Follow Us:
25

Chatr launches a couple new plans, includes international calling minutes

By on September 13, 2012 at 8:09am in Chatr, Mobile News


It’s been two years since Rogers launched their sub-brand Chatr Wireless. At the time of its inception there were only 2 plans, a $35/month Unlimited Talk and $45/month Unlimited Talk & Text. Now, years later Chatr has expanded their no-contract offering to a total of 6 plans to choose from. The cost effective carrier has recently launched a couple new options to the mix, now including a limited number of international minutes. Here are the details:

$30/month:
- Province-wide unlimited talk
- 50 texts included and unlimited incoming texts (additional $0.20 per text)
- 10 minutes of international
- $0.25/minute voicemail retrieval
- No data
- Call display Call waiting Call forwarding Group calling

$45/month:
- Canada-wide unlimited talk
- Unlimited international text
- 20 minutes of international calls
- Free voicemail access
- No data
- Call display Call waiting Call forwarding Group calling

Check it out here at Chatr
(Thanks Alex & RockJock!)

Discussion

25 comments for “Chatr launches a couple new plans, includes international calling minutes”

  • Matt Kim

    This plan looks tempting except it doesnt have unlimited data. Also their selections of phones are s**t. Why not focus on getting high end phones like wind and mobilcity?

    • Yeria

      You do know Chatr is actually Rogers, right? They’re intentionally getting crappy phones to compete specifically with new entrants.

    • ChaTrer

      Not sure if it was intentional but the article omits the best plan:
      $35 per month give you:
      Unlimited voice in CANADA
      Unlimited Texts to CAD AND USA (I assume they are SMS; not MMS)
      Caller Id and Voice Mail

      This is a Pretty good deal, the only thing is basically Chatr doesn’t offer data: the above plan with 100MB is $10 more!

      This is a great deal if you only need voice.
      Do they offer the same coverage as Rogers?why do they have zones? Can anybody explain??

    • ChaTrer

      Love the Chatr concept!
      Bring your Own Device – BYOD
      No tab, no contract, put your bill on prepaid and we will give you $10 off per month for 8 months!

      Its time for ROBELUS to give you a $5-$10 discount if you don’t use any subsidy (BYOD)!

    • ChaTrer

      Final comment:
      Has anybody tried the 7eleven, no voice; JUST Data (6GB) for $30 per month??

      What’s 7 eleven coverage, does it run on the Bell network??

    • Big Ang

      @ChatTer – The reason why Chat has zones is because Rogers is using Chat to compete with the new entrants. If Chatr was offered nationwide then Chatr would be competing with its parent company Rogers and people who don’t need much data would switch from Rogers to lower-priced Chatr and Rogers overall will be making less money off those clients.

  • HerpingTheDerp

    Data or GTFO.

  • nrj4life

    I get the gripes with data and all, but am I the only to see that 10 minutes of international calls?

    • bazinga

      10 or 20, depending on the call. I call international and I think most people that do would need a lot more than 10-20 min. There are better options available out there.

    • luke

      EXACTLY! 10 mins of international calls for $5.00, that’s .50 cents a minute a call!!!

      What a rip off, I could use yak (1015945), which only charges to your bill let’s say you are calling the UK as an eample at .09 cents a min instead.

      10 mins of calling, I laughed at that one.

      CHATR customer service SUCKS!!! I was with them for a year and went back to .30 cents a min on fido because it was THAT bad.

  • ToniCipriani

    I thought the last article I read was that they are shuttering ChatR?

  • Yeria

    Hey Rogers, if you want to be highly anti-competitive and blatantly copy Wind and Mobilicity, at least copy them properly. $45 and no data?

    This really should be stopped. Big 3 are artificially setting the comparison point for consumers by owning all these so-called “budget” lines. Just letting Wind and Mobilicity operate in this country won’t be enough to spur competition. CRTC seriously need to get their s*** together and ban 3-year contracts and these fake companies.

    FYI, in case you didn’t know,
    Bell = Virgin = Solo
    Rogers = Fido = Chatr
    Telus = Koodo

    • ChaTrer

      Agreed!
      iphone 5 is the “same price as in the USA; except that they are on T W O year contract: you know, you have a one yr contract and then you pray your phone/battery survives for another one, then you just sign for another 2yrs and get a brand new phone.

