So I finally remembered after 11 months to cancel the cell phone I got for my wife. Telus was great, no fee seeing as how she died.*
They then informed me they had a plan for $60 that had 15Gb instead of the 5Gb for $75, but it wasn’t ‘sharable’. i said it didn’t have to be, I’d just cancelled the other phone.
She told me you couldn’t use wifi hotspot feature unless you have a shareable plan… WTH I thought that feature was for like families, sharing data among multiple cellular devices…
So I asked, data is data, how could you even tell? The iPhone is the gateway device you can only measure what IT uses… she didn’t know but said I can’t connect a PC or iPad and surf through the iPhone if I changed plans.
I’ve done so for over a decade before I got the share plan for the 2nd phone… I distinctly remember as I had a minimal plan and got a $20 overage once when I watched the news thru my hotspot while I was at our cabin…
I told the rep I’d think about it over the weekend. Have they come up with a way to disable the hotspot feature on an iPhone unless you buy their premium plan?
*I hope Scotiabank had this policy. They’re still calling every hour every day claiming they’re owed interest from when she died and when the Estate paid the bill she owed when she passed. I realized I forgot to cancel her cell when I was setting up blocking their number on the Telus website.
Yeah if you buy the phone from them or install their “carrier settings” they can disable hotspot.
If you have your own phone or do the carrier settings manually, then you’re fine.
Have you looked into Public Mobile? It’s Telus’s cheap brand (even cheaper than Koodo). Same towers, same coverage. I’ve been using it for 5 years or so. I pay about $27 for 15GB. You get discounts for referrals and auto pay etc.
Thing is, I only use the personal hotspot for my laptop when the power goes out or at a customer’s to ‘prove’ their Internet is out, not their computer broken.
I don’t need much data, once in a while Netflix is flakey on ADSL just to use some up, but now my TV won’t connect. Used over 2 GB only once since I owned an iPhone.
Another cheap plan is Lucky Mobile – owned by Bell, so same network as Telus/Koodo/Public Mobile/Bell, etc.
Previously, my daughter had $15 for 750MB/month, but the catch was that once she used all the data, it gave her unlimited data for the rest of the month, just slower. Good enough for iMessage, WhatsApp, web and e-mail, etc. It was good not to worry about using all the data.
These days, all my kids just use various e-sims. Stuff that lasts 365 days. They hardly use data (always wifi around), but it’s good to have it when needed. So it’s cheaper to buy a $25 e-sim for the year and not worry about it.
I’ve used e-sims from Hong Kong, Poland, Spain, etc. These days we’re all using Orange France e-sims that are cheap, prepaid, and last 365 days.
Paid $25 for 5 gigs for 365 days. So far she’s hardly used anything in the 3 months she’s had it.
If you’re interested in one of these e-sims, let me know, there’s a referral system that will give you extra data (and me too My personal e-sim is basically refilled by buying data on the referral system for my kids
This e-sim is from Orange France, and it roams on Telus, Bell, and Rogers. So it connects to whichever network it decides is most appropriate. Works in the USA as well.
Heard back from CRTC usual mealy mouthed dodge the issue… we don’t make the terms of use…
we just have champagne and lobster lunches with the CEOs that do…
My personal e-sim is basically refilled by buying data on the referral system for my kids