaming isn't available on their prepaid plans. OUCH ! |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON |
to Davesnothere
Re: WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service Planssaid by Davesnothere:said by BGB:My guess is that it was not popular enough for them to keep that.
I would imagine they would grandfather people though that already had it. However, YYZ would argue that it was TOO popular and was costing WIND money, thus lowering their ARPU. There is no proof of this, though. The only good thing which I can see so far about WIND dropping PAYG plans is that it simplifies their offerings, which ostensibly will make their remaining plans easier to be understood. But they were simpler than most before, anyway. I doubt that. With smartphone penetration reaching record levels, there was probably no point for Wind to keep offering this as it would simply drag down their already pitiful ARPU. If Wind is to survive they really need to position themselves in a way that doesn't just leave them with the lowest end consumers. |
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to Davesnothere
From a business perspective, I agree on the financials being a reason to discontinue prepaid. No matter what the demand level, it's not profitable to a carrier. |
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to yyzlhr
Re: WIND Mobile Stops PAYG-Prepaid Service Planssaid by yyzlhr:I don't see the point of Wind offering a pay per use plan anyways. This market was already adequately served by the incumbents and MVNOs. If Canadians want Wind to have any chance of surviving they need to allow them to bring in higher ARPU and more valuable customers. honestly how much in terms of resources does a customer who does ONLY sms and some voice minutes cost the company? data is the only REAL network stress and the pay as you go users were paying HUGE rates for that so they might have actually been the most profitable at like $1 a mb or similar rate |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON |
yyzlhr
Member
2014-Apr-11 1:18 am
said by eeeaddict:said by yyzlhr:I don't see the point of Wind offering a pay per use plan anyways. This market was already adequately served by the incumbents and MVNOs. If Canadians want Wind to have any chance of surviving they need to allow them to bring in higher ARPU and more valuable customers. honestly how much in terms of resources does a customer who does ONLY sms and some voice minutes cost the company? data is the only REAL network stress and the pay as you go users were paying HUGE rates for that so they might have actually been the most profitable at like $1 a mb or similar rate That's not the point. Wind needs people who are going to spend $60 EVERY single month, not customers who spend a few dollars here and there. With such a small subscriber base, it's even more important for Wind to squeeze every dollar they can from every subscriber if they want to survive. |
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DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada
1 edit |
to BACONATOR26
Re: WIND Mobile Stops Pay-As-You-Go Service Planssaid by BACONATOR26:From a business perspective, I agree on the financials being a reason to discontinue prepaid.
No matter what the demand level, it's not profitable to a carrier. Yet so many of the MVNO providers think that PAYG/Prepaid (as I call it) is worth THEIR while. The MVNOs have to think about ARPU too. And if it IS worth their while, then why is it not worth WIND's ? Which of the MVNOs has a larger customer base than WIND ? |
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