New Fido logo, website and plans? No system access fee either!

Are things changing in the Canadian mobile carrier space? It sure seems like it. Fido recently changed their logo and gave their entire website a makeover. There a no longer cute dogs all over the site and the new branding is a dog house, but no dogs. So not really a big deal right? Bell changed their site and logo this summer too, but the real change for Fido was in their removal of system access fees, something that is quickly becoming very unpopular in Canada. My fee was over 7 dollars a month, and that really adds up over time, and what’s it for? It’s basically a hidden fee and that’s what stinks about it.

The plans have also changed and they seem to be less confusing than they used to be. The new base Fido iPhone plan is still 60 dollars, but it includes 500MB of data and unlimited texting. Right now my plan is 400MB of data and 75 text messages a month for the same price. Of course when Fido contacted me to tell me my 3 months of unlimited local calling was over they also said I could upgrade to the new plan for a 25 dollar setup fee. Why do they call it a setup fee? I’m already setup, why don’t they just call it an upgrade fee? I didn’t do it right then, I looked into it first and thought hey the connection fee savings alone will pay for the 25 dollar setup fee in four months. Anyway, here’s the good part, the Fido representative said that they could give me the connection fee credit with no upgrade and I could keep my plan. Since I don’t text much and the data increase is minimal I went for the free credit. I’m sure sometime next year their will be a data boost again, maybe then I’ll bite.

So call up Fido and upgrade your plan for 25 dollars or have them remove the 7 dollar system access fee for nothing. I think you need to call them though, otherwise they will probably just keep charging you the 7 dollar fee.

I’m wondering if these new changes are in response to the new National carrier Globalive which should be on the scene here in Canada sometime next year. There are also a lot of Virgin Mobile advertisements around Toronto attacking system access fees. Whatever it is, I’ll take the savings and increased features anyway I can get them.