Overview:
Bell Canada is the largest communications business in Canada, and has been around for 127 years. It is named after Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone. Bell offers wireless, residential, business and enterprise communication solutions.
Pros: Bell has several choices for data plans, including email, Internet and voice options. You get unlimited voice minutes on many plans and with two of the plans, you get long distance minutes, as well. If you know exactly what you’re going to be using your BlackBerry for, you can pick a plan that will have the features you want without charging you for the ones you don’t want. You can also choose how much data you think you’ll use, depending on the plan.
Cons: There is a monthly activation fee of $8.95, and a one-time activation fee of $35. As well, you don’t get unlimited data on any of the plans. If you go over your minutes, each additional minute costs $0.30. You will have to pay for additional data, and it can get quite expensive, from $1 to $12 per MB, depending on the plan that you have.
Detailed Provider Information:
Voice Plan Options: Bell has two data plans that include voice options. The first plan is called the Email, Internet and Voice: BlackBerry 45. You get 100 anytime voice minutes and unlimited local incoming minutes. It costs $45 a month. The second plan gives you more voice features – it’s called the Email, Internet and Voice: BlackBerry 55. You get 250 anytime voice minutes, unlimited local incoming minutes, unlimited nights local minutes, and 100 long distance minutes within Canada. Not only that, you also get call waiting and conference calling. At $55 a month, it’s by far the better deal if you need voice on your BlackBerry.
Data Options: Bell’s data plans have varying amounts of data, depending on the plan that you get. The BlackBerry 45, 55, and 25 include 4 MB of data, the BlackBerry 40 includes 8 MB, the BlackBerry 60 includes 30 GB of data, and the BlackBerry 100 includes 1 GB. The names of the plans indicate how much they are a month – so for example, the BlackBerry 60 is $60 a month. They all include activation fees, both monthly and one-time. Be careful not to go over your data usage – depending on the plan, you could pay $1 to $12 for every additional MB. There are also relatively high charges for using data in the U.S. – they range from $3 to $6 per MB.
Messaging Options: Email is included in all data plans. Text messaging is an optional feature and ranges in cost from $3 to $10 a month, depending on the service that you choose.
Customer Service: Bell offers phone and email support for its customers. As well, you can access their online knowledge base which answers questions on whatever you want to know. You can also do things like check your recent payment online and adjust your services.
Contract: BlackBerry phones are available without a contract, but you’ll have to pay a lot for them – in some cases, almost $400 more than you would pay with a contract. Bell’s plans require a 1 to 3-year contract. If you want to get out of your contract, you’ll have to pay an early termination fee, which will be revealed to you at termination.
Messaging: Text messages are $0.15 each if you don’t have this feature added.
International Calling and Messaging: Charges per call will vary on the country that you use your phone in. They will also vary depending on if you use an analog or a CDMA connection. In-country calls and incoming calls internationally are approximately $1.80 per minute on the analog network, and $0.99 on the CDMA.
Roaming Charges: Roaming charges apply outside of your calling area.
Activation Fee: All of Bell’s plans include a one-time activation fee of $35 and a monthly system access fee of $8.95.
Additional Features: Depending on your plan, you can get extra features like voice mail, extra minutes, detailed billing, national mobile to mobile, roadside assistance, and more.
Insurance: See Terms and Conditions.
Phones: Bell offers the BlackBerry Tour 9630. With four models to choose from, you might have trouble figuring out your favorite BlackBerry to use.
Some Additional BlackBerry Models Available:
BlackBerry Storm 9530
BlackBerry 8830 World Edition
BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230
BlackBerry Pearl 8130
Coverage Map: The Bell coverage map can be found here.
I refuse to waste another second of my life on Bell except to warn the world about Bell. I will keep this as short and simple as possible:
Hell is all Canadian Wireless plans and the Devil is Bell. Keep your soul and choose another Canadian provider. Purgatory is better than hell.
Bell is my first mobile provider. For $55/month, I am getting 250 daytime minutes, unlimited local evenings and weekends (starting at 6pm), 2500 text messages/month, call display, voice mail, and 4MB data/month, not to mention free email, blackberry messaging, etc. I like the plan that I have, which is by far the best Canadian plan (versus Telus/Rogers). I like their online account information, as I can daily check how many minute I've used, how much data I have left before I go over, etc. Very handy.
I have not been impressed with the call quality. I've heard bad things about Bell, but so far I'm more than content with them.
