Canada: US person to Canada for a Plan (Monthly vs Pre paid) Fido?or others? Costly!

[Motel75]

Originally Posted by VladS

Your better option is 7-11 mobile. For $100 you get a basic phone (Nokia 1102) and a SIM prefilled with $105. Airtime rate is $0.20/minute.

Slightly OT, perhaps, but 7-11 does offer 365-day expiration, with the caveat that they cut off your service if you don't use it for 120 days (and it doesn't offer roaming anywhere else to allow users outside Canada to keep it active).

Vlad, or anyone: Is there a workaround here, such as checking one's voice mail, that would keep 7-11 Mobile active during long stays outside Canada?

Petro-Canada is another theoretical option, but you can't just recharge it every 180 days using a foreign credit card (AFAIK) you need to enter the code available only at Petro-Canada service stations into the phone itself.