Bell Canada says it refrained from killing off its Solo brand in case other carriers started offering unlimited calling services. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Bell Canada's Solo wireless brand will introduce unlimited calling and texting plans this month, chief executive George Cope confirmed Thursday.

It's part of repositioning Solo to compete with Rogers Communications' recently launched Chatr brand, as well as new carriers Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile, all of which offer plans with unlimited voice calls and texting.

Solo was launched as Bell's discount brand in 2005, but its fate had been murky since May 2009, when the company bought Virgin Mobile. Virgin was repositioned as Bell's discount brand, which led many industry analysts to expect Solo would eventually be axed.

During a conference call with analysts Thursday, Cope said that was never the plan. He said Solo was kept around in the event that other low-cost wireless carriers materialized.

"We kept the Solo brand in case we saw this development," he said. "We’ll stay competitive in that space."

Rogers' launch of Chatr in July raised the ire of the new carriers, particularly Mobilicity chairman John Bitove. Rogers launched the discount service in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, with eventual plans to extend to Montreal. Bitove said the move was anti-competitive because Rogers was only deploying Chatr in cities where the three new carriers, which all launched since last December, have started operations or plan to.

Mobilicity says it plans to file a legal action against Rogers with the federal Competition Bureau. The company did not immediately return a request for comment on whether it plans to do the same with Solo.

Rogers countered Bitove's argument by saying Chatr was boosting competition, not lessening it.

Analysts expect Telus, which reports its quarterly earnings on Friday, to similarly move toward unlimited calling services.