Telus Now Offering No Cost Phone + Tablet Data Sharing Plans for Android and RIM Tablets

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.telusmobility.com/en/AB/tablets/data.shtml?INTCMP=HomeBANC2data' target='_blank'>http://www.telusmobility.com/en/AB/...P=HomeBANC2data</a><br /><br /></div><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//lpt/auto/1304959308.usr1.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>My fellow Canadians, take note: Telus has dropped the gauntlet on the other wireless carriers in Canada by offering a new <a href="http://www.telusmobility.com/en/AB/tablets/data.shtml?INTCMP=HomeBANC2data" target="_blank">no-cost data sharing plan</a> between your phone and your tablet. Let me repeat that: <em>no cost to share the data plan</em>. This is a big deal, because traditionally the carriers have added a fee to allow this functionality. There's a catch though: this Telus plan only works with Android and RIM tablets because it apparently relies upon tethering instead of a direct network connection.</p><p>This was, previously, a very expensive proposition -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/carriers/rogers-carriers/want-to-share-rogers-6gb-data-plan-itll-cost-you-30-extra/" target="_blank">iPhoneinCanada.ca has a great post on this topic</a> from two months ago: as of February 2011, Rogers was charging customers an extra $30 per month if they wanted to share their 6 GB data plan with another device. This is a network-level data share, so it applies to iPad 3G's for instance and isn't exactly the same as tethered sharing, but the concept is the same: two devices sharing a pool of data. $30 per month extra on top of the $30 or so that the customer is already paying for the 6 GB plan. Ouch. That's some mighty expensive data sharing!</p><p>I hope that Telus' move here places pressure on Rogers and Bell to re-position their sharing plans and pricing. And, I might note, it makes me long for the day when Windows Phone 7 allows for either Bluetooth tethering sharing or, better yet, full-fledged WiFi hotspot functionality. When I'm out with my WiFi iPad 2, I can only stare at my Windows Phone 7 with disdain and think "You know, I could do this sort of thing with Windows Mobile 6.5...".</p><p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> It looks like the parallels I was trying to draw were inaccurate; Rogers has allowed no-charge tethering on all data plans over 1 GB, and tethering is a different scenario than a directly connected tablet with a SIM card. Apologies for the confusion!</p>

[georgeli88]

Rogers has been allowing user to tether for a while now. Telus just allow users to do it now. This new thing is not the same as sharing data that Rogers offer. Rogers charge the $15 to share data but they give a SIM to use that device independently. As for Telus, you need to pair with your own device through personal hot spot or bluetooth. This is for push their Playbook and XOOM. They just catching up.

[Rogers_Chris]

Hi there,

This is Chris at Rogers. I wanted to add that while we don’t comment on competitor offerings, Rogers defines Data Sharing as the ability for two devices to share the same data plan over a network connection. The ability to share data over WiFi or through Tethering is free on all data plans over 1GB. We announced our tethering policy in March 2010, which you can read about on our Redboard blog: http://redboard.rogers.com/2010/we-listened-rogers-unveils-smartphone-tethering-policy/

Hope this helps,
@Rogers_Chris

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks for the clarification, I've updated my post.