With Telus I get unlimited data on my Blackberry for 30 dollars a month. They used to have unlimited data for 15! I can get unlimited data using even 3rd party bb applications, which Rogers disallows. I'm able to stream live video from the web to my phone. With images turned on, I average 200 Kb per web page. With 4 megs, this leaves you with 20 web pages a MONTH--what a rip. Also, unlimited data includes unlimited email, email attachments and Blackberry messenger. And since Telus allows you unlimited data for 3rd party apps, I can use iPhone killer browsers like Opera Mini, and chat with Yahoo messenger, Google messenger, or any other 3rd party instant messenger I choose to download and use.
I'm stuck here in england with my costly blackberry world edition and you can't even get it to connect to anything! Better yet, if you try to ask anyone a question, there is no one available to call!
Quite frankly bell sucks lousy customer service and sky high rates. Once my contract ends I will never return to bell
I ve been with Telus and Rogers and Bell so far gave the best deal outhere. They may be lacking on device selection but $60 for 200 min 100, after 6 and weekends, free long distance all the voice features you can think of included, plus the system access fee (8.95) also included not to mention unlimited Data. That is the best deal out for Bell. If you grill 'em hard enough you too can have a plan like this. I got no quams wit BELL. Ive experience much worse plans and features with Telus and Rogers.
I LOVE BELL---- I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS THEY ARE THE BEST OUT THERE GREAT COVERAGE AND AWESOME CUSTOMER SERVICE!!
Good news! Unlimited email and mobile browsing! All for $30! Tethering costs $15/Mb, so don't tether, just surf and email! Better than the BB25 :P
ive been with bell since 1985. i have an old plan thats not available anymore which is $45/month for 750 mins, billed by the second plus $10/month for unlimited incoming plus nights and weekends free . one word for their customer service "fantastik". so in my case im sticking with Bell.
also forgot to mention that i now have the $30/month unlimited data with my new Pearl 8130
i used to be with Rogers. I hated the customer service and the people at the mall store who were the most under-trained staff I've ever seen. I broke my contract with Rogers after being with Rogers for over 9 years (and I paid $400 to break the contract--I had two phones--believe me well worth it to get free of this horrible company).
I've been with Bell for over three years. Recently I upgraded to my first BB and received the $30 deal for unlimited data. I'm soooo happy.
My husband was due to change his phone recently and he was with Rogers. I went in with him to talk about him upgrading to a BB. The salesperson tried to tell him he could get unlimited email and internet for $15/mt. if he renewed his contract. I told her she was stupid, all you had to do was read the fine print to see that it was for 4MB. She then told him that that was a lot of data and he wouldn't need much more than that. But I told him how little 4Mb really is. I walked him over to Bell and they gave him the deal I have. Needless to say, my husband is now with Bell after being with Rogers for six years.
If I have to rate these two cell providers I would have to say Bell is way better. Roger's a joke. Bells customer service has been way better.
Bell now offers UNLIMITED DATA for $30/month
I have had several consecutive contracts with Bell Mobility and would never leave them. I have worked for Rogers' call centers and they are scam-artists. Bell has bent over backwards for me since day one. They have given me many promotions that all get renewed every time I renew my contract. Loves it!
So far I've accumulated these great life-long promotions:
Free Detailed Billing
Free Bell Mobile-2-Mobile
500 Free Canadian Long Distance Mins
Free Early Evenings starting at 5pm
50 Free Daytime mins
Next contract, I'll be hopefully increasing my Daytime mins, or get my System Access Fee waived. That's the thing about signing back-to-back contracts; they want to keep your business so they'll keep offering promotions. Then at the end of your contract, just say you wont resign unless all your current promos are carried over and a new one gets added. Just barter a little bit to get what you want.
Also, if you are seriously considering leaving a cell company, call and tell them that. With any luck they'll transfer you to a department called 'Retention' where they try to 'Retain' your accout by throwing discounts and promotions at you. A good idea, but only go this route if you are seriously considering leaving them.
And Bell's customer service is really good! Whenever I have a question, they have a solution. I was interested in getting a Blackberry Pearl 8130 so I called to ask about Data Plans. The agent was great and came up with the cheapest solution to meet my needs, only $10/mth more than I'm paying for my non-smart-phone and I get 500MB which is more than enough.
Overall, once you've built rapport with a cell company, they will scratch your back for you, no matter which company it is. If you always pay your bills on time and keep signing contracts, they should treat you good. But Bell has just been awesome to me so I will be a customer for life. I have also heard good things about Telus but have not had a personal experience with them. I just don't particularly like Rogers.
Bell Mobility all the way!
I hope this long response was helpful to someone. Thanks for listening and happy celling.
