Hi guys

I'm moving into an appt and I want to have a cell phone as a main phone. I've always had a love/hate relationship with them as I often cringe everytime someone calls me from Ottawa and I'm elsewhere, or when I know I've gone over my anytime minutes, or any other action that would incurr extra fees.

Presently I'm with Virgin with a crappy Rumour 260, I've got 15 months left on the contract which would cost me $150 to end. I'd consider a smart phone as the next step, but it would have to have an incredible monthly rate in order to make it my one and only.

Has anyone seen any local deals that would be a no-brainer? Yes, I can walk in to the local Costco and talk to a rep for a good hour and some but sometimes there are deals out there that slip buy and that's why I'm seeking your knowledge.

Cheers

Alex

I'm interested in this thread as well. My wife needs a new cell phone and I've been investigating. I know alot depends on your expected usage. In the case of my wife, she has a new job and is expecting alot of incoming calls. She doesn't need a data plan. We want to keep it low cost.

So far, the best for her needs is Koodoo. They have an unlimited plan for $30/mnth and it includes 150 minutes for calling. Add $6 a month for voice mail and the total cost should be $36 plus tax a month -- I will be verifying before I sign up. So far, the best deal I have seen for unlimited incoming.

Chatr also has a good plan w/ unlimited incoming and outgoing calls for $35 a month. What I didn't like about this plan, though, is voice mail is billed at .25 a minute. Anyone with clients knows messages can be long.

Both the above have no contract. I am really, really big on no contract. I just got screwed by Rogers and am stuck until the contract is done. Lesson learned. No more contracts.

So far, I am leaning towards Koodoo.

BTW, avoid Wind Mobile. At this point, they don't have all areas of Ottawa covered. For example, you won't get reception in Barrhaven. This should be resolved in the next year, but useless at this point for our needs.

Duane

Quoted from TwilightZone

BTW, avoid Wind Mobile. At this point, they don't have all areas of Ottawa covered. For example, you won't get reception in Barrhaven. This should be resolved in the next year, but useless at this point for our needs.

The good news, Duane, is that Porter now flies to Barrhaven!

What's your motivation?  Is it just cost? or is it 1 number availability?

If it's just cost, then I'm not sure there is great savings in it to get the same level of capabilities.  I'd look at it a different way and take the money you are saving by not having a land line and apply that to your cell phone plan, or at least a good portion of it.  What's your home phone bill now?  $20? $30 a month?  put that towards a cell plan that won't make you regret having to answer the call.  Go for the smart phone, sure you'll probably be wasting some money, but you were doing that on a land line before anyway, at least you'll be having fun with it.  

To your specific question, can't help on the plans, we are with Rogers, and everyone knows they suck.

Quoted from QN

What's your motivation?  Is it just cost? or is it 1 number availability?

If it's just cost, then I'm not sure there is great savings in it to get the same level of capabilities.  I'd look at it a different way and take the money you are saving by not having a land line and apply that to your cell phone plan, or at least a good portion of it.  What's your home phone bill now?  $20? $30 a month?  put that towards a cell plan that won't make you regret having to answer the call.  Go for the smart phone, sure you'll probably be wasting some money, but you were doing that on a land line before anyway, at least you'll be having fun with it.  

To your specific question, can't help on the plans, we are with Rogers, and everyone knows they suck.

Cost is a big factor. If I could get something amazing around $80/month or less that would be ok

Get an iPhone!  I hear all the cool kids are buying them.  

Quoted from machine.slave

Get an iPhone!  I hear all the cool kids are buying them.  

^ This. I own an iPhone 4 and am with Fido. I pay around $60 a month and I get:
-6GB of data ($30) (with tethering!! sooo handy)
-200 minutes day time, unlimited evening/weekends starting at 5pm ($17.50)
-Unlimited texts, caller ID, and voicemail ($10)

Now I don't know if you can get these rates, I got some crazy plan a couple years ago, but you may be able to get something similar. Fido should still have the 6GB data for $30.

I am with Rogers for my iPhone and my plan is around $80/month. This includes a 6 gig data plan, visual voice mail and unlimited texting. I am not sure if the plans are more competitive now that Bell sells them too.

I doubt tethering would be included anymore.. now that the "wi-fi sticks" are out on cell networks, they're really cracking down on tethering.

Tethering on the BBY used to be free.  Not anymore!  Got a $196 bill once for 19mb of data usage while I was at the cottage.  I fought it and won though.  Yikes!