      In Canada they offer ONE yr warranty, and you have to pray that your phone/ battery last TWO years more!!
      How many people do you see with an iphone 3GS from 2009?
      How many people do you see with phones from 2009 Period??
      ALL Phones on 3yr contracts should be $0! add to that the “Special plans” of $73 per month * 36 and the phone costs you more than a small car!
      Where is the CRTC??
      Make 3yr contracts illegal in Canada ( Just like the rest of the world) and if they want to the operators can make the phones $100 over the US prices.
      ( We will get them from Koodo Virgin, Amazon.COM anyways) and align the the canadian market with the rest of the world!
      Please CRTC, Please!!

  • Sean

    I have to ask why is Chatr still around. Rogers already has their budget brand, it’s called Fido

  • Alex

    I would rather you guys support Wind/Mobilicity/Public as without them. There is no chatr. We would not having this conversation and instead complaining about the Robelus.

  • lmfao!

    That’s only a good deal if you’re already with the Big 3… Rogers is competing with itself… it was probably losing too many subscribers to the new entrants so it made those plans to retain their victims sorry subscribers…

  • Mark Ailmer

    Chatr was specifically created to hurt newcomers (Wind and Mobilicity). This is Chatr’s ONLY purpose. If there were no new entrants, Chatr wouldn’t exist. That’s Rogers for you – going above and beyond to protect oligopoly in Canada.

    Of course, since Chatr is a “throw-away” brand, Rogers won’t be fussing about it too much. Crappy phones and no data would stop a lot of Fido and Rogers customers from “downgrading”, and paying less, thus not necessarily hurting Rogers and Fido all that much.

    Another thing are artificial zones. Chatr, of course, runs on Rogers’ network. To make it less appealing to Rogers’ and Fido’s current customers, Rogers has created “zones”. The most hilarious thing is that as a Chatr customer, you will have a privilege of ROAMING of Rogers’ netowrk (you know, the same network that Chatr runs on), and it will only cost you 25 cents a minutes. Wind roams on the same Rogers netowrk, and the cost is 20 cents. Just let this sink in for a minute.

    And, of course, Rogers has never, ever mentioned in any of Chatr advertisements that it owns this brand. People who are less familiar with the telecommunications industry think that it’s a stand-alone company. Thus an illusion of competition is further advanced.

    So yup, Chatr only serves one purpose – killing competition in Canada, and Rogers is the big mastermind behind it.

    With all that said, if Chatr works for you, then by all means sign up and use their service! My post was made only to create awareness, and not to deter people from signing up with Chatr.

  • Markus Burke

    Stop hating on Chatr, they offer good value, and can use iPhone, and they have great indoor reception. Thanks to Chatr the new entrants are forced to up their game, which Wind did by offering expanded coverage and high end phones. More competition = better for us all

    • Muchacho!

      Value? Yes they do! If you want no data, a 25-cent voicemail retrieval charge, and only 50 text messages, then it’s perfect. Even Public Mobile plans aren’t as restrictive.

      IPhone? Sure! There are countless phones that are much better that an IPhone, but ok. I am not really sure that too many people using Chatr (the value-conscious crowd) are ready to shell out $700 for a phone. And what good is an IPhone, if there is no data? You’ll have to stare at rows and rows of apps day in and day out, apps that you can’t use.

      Indoor reception? Finally, you have a valid phoint. Rogers has been around for 20+ yesrs, while the new guys just reaching a 2-year mark.

      Competition? You think Wind and the rest don’t want to improve their networks? Why are they in business then? I think there is enough competition between Wind, Mobilicity, and Public to keep things interesting. Chatr is there only to interfere, and will be scrapped as a company soon enough. Rogers has already converted many Chatr booths into Fido ones, and the rest will follow.

    • Josh

      @Muchatcho! Great comment. I fully agree and would almost call it scary that some people don’t see it the same way.

    • hoo dat

      If Chatr holds such sway with WIND, how come WIND is offering unlimited data for less that Chatr offers 100mb?

  • Pablo Moses

    What about data robbers?????

  • Rockjock

    More rogers ripoff in disguise as cheater….

  • Rockjock

    I guess if you can’t afford a real phone or data this is it for trailer trash

  • Peter

    who cares bout chatr, they don’t provide Data