another sam chan: the student blogger

Rogers’ foster child Fido re branded itself yesterday, shedding the passive turquoise and brown to a brighter neon-highlighter-written-on-a-post-it yellow. The logo itself is a doghouse drawn by a sharpie. But I digress. Tons of logos, companies, and even presidents change everyday but I can’t blog about everything. However, this goes further than just logos because it signifies that Rogers has finally decided to place Fido officially in the lightweight provider category.

A bit of boring Canadian provider history points:
– Once upon a time there were four major players in the Canadian provider market (at least to the common eye on the west coast): Fido (owned by Microcell), Rogers Communication, Telus Mobility, & Bell Mobility.
- Rogers buys Fido
- The big four becomes the big 3.5.
- Bell creates Solo Mobile: a subbrand focused on a younger market, with cheap, simple, and easy to calculate plans with minimal contracts.
- Telus creates Koodo: similar to Solo, although Koodo does not publicly affiliate itself with Telus.

With this change, Fido has officially placed itself head to head with Koodo Mobile and Solo Mobile. So what does that have anything to do with us, the consumer? Take a quick look at the site and you’ll see that a lot more was changed than just colors.

That’s right, they’ve gone away with the horrid system access fee! This means that 15 dollar plans may actually be what they say they are and not a mysterious 30 when the skies clear.

In addition, text message plans have been lowered a great deal. All their base plans now offer at least 50 text messages, with the base $25 dollar plan giving you 100 daytime minutes, evenings and weekends starting at 7pm, and unlimited text messaging. Not 1000, not 2500, unlimited. On top of that, you have the option of adding unlimited text messaging to any plan for an affordable $10. How about that?

It may not be giggles for everybody though because here has what they have discreetly taken out while distracting you with the blinding yellow:

-unlimited fido to fido / fido to rogers call and text
- unlimited incoming calls
- my5 (or anything of the sort)
- any sort of couples or family plans

*EDIT: Correction, unlimited incoming and fido to fido can be added on as options for $10 each. Early 5pm calling can also be had for an extra $5 Apologies.

So there it is. There’s a lot of speculation to whether or not this will actually end up hurting Rogers/Fido instead. “Mr. Krstajic, a former executive at both Bell Mobility and Rogers, described the new plans as “reactionary” and said moves like Fido’s risk irritating the firm’s existing customers” as reported by the Globe and Mail. I suppose he meant reactionary in reference to Solo and Kodoo’s success. If you want to keep your current Fido plan, you’re more than welcome to do some – just know that there will continue to be a system access fee until you throw yourself into the new doghouse with a nice three two year contract. I’m a Rogers user and will have to keep paying the SAF anyways but it’s nice to see Fido users have the option.

I have my fair share of Fido friends, and it’ll be interesting to see what they will do. What are you going to do? Is this good news or bad news or it doesn’t matter because you’re a happy Virgin Mobile user?

Continue Reading

I’m not gonna front, I haven’t thought much about blogging the last week or so and it’s not because I’m lazy (oh yes it is). But the truth is, for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been completely glued to Olympics on the tv and online. My sleeping hours have generally fallen between 7am and 12pm. Even as I write, half my screen is covered with Argentina flopping against the US in men’s basketball. It’s been even rougher on me than back when I had a job. Now, while I am a big sports guy, I don’t intend for this blog to turn into some sort of random sports chatter, although you’re more than welcome to do so in the comments section. That’s because I can do that for free at niketalk and a billion other forums. However, I am memorized by how attractive this Olympics has been to everybody and I’ve come to the conclusion that it actually isn’t about sports.

From Michael Phelps to Usain Bolt to the supposedly 14 year old Chinese gymnasts, the Beijing games have provided plenty of flare, excitement, and newsworthy items. For the record, I have no idea why the US coaches would be whining that the Chinese gymnasts are too young. I mean, losing already sucks but crying foul because you lost to somebody younger than you? Where I come from, older people are supposed to have the advantage at all things except finger painting. But I digress….

Anyways, the key is what hasn’t been mentioned. Take a look at the medal standings: USA and China have dominated and grabbed most of the headlines for one reason or another. But what’s going on with the red, white, and blue today? Last I checked, they’re still in a war that many don’t really know what for. Something about the fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. As for China? It just survived one of the most deadly earthquakes that left over 68,000 dead and has rebounded its morale swiftly. In a day and age where what’s considered news is 90 percent about people dying and 10 percent about the dead, the games have been a complete 180. Forgotten are Britney Spears latest haircut or who’s pregnant and or divorced. Hidden in the black and white pages is Bernie Mac’s sudden death. Instead, the news has been filled of success stories about athletes and their journeys to make it to the top. They talk about Michael Phelps troubled childhood and the rebound of a re-dedicated US basketball team.

So this is what these Beijing Games are about. For a brief period of time, people can momentarily forget about the difficulties of life, put away their swords and come together to witness healthy competition from athletes who have proven that with hard work and dedication, dreams can become a reality. The athletes are even saying all the right things: that they are what they are, athletes in a competition, and not politicians. Even as athletes from different countries compete against one another, they share a mutual respect for the fact they have all taken long journeys to get there. The attraction is so great that it is enough to get the US and Chinese president together to watch a meaningless basketball game where the results were determined before basketball was even invented. As the games start to conclude, there is a tinge of sadness in me because I know that once the games over, life’s troubles will resume. We will no longer get to feel the joy Bolt had when he won the 100m sprint or share the feeling Phelps had when he finally got his 8th gold medal. Not even vicariously. Our lives will go back to the way it was: the rain, the chores, and the stress. Take advantage of the last few days because we’ll go back to protesting against China and Burma soon. The Beijing games have been an absolute success. Let’s hope Vancouver 2010 can be even better. I wouldn’t bank on it, but after all, the current games were made in China.

Continue Reading