cell phone plans

[ty_guy]

k i know majority of you have cellular talking devices so my question is who's the best company to go with? this is'll be my first cell i don't really wanna get stuck with a rip-off company. i've done a little phone window shopping and i'm liking the new phones from Solo (forget who they are a branch from) i've heard Rogers is good for monthly plans and Telus is good for Pay as you Go thingers. so who should i go with and who should i stay away from.

thanks a bundle:)

[Clayton.]

I just use other peoples cells to make phone calls.........it's a great plan.

[ty_guy]

hahaha, ya i've been doing that but they keep running out of minutes so it's not always effective. i'm always out and about so it'd be nice if people could contact me when i'm not at home, plus the gf told me i wasn't aloud (fuck can't remememeber how to spell that right) to use her phone anymore:p

[Clayton.]

Find friends with better cell phone plans, easy as that.

[ty_guy]

lol that's it, start lookin for new friends who have cell phones. i was lookin around the other day when i was out and noticed how many people actually have these mobile phone thingers and thought i should keep up with the times and get me one of em.

[Clayton.]

I bet you'll get a phone with lots of blinking lights.

[ty_guy]

hmm that'd be cool but i just want a flip thingy with voice recording capable. bout all i need. if it comes with blinking lights then so be it:p

[ty_guy]

~bump~

k i've been told to stay away from Telus cause they rip ya off. and heard that Rogers is pretty good.

[DefJef]

City Fido is good... base is $45 a month for unlimited locals... add caller ID and all that bs and some text messages and I manage to keep it under $65.

Until now it sucked becuase of all their damn dead zones, but since Rogers bought em, I find myself on a rogers network lots of times with reception to spare. No contract, and its probably cheaper than your land line.

Telus = expensive
Bell = gladely to give the shaft whenever possible, and expensive.


*edit* not available in comox if thats where you are.. :/

[ty_guy]

Originally Posted by sirjeff

*edit* not available in comox if thats where you are.. :/

what!? you mean i can't get Rogers or City Fido?

[miss.myra]

Solo is a branch off from Bell Mobility, it's still a prepaid phone, and if you ever plan to use your cellphone then prepaid is not the way to go because it gets waaaay more expensive than a monthly plan.


I like my cellphone plan best, the only thing I pay for is long distance at 10 cents a minute.

[charly]

telus doesn't rip you off, unless you're a moron.

but then if you do stupid things, you'll find yourself getting "ripped off" by a lot of companies.

i'm with telus. 350 daytime minutes, unlimited evenings + weekends and all that junk. they've been great to me so far.

bell was good. they had wicked reception and i was with them for over two years. we had some issues at the end, but that was just bs (and would happen with any other company as well).

rogers treated me like shit when i had them, so i refused to go back. they were doing all this bullshit, like changing my plan and rates without telling me, and it was ridiculous.


one more thing to mention, about reception.. a lot of it is in the phone you choose.

[DefJef]

Originally Posted by ty_guy

what!? you mean i can't get Rogers or City Fido?

nope, i meant just city fido.. I think its only available in vancouver, calgary, and toronto or something.

[miss.myra]

Um, they're also no longer offering city fido to new subscribers.

[e_BoY]

Telus - Powerful reception and good coverage. If you dont live in the city and live out in the boons then this is your ONLY choice. Plans are avg. Ugliest phones next to Bell or actually their both just as bad. They use the CDMA technology meaning you wont be able to get nice phones or have the luxury of swaping between phones by just sticking your SIM card into another.

Bell - umm no comment they just suck period and they use CDMA. If your willing to go to Bell might as well go to Telus

Fido - Havn't been with them for years now but i've heard nothing but complaints from people so I dont have any personally info for this except for the fact that they use GSM meaning you can get decked out phones form here, europe, asia etc.. and just be able to swap phones by changing your SIM card.

Rogers - The company im currently using and has been for 5 years now. If you live in the city then its all good. Almost never get dropped calls. Reception is just fine. Plans are decent. Most importantly for me is it uses GSM like Fido. Im chinese so its pretty typical for me to love cell phones and having urges to get new shit all the time. Being able to just pull out my SIM card and sticking it into another one of my phones at any given time is great.

So to begin with ask yourself this. What area you live in, city or boonies? Are you a cell phanatic or are you one of those who dont care and just want something that works? Seeing that its your first cell ill assume you dont care. Another really important thing is look at all the plans. Think which plan honestly suits you. Some companies will have something that will suit ur needs better with a better price. Sure fidos $45/month unlimited tlak they had was awesome but lets say you find a wicked plan for $20 and you dont even use mad minutes then whast the point of paying an extra $25 a month just for unlimited. thnk that plan is over ratted sometimes. I pay $20/month for $150 days and unlimited evening and weekends. hope this helped a bit

[ty_guy]

^^ hey thanks man. that's excatly what i wanted to know. i have checked out a few companies for different plans and rates. tho this being my first cellular phone i don't really know how much i will be on it. right now i think i might go with a $25/month with unlimited evening and weekends, and i'm leaning towards Rogers.

