Mr Viral
Somedays it really seems like Rogers doesn’t understand competition
In an extraordinary move, Rogers-owned Chatr has added a 2,000-text limit to outgoing messages. You can still receive unlimited messages, but every text after you send 2,000 will cost you $0.70.
These 2,000 texts are free to go to the U.S., international markets, and Canada, which is a nice bonus, but it’s a shame Chatr no longer offers unlimited international texting like before. Many plans that include unlimited texting are usually only Canada-wide, but things have been changing lately.
For instance, fellow Rogers brand Fido bundles 500-1,000 international texts with its plans, and Freedom Mobile offers free international texting with all its 5G plans. Public Mobile from Telus also usually has some international texting deal. However, all these are bundled in with unlimited messaging, so this new approach puts Chatr at a significant disadvantage.
That all being said, people have been able to use apps like WhatsApp and various other online messaging tools for years to keep in touch across borders, and those are usually much cheaper since they use mobile data. The cheapest Chatr plan ($25) only comes with 3GB of data, so people who send a lot of messages might want a little more.
Public Mobile has a $29 plan with 10GB of data, unlimited Canada-wide texting and 100 international calling minutes. This data can also be used in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. You lose out on the international texting, but you get more data to make using WhatsApp or similar messaging apps basically unlimited.
Rogers has positioned Chatr as a low-cost carrier to help new immigrants connect to Canadian networks, which probably explains the focus on international minutes. However, it will be interesting to see how well this strategy continues now that the Canadian government has started slowing down immigration.
Source: Chatr
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