Quoted from machine.slave

I doubt tethering would be included anymore.. now that the "wi-fi sticks" are out on cell networks, they're really cracking down on tethering.

Tethering on the BBY used to be free.  Not anymore!  Got a $196 bill once for 19mb of data usage while I was at the cottage.  I fought it and won though.  Yikes!

iPhone tethering is free and included at least with Fido and Rogers, I assume the other guys do it too. It's the one thing we have that the US doesn't, it's awesome.

Quoted from jonny_eh

iPhone tethering is free and included at least with Fido and Rogers, I assume the other guys do it too. It's the one thing we have that the US doesn't, it's awesome.

A quick Google search (meaning, take it with a grain of salt) tells me Rogers / Fido has it included in their plans for 1g data and above, and all others are following suit to remain competitive.  I'm jealous.  

Enjoy it while you can though.. like I said, BBY tethering used to be "free" as well.

chatr might be good, but I would say they are violating the CRTC as its a temporary brand launched by Roger's to compete with the new players...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....gers/article1699803/


That said, I'd stick with the big players - Rogers, Bell, etc - but watch your bill and fight the stupid bills.  

Quoted from machine.slave

A quick Google search (meaning, take it with a grain of salt) tells me Rogers / Fido has it included in their plans for 1g data and above, and all others are following suit to remain competitive.  I'm jealous.  

Enjoy it while you can though.. like I said, BBY tethering used to be "free" as well.

Even if they take it away, I'll just re-enable it using the jailbreak. That's what people do in the US.

Quoted from jonny_eh

Even if they take it away, I'll just re-enable it using the jailbreak. That's what people do in the US.

That's all fine and dandy, but you need to be careful.  There are ways around it for the BBY as well.  Basically (and I'm sure my terminology is off here), when you tether on your phone it switches bands to their "wi-fi stick" band and they can monitor that.  The only way get around it is to force your phone to remain on your cellular network while tethered, and even still you need to watch your usage -- ie. don't be stupid and download torrents using your phone.    They'll know something's up.

It's the people who use their phones to download 6 gigs of torrents that ruin it for everyone..  

(I'm looking at you, Karmatose!   )

Tuborg, that's interesting to know.. I had no idea Chatr was Rogers in disguise!  Sneaky bastards.  Kinda like Kudo being Telus, I guess.  Who owns Wind?

Quoted from machine.slave

That's all fine and dandy, but you need to be careful.  There are ways around it for the BBY as well.  Basically (and I'm sure my terminology is off here), when you tether on your phone it switches bands to their "wi-fi stick" band and they can monitor that.  The only way get around it is to force your phone to remain on your cellular network while tethered, and even still you need to watch your usage -- ie. don't be stupid and download torrents using your phone.    They'll know something's up.

It's the people who use their phones to download 6 gigs of torrents that ruin it for everyone..  

(I'm looking at you, Karmatose!   )

Tuborg, that's interesting to know.. I had no idea Chatr was Rogers in disguise!  Sneaky bastards.  Kinda like Kudo being Telus, I guess.  Who owns Wind?

Wind is Wind, they're not owned by a Canadian telco.

As for tethering, the iPhone cannot use a separate band for tethering, all data goes over the same band. When a provider turns of tethering, it basically just tells the iPhone to disable the feature via software. A jailbreak just allows you to flip the switch back on, and the tethering data is indistinguishable from other data.

Quoted from jonny_eh

As for tethering, the iPhone cannot use a separate band for tethering, all data goes over the same band.

Are you SURE?  At least on the Telus network, all phones use the same methods for tethering, be it a Motorola, Blackberry or other.  As I said, the only way around the monitoring is to force your phone into staying on the CDMA / 3G cellular network, thereby tricking Telus into thinking you're just surfing with your phone.

Quoted from jonny_eh

When a provider turns of tethering, it basically just tells the iPhone to disable the feature via software. A jailbreak just allows you to flip the switch back on, and the tethering data is indistinguishable from other data.

Right, so we're agreeing then.. regardless of the phone (Motorola, Blackberry, the magical iPhone, etc.), you need to modify it to tether without monitoring.  All I'm saying is that your "free" tethering won't last forever, so enjoy it while you can.  

I'm veering away from an iPhone sucks / iPhone rocks thread here, we don't need yet another one of those.  AND we're getting off topic.

Yeesh!  You're so sensitive, Johnny