[miss.myra]

GSM technology doesn't work very well with Canada's topography, doesn't agree with mountainous regions, etc. If you live in Comox Ty, I'd suggest asking a few roger's subscribers out there about how their coverage is cos I know the geography out there is a little diverse.


CDMA doesn't suck as well. I mean Ty, are you planning frequently on travelling to Asia or Europe frequently with your cellphone? Probably not.

[ty_guy]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

GSM technology doesn't work very well with Canada's topography, doesn't agree with mountainous regions, etc. If you live in Comox Ty, I'd suggest asking a few roger's subscribers out there about how their coverage is cos I know the geography out there is a little diverse.


CDMA doesn't suck as well. I mean Ty, are you planning frequently on travelling to Asia or Europe frequently with your cellphone? Probably not.

well i'd like to go to Europe or Asia but i don't see that happening in the next 5 years. oh could someone also tell me what GSM and CDMA are? i honestly have NO knowledge of this cellular lingo. i'll keep that in mind Myra, i haven't even thought about reception. oh and would it be better to get a phone with an extending antenna or does that really help?

[charly]

myra is right.

my bell phone was awesome because even at the top of a mountain, i still had reception. and for someone who snowboards and spends lots of time on the mountains, that can be quite convenient.

[nipvicious]

telus, bell - cdma (if u want to swap fones.. and keep ur plan and fone number.. u have to call them to do it and it has a service fee)

fido, rogers, whoever else - GSM (if u wanna do the above.. just take out the sim card from the back where the battery is.. and put it in the other fone and ur good to go)

(ps.. correct me if im wrong on the GSM cuz both companies i've used so far are telus and bell)

Originally Posted by ty_guy

well i'd like to go to Europe or Asia but i don't see that happening in the next 5 years. oh could someone also tell me what GSM and CDMA are? i honestly have NO knowledge of this cellular lingo. i'll keep that in mind Myra, i haven't even thought about reception. oh and would it be better to get a phone with an extending antenna or does that really help?

[Dead Mike]

man u guys know everything!

[mux]

As I understand it, the CRTC has forced Telus to allow 'portable numbers', starting back in February, with them having to have the service in place by September. Supposedly in September you can keep your Telus phone number and switch to Fido.

I'm anxiously waiting to switch. I love my phone number, but I fucking hate Telus - depending on which friend's house I'm at, sometimes I don't get incoming calls at all (just get the messages, the phone never rang), sometimes I get a big bunch of incoming messages from the last day or so (like, someone left me a message yesterday, and my phone only beeped "new message" today), etc.

One nice fact about Fido - they were recently bought out! I can't remember if it's Bell or Rogers that owns Fido now (I think it's Bell), but if you're worried about coverage, get Fido and for $5 extra per month, you get free roaming on Bell towers. Double the coverage!

I'm getting one of those Danger Hiptops. I'm a network administrator, and the HipTop2 has an ICQ/AOL client, POP3 and IMAP email, a real web browser, and even an SSH client available. A FUCKING SSH CLIENT! I've been waiting for that for YEARS! For $20 extra per month, you get unlimited internet too...

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by andrewajc

telus, bell - cdma (if u want to swap fones.. and keep ur plan and fone number.. u have to call them to do it and it has a service fee)

Uhhhhh, no, not true AT all.


ps- number portability was approved by the CRTC and works for all providers nationwide, but is not expected to be implemented for 1-2 years.

[tvmann]

If you don't make a lot of long outgoing calls during weekdays, check out the Fido $25 unlimited incoming calls plan. BTW a $25 plan actually costs about $37 after taxes etc.

Note that Fido doesn't throw in some extras that are "free" with other companies like voice messaging and call forwarding. And they just DOUBLED the long distance rate to 20 cents a minute. Fido is owned by Rogers.

Fido has this gimmick called "Fido Dollars" that rebates you a small percent of your monthly charges so you can buy a new cell every few years, but what they don't tell you is that due to the way they calculate this, they round DOWN this amount every month, result being they give you NOTHING. Most people probably don't know this.

Fido and Rogers are GSM technology which is what is used over all Europe. Telus, Bell, Virgin use CDMA technology which is supposedly a little more advanced but less widely used over the world. Having used both I'd say they're equivalent.

[thechix0r]

I have been with Fido for a year and bit now, and seeing as I rarely use my phone, I buy prepaid. I pay 30 bucks a month or depending on how much it can be 10 bucks or 15. I get voice mail, text messaging and caller id. I enjoy the pay as you go because sometimes I don't even use my cellphone and you can carry over into the next month. The reception for a while there sucked because they were switching their towers over to Rogers, but now I get full bars everywhere. I have had no problem with Fido, other than this and that was just recently. I have been thinking of switching to a plan, but I liek the fact that I don' thave a contract, I can get the phone I want and I can decide how much I want to pay in the month, depending on how financially stable I am. Meh, that's just me, if you love using your cell phone and are using it for the purpose of a home phone, you might want to have another option, but this works just fine for me. People can reach me and get a hold of me... that's basically the purpose of my cell phone. Hope that helps :D