Dear Bell & Telus:Wow. Today is a big day for you. You came up with a whole new way to dig deep, way deep into the already porous pockets of Canadians. Up until now, I naively believed that the government and oil companies were responsible for gouging me, but clearly you’ve found a whole new way to exploit the Canadian population.
After giving it some thought however (and doing a little research from online sources that appear to be credible), I was able to see your rationale for this new 15 cent per text message billing structure. After all, times are tough – we’re all feeling the pinch. 
I mean, look at some of these upsetting facts I found:
- Bell, in 2007, you only made 20 billion dollars in annual revenue (from about 5.8 million wireless subscribers)
- And Telus, well, you are clearly in dire straits. Sadly, you only made about 9.2 billion dollars from 5.7 million wireless subscribers. Wow, I can see how it would be hard to stay afloat given these rough economic conditions. Sadly, I cannot help the cause as I currently contribute $100 / month in wireless services to Rogers’ annual revenue.
Despite the fact Rogers at the moment has not intention to jump on pay per text bandwagon, I’ve already carved out my own plan to stick it to the man. See, I’m lucky enough to work for a little company named EQO, a Canadian company in fact, where I don’t pay a penny for messages. Listen up Bell and Telus subscribers! I’m about to share my secret with you – think of it as a quick tip to help you, the little guy, STICK IT to the big guys. Just follow these simple directions:
- Go to www.EQO.com and click on GET EQO NOW
- Sign up for your FREE EQO account, and follow the simple directions to download EQO to your phone (it works with your existing phone and plan). EQO will import your contacts automatically.
- INVITE EVERYONE you know on BELL, TELUS (& ROGERS) to join your EQO network (think of the Facebook invite style, but on your mobile phone).
- Select a contact from your EQO Phonebook, click on EQO Message, type your message (might I suggest something like “SUCK IT, Bell & Telus!”), and hit send. You just sent your message for FREE, and your buddy will receive your message FOR FREE – no charge from Bell or Telus (or Rogers), and of course no charge from EQO.
Now THAT WAS EASY (insert Staples easy button here). You just sent the first of many FREE messages, the possibilities are endless. And by the way for your buddies that aren’t on EQO, we also offer super-cheap SMS texts to anywhere in the world, though that won’t help your friend.
Why am I sharing my secret with you? Well, because it’s no secret at all. A bunch of got together here at EQO a few years ago and set out to make staying in touch with people easier, and CHEAPER. It’s our contribution to good karma – enjoy, and make sure to let us know what you think! In the meantime, you stay classy, Canadian telcos!
No comments
When the "new" EQO was launched in May of '07, the only way to purchase more credits for international calling and messaging was via a 
Since reading and 
Hello and thank you to all the kind users who gave our Symbian Beta a try and then shared their experiences with us. We used as much of the feedback as we could in the upcoming commercial version and we haven't forgotten the rest. The Symbian Beta phase is now over, making way for the commercial release of our Symbian version next week. Thanks again to all of those who tested our Symbian Beat version, we really appreciate your efforts.
Two years ago I was kinda sad when I ended up with a Motorola V635 and not a RAZR as my personal phone. RAZR's were so freaking cool back then, but they generally sucked from the nerdy technical point of view. Just try running EQO on a RAZR V3 and you'll see what I mean, slow... I was really happy with my V635 when I got it. It was way better than my circa 2002 Audiovox (colour screen!) and made calls just fine. It wasn't until I got my hands on some other high end phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson that I realized just how greatly Motorola phones paled in comparison. Motorola pulled off a marketing coup with their four letter 'almost a word' naming scheme, featuring RAZR, SLVR, PEBL, KRZR, ROKR, RIZR and so on. It seems that the consumer community has gotten over the then cool RAZR form factors and voted with their dollars because Motorola's phone division isn't doing so well. Who'd a thought better qualities products would sell more?
I've been 
