Best option for travelling to Canada?

[mrbarlow]

Thanks very much for your help, PhotoJim. Yes, I'm aware of the incoming call charges in North America - it seems bizarre to most of us in this part of the world, but there we are...

I've had a quick look at Speakout but it seems info is at a premium and I can't see anywhere selling SIM-only.

In ref to the calling cards, do you know whether either Rogers or Fido charge for calling toll-free numbers?

[PhotoJim]

Originally Posted by mrbarlow

Thanks very much for your help, PhotoJim. Yes, I'm aware of the incoming call charges in North America - it seems bizarre to most of us in this part of the world, but there we are...

I've had a quick look at Speakout but it seems info is at a premium and I can't see anywhere selling SIM-only.

In ref to the calling cards, do you know whether either Rogers or Fido charge for calling toll-free numbers?

It is a little bizarre but it has its advantages. I'm going to the UK in September and got a couple of O2 SIMs. The lowest rate I can find to forward my calls from Canada to the UK is about 30 cents a minute. If you guys had the same method for inbound calling that we have, it'd cost me 5 cents a minute for the forward and (after my first 3 minutes of airtime of the day) 5p a minute on the prepaid phone, which is about half the price.

Oh well. It's still not bad.

As for toll-free numbers, Canadian providers don't differentiate between local and toll-free numbers. The rate to call them is precisely the same. That having been said, any good calling card is going to have a local Toronto number for you to call. One in four Canadians lives in the local calling radius of Toronto.