I have been with Wind for 9 months and have loved the experience.
The coverage within the city is identical to other carriers.....finding a place without connectivity isn't easy and urban connectivity really shouldn't be a factor in the decision. And just to be clear, Wind offers a trial window (7 day, iirc) in which a no fee cancellation can be made if you're not satisfied.
Once you leave the city (Cross Iron Mills area) you start roaming. Connectivity is never a problem (QE2, Hwy2) and the rates are perfectly normal. You won't break the bank to use your phone and it would take A LOT of roaming voice/data to get your bill into the $70, $80, $90 range that the big three charge for their plans.
My bill doesn't really fluctuate. The plan is $29/month (Unlimited voice, unlimited data, unlimited text, voicemail, call forward ) and comes out to $30.45 with tax. No connection charges, no "Government" fees, nothing. Depending on my out of town usage, the bill has gotten up to about $35.00.
I tallied my 9 bills this morning and can say that for $282.31 I have obtained 9 full months of superior quality voice/data service (on a subsidized smartphone no less). That's $31.37 on average and easily half (probably a third) of a Telus/Rogers/ Bell bill.
There have been comments in other threads that Wind is going to close down (or be bought out or run out of money) because of foreign ownership rules. The Canadian Government has made it clear that competition is here to stay, and has relaxed ownership rules to ensure it remains.
Further, with the fear mongering behind them, Wind has finally begun to achieve the user growth it expected. They increased the year-to-year Q1 subscription rate by 52.9% and sit at well over 400,000 users.
In short - there really isn't any reason for Calgarians to continue overpaying for cell service.
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