It’s not just flanker brands — Rogers, Bell, Telus hiked talk and text plan prices too

Over the last week, MobileSyrup detailed how the Big Three flanker brands, Koodo, Fido and Virgin Plus, raised the cost of unlimited talk and text plans.

Well, they aren’t alone — the Big Three did too.

A tipster told MobileSyrup that Rogers would increase the cost of its talk and text plan from $33/mo to $35/mo on Friday — sure enough, the company’s website lists the plan at that price as of 11:13am ET on April 14th.

MobileSyrup also confirmed that Bell and Telus charge $35/mo for their unlimited talk and text plans, though it’s not clear when they made the change.

This is only the latest chapter in the saga of steadily increasing talk and text costs. Koodo, Fido and Virgin used to charge about $30/mo for unlimited talk and text. In August 2022, they briefly charged $27/mo as part of a promotion — since then, costs have steadily increased.

$30/mo was already arguably steep for a basic talk and text plan with no data, but $35/mo is just downright frustrating.

If you’re looking for a talk and text plan, avoid the Big Three and their flanker brands — you can get a plan with unlimited talk and text and usually about 1GB of data for about $25/mo from other providers, including Freedom Mobile, Public Mobile, Lucky Mobile and Chatr Mobile.