How to replace the old 90 day $90 plan

[Luddite]

The provincial calling, Canada texting, 1 GB data plan is fading from our memories. Though thanks to PM's kindly grandfathering offer, it will live on for the lucky few who registered before July 28/16.

Good news though, if you are willing to make a little effort it can be replaced for even less!  To wit, purchase the 90 day 3 GB data only plan for $75. Now the annoying part: get an account at fongo.com (or Google Hangouts if you prefer). They provide free calling to almost all Canada; add texting for $2/month and you are good to go. One aggravation is that you can send picture messages but not receive them. If you run short of data, fongo will still connect over wifi since it uses just data.

Fongo will also port in your old number for $25, I think, but I'd skip that and just tell everyone your new number. We are trying to be really frugal after all.

There are also several other calling and texting apps; search the web for them.

PM is stiil a great place to be, BUT is not perfect for all needs.

Have fun all. 

[rzhevskii2000]

Ha, if you work from home you simply hook your mobile device to Wi-Fi and use one of those Fongo-Schmongo apps and you won't even need to sign for cellular service.  Same if you work off McDonald's or Tim Horton's, for example.

[dhilscher]

@rzhevskii2000

I don't think I could ever get angry enough to want to damage my phone lol.

Your correct in that this method is definately not for most people. Getting a dropped call in areas with not as good coverage would be frustrating to say the least. If you say work from home and do most of your calls at home or in areas with good signal it can be a good way to save some money though

[rzhevskii2000]

The idea sounds great, but in reality...  I'll tell you what you will get in reality.  Quite often you will hear from another party complaints that they can't hear you properly, and once you will be on the road and you will need to make an important phone call, and your connection through this "Mickey-Mouse app" like Fongo or TextNow or Chaton or Whatsup will fail you, you will get so upset and smash the phone against the concrete wall or maybe with your foot.  That's if it really will get on your nerves.  In the best case, you will just get back to a normal cellular connection and stop inventing the wheel (if you know this expression, you'll understand what I'm talking about).

[dhilscher]

ya cheapest all 3 services 90days plan went up 21 dollars. Thats a pretty big difference. It has global texting and 3x the data so the value is there but it's hard to sell people on stuff they may not need.

Obviously they had too many customers around $30 per month range they would prefer to be in the $40 per month range. So they tried their best to make the $40 per month plans as appealing as possible but sadly they removed the $30 one in the process.

The people I have referred has been because of the potential on the $90 per 90days plan set them apart from most competitiors. The new plans while debatably better deals have lost the really cheap plan

[DISQUISITION]

@Luddite why would anyone pay another $9 for something that they won't use, it's already $21 more. It's like buying a pair of shoes that are too big for you just because it was $9 less than your size.

You've missed the point of 1GB for 90 days being more than enough, never mind 3GB. Something more helpful would be to sign up for autopay to save another $6 bringing the cost down to $105.

[ckl]

I would rather PM bring back the 1GB option. I setup my daughter with a 1GB for 90 days (data only) as an emergency phone specifically because it was the lowest cost option without going to those prepaid cards that require you to topoff or lose it scams.

So for $15/month, she gets 333MB of data which is plenty for use with fongo/hangouts/whatsapp. And everywhere she goes there is wifi when she needs to surf the web.

The lowest option available now will cost $25/month.

And yes, like @gmd said, for a family that has multiple phones, every dollar counts.

[srlawren]

To get around the 2 phone number issue you can do this:

1) Order a second PM SIM card and wait for it to arrive

2) Turn off auto-pay on your current account (if active)

3) About a week or so before your next renewal date, activate the new card with a new phone number.  Choose the plan you want, such as the 90-day 3GB plan as @Luddite suggested.

4) Initiate a port of your current PM phone number to Fongo (or your VoIP service provider of choice).  This will move your current phone number to your Fongo service, and automatically close your current PM account, rendering your current PM SIM card inactive also.

5) Remove the old PM SIM card from your phone and install the new one, then reboot/power on the phone.  

Now your PM service has some new phone number but you can ignore that number as people will call you on your previous number, which will get routed to your Fongo service.

Hopefully that makes sense?

[AntdC]

It's not a bad idea, but it doesn't replace it. VOIP on your data adds a delay to the phone call (believe me, I used to do that and it really was noticable). For texting it's fine, but then you would be stuck with 2 phone numbers... As I said in an other annoncement thread, this  doesn't affect me as I used to have de 4GB for 90days plan, but I was about to bring 2 people to PM on the 90$ plan and now they completely lost interest.

[danette77 · Accepted solution]

@Luddite  Kudos. Great idea for us budget minded users! I have done something similar with a data only plan and Nextplus for texting or calling but I hear Fongo works really well too. 

[gmd]

Yes it looks good. If it's your only phone, it looks good.

With multiple phones, a few bucks here and there adds up.

[Luddite]

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@dhanadhan wrote:

Or simply hope that PM brings back that old plan 🙂

I just don't see a point to offer 3GB. You get 3GB more for just $9. So, i am not sure who would choose 3GB instead of 6GB.

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Do not wait for its return. I am certain the PM marketing team has decided it is not wanted ever again.

I do agree just $9 for the extra 3 GB looks good.

[NDesai]

Or simply hope that PM brings back that old plan 🙂

I just don't see a point to offer 3GB. You get 3GB more for just $9. So, i am not sure who would choose 3GB instead of 6GB.