I have been with Bell for 15 years and can say that I have had problems in the past but over the last two years they have been great. The only problem I have right now with them is that I am not able to get the $30/mo unlimited plan because I share my plan with my wife and daughter. Even though they do not use the data plan I am forced to buy the 8 Mb plan for $40.00. Does anyone have any other sugestions on what I could do.
Thanks in advance
I've been a Bell customer for 8 years. Like all Canadian carriers, they have massive amounts of problems. But all Canadian carriers have problems.
Bell's issue is their billing department. It's lousy. Terrible. Embarrassing, really.
Here's a story.
I had an aircard with Bell. I paid extra to get their "unlimited access". I don't use it a lot, but when I do I really do. 1 month I went over the allowable usage. I don't know what that limit is, because I thought the word "unlimited" means something. So the billing department turned my aircard off. I give them more than $1,000 a month between 4 accounts, and they turned it off because I went over 1 month in the past 3 years. It's now with Rogers.
Every month they bill directly to my VISA, on the 15th. But if my bill isn't paid by the 10th, they hit me with a late fee and will turn off my phone if the bill exceeds $500. My bills are always over $1,000. Do the math...
But Bell has some good stuff too. Great coverage in Alberta, and the tech support is really very excellent. Last night I took my 8330 in to the store to ask about a rattling (that is admittedly probably my fault). They're just mailing me a new phone; no questions & no problems. That's awesome.
But remember the billing department is a joke. And it's not a funny joke.
I am the President/CEO of a International company in Canada we tried to save money (keep in mind we had a business group account) the first phones that came out from Telus (Mike Network) we purchased 110 phones (that did not work) in some areas went to Rogers and there service was not good (phones used to cut out) .
We are now with Bell Mobility we have 750 phones with them and 135 blackberry phones... sometimes trying to save money in the end cost you more money.. Bell Mobility is our partners in communication in Canada
well i love bell and their billing department is so helpful and amazing
have to agree that bells main issue is their billing dept. my first bill was for $1650 (a minor $1500 error on their behalf). since then i do not have automatic payments with bell (i simply dont trust them to be correct) and am glad that i dont. every single time i make a change or add a feature there is some sort of major billing issue. i have a corporate account and am so throughly unimpressed with the constant errors with billing its giving me real thoughts about switching carriers. i just upgraded to the bb storm and was double billed on the last invoice. aprox $150/mo extra in Jan! thought my corporate discount was a super deal, but now im not too sure. i am too busy to harass bell into giving me a correct bill and have simply chosen to pick my battles in the past and let the small errors go. but c'mon bell ... your service is otherwise amazing and i couldnt be happier with your customer service (i know they are trying); just charge me the correct amount. aaarrrgghh....
This is a great service which my uncle has been using for a longtime now.
I have been with Aliant (now Bell) for many years.This month I switched to a BlackBerry. The folk at Bell have been fantastic.Great plan, Great help, Great company
I hate Bell. I signed a 3 year contract with them 10 or so years ago. Now that I am moving, they were charging a $120 moving fee and I decided to go to cogeco which is cheaper and doesn't charge that. I found out by total accident, when canceling my Bell line, that the contract automatically renews itself so I was in the middle of another 3 year contract and it would cost me around $600 to get out! Thievery and slavery.
came from rogers... very very very poor service got hung up few times for same issue... now been with bell from almost an year... love the service talk to Rep 3 times... waitted no longer then 45 sec... they resolve the issue everytime within 7 to 8 min... no waste of time.. they made one error when they said they with waive activation charges .. they did not i called them they said "sorry it is our fault and it will be resolved right away and next invoice will reflect updated balance"... gave me updated balance...problem solved with in 3 min... no argument nothing... i was surprized no only that.. this was first time where some cell phone company in canada accepted their mistake.. Rogers(fido)never did that.. even tho they billed me for all my air time for the first 3 months when they said if i sign up for 3 years they will give me for free... never going back to rogers... bell is the best.... and cares for their client... i rather spend little more but get honest ppl who is not gonna give me fonny charges...
my plan for 55$ a month:
Free weekends and night after 6
only 100 minutes a month
unlimited text messaging
Thats about all the perks Im getting.
P.S. does anyone know how much it costs per text to the U.S.A with Bell?
I actually work for Bell in Customer Service and there are plans that do have unlimited data as well as Blackberry Voice/Data combo plans and Blackberry Smart Bundles. If you are a student, I recommend Fab Ten Blackberry price plan.
