In Bell’s recent quarterly report they noted that “Prepaid gross activations decreased 23.8% in Q1 2012 to 94,574, due primarily to our emphasis on postpaid.” This is a trend in Canadian wireless and not just limited to Bell. Other such as Rogers and TELUS have also both reported a decrease in prepaid subscribers numbers.
Today, to potentially combat this growing concern, Bell will be streamlining the number of Prepaid plans they offer. An internal doc we received reveals that “Prepaid plans are being condensed into a single ‘Voice & Messaging’ plan line-up… new ‘Voice & Messaging’ plans are launching, prepaid ‘Voice’ plans are being renamed ‘Voice & Messaging’ plans, and prepaid ‘Voice & Data’ plans are expiring.”
So customers who want to sign up on a voice/text can grab a prepaid plan, but then if you want data you’ll have to sign up specifically for a data add-on. The two new prepaid plans that Bell is launching today are a $20.75/month plan that gives you $0.10/minute calling with unlimited text. Plus a $30.75/month plan that offers up unlimited incoming with unlimited text. As usual, all the prepaid plans includer a $10 start-up credit plus Call Display, Call Forwarding, Voicemail and Call Waiting
The data add-on is either $10/month or $20/month. Bell states that “Clients on a monthly ‘Voice & Messaging’ plan valued at $15.75 or higher receive 50% off one of the data add-ons.” The $10 add-on will drop to $5/month and you’ll get 100MB. The $20 will fall to $10 and gives you either 250MB data or BlackBerry Social (Facebook, Twitter, BBM).
Look for these changes to take place today.
(Thanks tipster!)
