Telus offers a truly unlimited data plan, with a catch

Telus has brought back a truly unlimited data plan for anyone who uses a ton of mobile data every month.

The plan costs $105 per month in Ontario (or $115 if you want to get a phone as well), and it includes unlimited nationwide talk and data. Plus, it has unlimited long-distance calling to 27 pre-selected international destinations such as the U.S., Philippines, Hong Kong, Mexico and lots of others. Texting is also unlimited, and you can even send and receive messages with international numbers for free.

The one obvious caveat with this plan is that you’re limited to only 50GB of hotspot usage each month, which limits its potential as your only internet source. I think some people might be able to make this work, but I assume that with streaming video, most people will use more than 50GB in a month. And if you have to share that data with a whole household, that becomes a whole other problem.

Part of me wonders if Telus is actually using this plan as a way to make its other options appear more reasonable, because the 100GB for $60 option next to the unlimited plan makes so much more sense. Plus, it has no hotspot limitation, so you could, in theory, get even more use out of it. For the same price, you could also get Telus’ 250GB ‘Complete Explore’ plan with data, talk, and text available in Canada and 68 other countries and unlimited hotspotting, which seems like a more useful deal.

Really, this plan only makes sense if you’re using an insane amount of data every month. I guess there must be some people out there who are, but since the average Canadian uses only 9GB of data every month, the unlimited plan likely isn’t worthwhile for most people. I should also mention that this data isn’t shareable, so if you’ve bundled lines together in a family plan, you are the only one who has unlimited full-speed usage.

If you’ve made it this far into the story and you actually do use more than 200GB per month, please share how in the comments. I’m genuinely curious. The most I’ve ever been able to do by myself is 50GB, and that involved setting up two new phones on data and a lot of work trips in one month.