I have an old cell phone. A really old cell phone. The Nokia 6590i to be exact. I took over this phone from Neil when he upgraded to a Samsung, after which he upgraded to an iPhone having gone swimming with his Samsun in the Pacific. Salt water and electronics to do not mix, but I digress. My phone is very simple, with limited functionality. It can send and receive calls, it can send and receive text messages and that’s about it. There is some memory to be able to store contact information, but this is limited. Lately, I have had to be quite vigilant in deleting all incoming text messages as they arrive as I no longer have the memory to be able to store messages on my phone. The memory has been used up primarily by my contacts and therefore, there is little left for incoming messages. I am outgrowing the phone, finally, after many years of use (after Neil’s many years of use). It has done us well.

I don’t use my phone much, so I’ve been on a Pay-As-You-Go plan with Rogers since moving to Vancouver over four years ago. I have received many phone calls from Rogers trying to entice me to sign-up on a plan, but until more recently, the $20.00 pay-as-you-go top-up each month has done its job. Now that I’ve been using my phone a lot more, I have been eating through the minutes a lot faster and having to top up every few weeks, instead of every month. The minutes are not lasting nearly as long and have been taxed even further by Rogers. Rogers has increased their outgoing text messaging service from $0.15/text to $0.25/text - a ridiculous increase of over 60%. Yesterday, I received a text message informing me that rogers will now be increasing their incoming text messaging service from $0.00/text to $0.15/text (and I assume this will be on par with the outgoing text service by the end of the year). They are practically forcing me to sign-up on a plan. My usage pattern is now at a point where a plan will be more cost-effective than a pay-as-you-go plan, so Rogers wins. They’re finally getting me on a plan. However, I’m not so certain that the plan will be with Rogers.

I need a new phone and I need a new plan. Any suggestions?