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

[VladS]

The extra $0.30 long distance charge only applies to long distance calls. If you use the Onesuite toll free (or local to your phisical location) access number you only have to pay for airtime.

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.

[eieio]

VladS: thx for your advice. my follow up questions are:

1. Fido: why did they tell me that if i had a vancouver area code, if i'm in calgary, every 866 call is considered a "local call" and a local call in calgary means incurring canadian long distance since i'm no longer in vancouver? was the representative mistaken? please consider the fact that the majority of my calls will be initiated by me from canada to the US using my onesuite.com 866 access number. only in vancouver, i can use onesuite.com's vancouver local access number (they do not have local area code access numbers in calgary).

2. Fido: may i call to change my area code from vancouver to calgary when i go there? vancouver 4 days, calgary 4 days, jasper 2 days. charges for that? i cannot find it at all on their website. their reps are really not that helpful. i find their answers to be inconsistent.

3. Rogers: why not consider Rogers pay as you go plan? is rogers reception any better? their $1 per day has unlimited evenings starting at 6pm rather than the usual 8pm.

4. Rogers: they seem NOT to charge for changing area codes!!! am i mistaken? i read and re-read their info online, confusing. it is $10 to change your number online but seemingly free if you change your area code. website is so confusing.

5. 7 11: i'm confused why you mentioned that their $100 option is that great. i already have a quad band HTC phone that i'll be bringing to use. wouldn't that save me money by not going the 7 11 route and getting a new phone, however cheap that phone is? though $100 airtime is only $0.20 which is like 500 mins, that's quite a bit. what about canadian long distance when i move from vancouver to calgary? how does 7 11 handle that? they seem not to have much customer service/support at all!! concerned. they also don't have an unlimited evening option, which Rogers does have.

6. Sound /reception quality of Fido vs Rogers vs 7 11?? are they essentially the same? or is one better than another?


thanks in advance! looking forward to hearing your answers sir/madam.

[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.

[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by Motel75

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.

7-eleven and PetroCanada wireless resellers are actually run by the same ZTar outfit(same customer service center):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleve...k_Out_Wireless

7-eleven Canada official brochure:

http://www.7-eleven.com/products/doc...ochure_can.pdf

According to this unofficial blog, no US roaming yet with 7-Eleven Canada (although there is a US version that runs on Cingular/AT&T-GSMor Sprint-CDMA). :

http://www.speakoutwireless.ca/#number15a

This might change though, because the underlying Rogers/Fido prepaid network now allows US roaming(my prepaid Fido card works in the US).

In answer to the question on something to keep the 120 day useage going from outside of Canada(other than possibly roaming in the US in the future), it could be possible to leave a voicemail message for the cellphone, and then retrieve it from a landline (either the access number for voicemail or dialing your own cellphone without the sim chip in it and pressing #). Assuming a voicemail message even if the sim isn't live on a network would keep the 7-eleven sim chip alive.