Time for a Smartphone???

[abnormal3]

Currently , between the Wife's an my dumb phones(no data) ,mnthly Telus Mobility $89.XX.That seems kinda high considering I can get a Smartphone and a $50 Data plan for both of us for just over $100 before negotiating or anything ? WTF!!! The one benefit is the Data plans come with favourite 5 numbers,this is great considering after May I'm probably going to be working in Courtenay and not Nanaimo and this could save huge LD rates ( I live in Qualicum) assuming I can include numbers not in my local calling area Duncan/Nanaimo etc...

so couple questions?

The wife phone isn't on contract ,mine has 1 1/2 yrs left, do you think I can negotiate any deals (below $100 after taxes and network fee) if I upgrade both of us to smart phones, Me (DESIRE HD ) wife (Iphone4) and both  a 50$ data plan (is there such a thing as shared Data?)The only thing  I'd need on my phone is call display,I like the fact my Blueant headset reads the phone # out to me whilst I'm driving.I've been with Telus mobility since 2002 and have no problem with both going with 3yr contracts either.I'm planning on phoning retention tomorrow ,but was hoping a little insight as since I'm now thinking I'm getting screwed at $89.xx ,I obviously need it.

[dmogx]

with 1.5years left, they might not be as willing to give you a huge deal.  With 1 year left, then likely yes.  You can always try to negotiate a plan for the wife first, and then yours later, you'll probably come in under or the same with a better plan.  However, you have a little more bargaining power as you're both upgrading together.

Never hurts to call in and ask, try to do some research to see what others have been getting within the past couple of months (like on howardforums etc) so you know roughly what you can and can't get in the negotiation process.  And there are shared plans, so yes you can share data depending on packages that telus offers.

[serpico007]

Telus used to have the shared plans and my wife and I used to have it. But switching to cheaper plans for both of our Android phones was a better decision.  It all comes down to how you use the phone outside of your home.  At home you use wifi to save on data, use that when you're out.  We decided to stop using our phones at home and use the landline more for voice and was able to cut down the plans to $80 for both. We never go over 100mb per month on data so why pay more? Telus coverage sucks in my area so it was an easy decision to cut down on my voice minutes and data. Telus has a good website to monitor your usage and you can switch your plan online instantly and get credit for the remainder days from that month.

I checked out the Desire HD this past weekend and it was nice.  But I don't want to spend over $400 on older tech. HTC has their big mobile show presentation tomorrow morning in Barcelona and we'll most likely see a Desire HD2 update.  The new Samsung Galaxy S2 is pretty nice too for an upgrade to the current Samsung phones.  The dummy phone for the Desire HD at Telus was all they had and maybe my decision would change if I played with a real one.

[DKaz]

Yah you don't really save too much on the family shared plans.

[abnormal3]

Didn't get a chance to call today ,but did do some looking on mobilesyrup and redflag deals and it looks like Telus is pretty tight with their "deals".Out of curiosity , do you guys figure 500MB is sufficient for light use or do I need 1GB?
 

[serpico007]

I had 500mb and never went over 100mb.  So I changed mine. If you plan to stream audio and video while you're out of the house then you need the 500mb.  I use my phone for GPS navigation in the car and Google Maps loads the maps over 3G and for one trip it usually hits less than 1mb. Hope that helps.

[DKaz]

For my wife and sister, 500MB is way more than enough. Me, I go through up to 2GB a month streaming several hours of hockey games a month.