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MATHA531 (Offline)
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Join Date: 15 Oct 2004

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Default 11-02-2007, 14:12

There are a couple of plans with US carriers that allow you to roam in Canada for something like $4/month....if needed they can be checked out on the web sites of cingular and T Mobile USA. For the most part, people doing what you suggest would probably not be making that many calls and the US carriers do allow roaming in Canada albeit at higher prices (but I don't think outrageously so as I remember)..

But I do have one pet peeve about this...as you may or may not know...the US, Canada and some Caribean countries have all been designated as country code 1...leaving places such as Bermuda aside, you cannot tell by looking at a number whether it is in the USA or in Canada unless you are a walking encyclopedia of area codes so I see something advertised and to call 1 514 555 1212...aha I use my mobile phone to make the call to avoid US long distance charges since the entire USA is considered one dialing area on most 21st century mobile phone plans and aha...other than the accent (I am pretty good at recognizing Canadian accents and this example is not all that good as you will see in a second) but anyway at the end of the month I get a bill with an add on to my thousands of included minutes and free weekends and nights because the call was to Quebec (obviously I would have recognized the Quebec accent or the fact that under Quebec law the call has to be answered at first in French but by then it is too late)...all this is covered under something called the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) that once upon a time was administered by the Bell system but has long since passed into other hands....you don't know from outside North America when dialing the USA or Canada as both start with+1...I wonder how Canadians feel about this...once again big brother in the USA treats them as 2nd class citizens...if I were Canadian I would start a crusade to get my own country code...it would certainly make life easier for citizens of both countries (and perhaps the rest of the world although to the best of my knowledge calling rates to the USA and to Canada are almost identical everywhere).
   
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