I've had a Bell phone for years and now that I see all the different price plans, bundles, and features, I don't find the service that bad. Yes, it can get expensive and there's a lot of prices I don't agree with but I deal with more happy customers daily than I do unhappy ones so we can't be too bad!
Alot Of The Information That They Even Place On This Site About Bell Is Wrong. There is unlimited data plans i currently have them, if you go over your minutes its 35cents a minute, data over charged usage is 8$MB at 0.03 cents pay per use. There is also no roaming in Canada your phone service will continue to work and any area you go to will be a local call for you however if you recieve any type of incoming call that becomes long distance, roaming applies in the states, and closer to the border.
Despite all this i have been with bell since i have been 15, of course i have my turn of issues but what phone company dont you have issues with. I do work for Solo Mobile , Bell Canada's affiliation that doesnt charge the little fees that bell does, they still use the same technical support and service towers, however obviously the smaller the company the better the chance of getting through to customer service however despite their great points they have limited handsets. They are getting better though.
Ps. The person whom wanted texting to Bell for The USA. Two Things, you should convert to Solo For 100 Minutes Evenings at 7pm/unlimited texting and without your fees its the same 25$. And it should be included in your unlimited texting canada/usa, international messages cost 15 cents a text.
I have had all my issues with bell but i just find it that i didnt have the right plan for me, and it costed me a fortune, until they came out with Fab 5. Where i could call my long distance numbers for free, now that i have moved cities i no longer need that plan as the numbers i was calling in my fab 5 are now local numbers. however i find thats the issue with most people they cant find the plan for them or they are overtaken by how nice the phone is and sign up because they want the phone. you cant sign up with rogers want the bold, then decide to complain oh i friggen hate them lol. That doesnt make sense you knew what you were getting into them. Do you research before you go to sign at 3 year!!
your review on bell is not correct at all.. in the cons section you say theres no unlimited internet. i have unlimited internet on my blackberry and previous to my blackberry i had unlimited internet on my regular phone.
I went with the unlimited data plan for $30 on top of my cellphone plan and I'm glad I did. Bell reps tried to tell me that I'll never use 4MB, etc but I keep all my biz docs on my BB as PDFs and a few are over 1MB in size! I'm enjoying using the Tour (first BB) and I'm very happy with my plan. I went over my daytime minutes but was happy to pay for that usage because it was incurred by a $$$ deal. I get 250 daytime, free evening starts at 6, plus weekends, free unlimited txting and free roaming in Canada. Happy so far.
im pretty happy to use bell service plus i ve got a good plan as well i have 250 daytime mintues with unlimited incoming calls and unlimited evenings from 6 to 7am and weekends, unlimited text, voice mail, caller id, call waiting and unlimited emails for only $41.81 a month.
My husband and I have been with Bell for a few years, and we recently upgraded our phones to BlackBerrys and our service plan to include a data plan. On November 11th, 2009 I purchased a BlackBerry Curve 8330 from Bell, along with a Smart Phone Care Warranty plan. At the end to Janunary 2010, my BB stopped charging. I brought it to a Bell service centre, and they replaced the battery. Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem. Although I was able to charge my BB using my computer, no wall charger would work, nor would my car charger. After another trip back to the Bell service centre, it was concluded to be a manufactures defect. I was given instructions to call the company responsible for the Smart Phone Care in order to start a claim for a replacement phone. When I did this, I was told that because my phone is only a few months old, it is still under manufactures warranty, therefore I have to contact Bell to replace it. Bell refuses to replace the phone. They want to send it in for repair, which could take up to 6 weeks. In the meantime, if I want to use the services I am paying for, I have to get a loaner BB, for a $250 deposit. The service centre claims their hands are tied, the customer service people don't know the policies in place for the stores, and the executive office will not return my calls. Eventually, I was told by someone in Technical Solutions that it is a BlackBerry/RIM policy that states that the phones go in for repair, and Bell has nothing to do with it. However, after making a few calls to other carriers, I found out that virtually all of them will replace your phone, no questions asked. Bell does not suppourt their customers, nor do they stand behind the products they sell. If you want a guarantee that your phone will be replaced if something goes wrong with it, do not choose Bell as your provider. I now have a phone that I can't use, but they are still charging me every month for my service, and they refuse to credit my account.
I've been with BELL for the last 12 yrs. I have ALL my services with BEll and have never had any issues with their customer service. Plans are WAY WAY better then those from Rogers, no comparison.
I WAS a Rogers customer and their billing, customer service and Retention dept have to be the WORSTY EVER.
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. STAY AWAY NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF VULTURES!!!!!