Koodo, Virgin kill Boxing Week deals and launch new plans

The good times are coming to an end: Koodo and Virgin killed their few remaining Boxing Week deals and rolled out new plans. If you read our story about Fido’s new suite of plans, then the offers from Koodo and Virgin will look fairly familiar.

Let’s dive into the new plans.

Koodo

The Telus flanker brand scrapped its excellent promotions like $35/50GB in favour of a mediocre suite of plans.

• $35/mo unlimited talk and text (pay-per-use data at a rate of $13/100MB).
• $35/mo 10GB 4G (100Mbps speed), unlimited Canada-wide minutes and messaging.
• $40/mo 10GB 4G (100Mbps speed), unlimited Canada-wide minutes and messaging.
• $45/mo 20GB 4G (100Mbps speed), unlimited Canada-wide minutes and messaging.
• $55/mo 30GB 5G (250Mbps speed), unlimited Canada-wide minutes and messaging.
• $60/mo 40GB 5G (250Mbps speed), unlimited Canada-wide minutes and messaging.

There are a few things to note here with Koodo’s plans. First, several of the options are about $1 more per month than similar plans from Virgin and Fido. For example, the 20GB 4G plan is $45/mo at Koodo but $44/mo at the other providers. However, Koodo’s $35/10GB plan is cheaper than the $39/10GB plan at the other providers.

Speaking of the 10GB plan, Koodo offers a $35/mo and a $40/mo version of the plan. Beyond the price, the plan is otherwise identical, and it’s not clear why Koodo has the same plan listed with two different prices. My guess is one of the two is a mistake and will likely disappear in the near future (I’d put my money on the cheaper one going away, but we’ll see).

It’s also worth pointing out that Koodo doesn’t include international texting in any of its plans, but customers can get it as a free perk. Koodo offers a selection of perks with each plan, and customers can pick one for free (more can be added for a small fee). Perk options vary by plan, though almost every plan lets you pick international texting as an option. The $60 5G plan notably has a speed boost perk that bumps data speeds up to 500Mbps, meaning Koodo has the fasted 5G data option aside from the 1Gbps+ speeds offered by Rogers, Bell and Telus.

Check out Koodo’s plans here.

Virgin Plus

Bell’s Virgin Plus has new plans as well, mostly matching what other providers have:

• $34/mo unlimited talk and text
• $39/mo 10GB 4G (150Mbps speeds), unlimited Canada-wide calling and international texting.
• $44/mo 20GB 4G (150Mbps speeds), unlimited Canada-wide calling and international texting.
• $54/mo 30GB 4G (150Mbps speeds), unlimited Canada-wide calling and international texting.
• $60/mo 50GB 5G unlimited (250Mbps speeds, throttled to 256Kbps beyond 50GB), unlimited Canada-wide calling and international texting.

It’s worth noting that all of Virgin’s plans restrict the quality of video streamed over the provider’s network to 480p. Additionally, the lone 5G plan includes ‘unlimited’ use with throttled speeds of up to 256Kbps beyond the 50GB monthly data allotment.

You can check out Virgin’s plans here.

At this point, if you missed the boat on Boxing Week offers, I’d strongly advise waiting (if you can) for better plan offers. Paying $60/mo for 40GB or 50GB is tough to stomach after seeing plans like $34/50GB. Thankfully, you can still get good plans like that from providers like Public Mobile and Freedom Mobile for now, but it’s not clear how much longer those deals will stick around.