vivogugua

Hi

My family and I just arrived in Montreal on Monday and moved into our new home on Friday.

We are desperately trying to sort internet out so we can phone home and get on with the business of settling in before the kids start school.

At the moment I'm thinking that we will need internet and phone and not bothering with cable TV. So please can you advise/share experience on following:

1. Do we need a home phone? I've read a post somewhere about ditching the home phone and using internet phone. What is the best way of keeping in touch with family at home, most of whom do not have skype (91yr and 71 yr old parents and not willing to learn)

2. What is the best way of finding the best deals?

3. Is it possible to have internet installed same or next day generally?

4. I signed up for a 2Gb mobile phone, unlimited call in Canada deal with Fido as I needed a Canadian number asap. However, I can see that I can bundle this with home internet - is this generally cheaper if I have my own phone?

I'm not sure if i'm asking the right questions. Basically i'd be grateful for any advice that will get us set up with internet as soon as possible and for a good price.

I'd also love to hear from people who have decided against getting cable/tv and how that has worked for them, especially if kids are involved. Is there a way I can watch sports (olympics, tennis, ice hockey) without cable?

As you can probably tell, fresh off the plane.....

SchnookoLoly

1. Not necessarily, depends on how much you use a phone. If you are super chatty on the phone and the minutes on your cell/mobile plan are inadequate then a home phone can be worth it. But if yuo don't use it much then your mobile minutes probably would be fine. As for calling, you'll get five thousand opinions. We use Google Voice from our mobiles. Calls cost CAD1c/min to a UK landline and I think 3c/min to a UK mobile. Works great for us, super cheap. And you can call a normal number so the person on the receiving end doesn't know any different.

2. Lots of shopping around. Lots of negotiating. Do not sign up for an "advertised" plan. If at all possible, stay away from the "Big 3" (Rogers, Telus, Bell). I don't know much about the Quebec-specific providers like Videotron. Not sure how they measure up.

3. Depends on the provider but usually not. Even the big ones take a few days to get a setup appointment scheduled. You can tether off your phone in the meantime, though. 2GB is plenty.

4. Sometimes bundling is cheaper but not always, again, do the math and negotiate deals.

Stay away from signing contracts if you can avoid it. Watch for things like rental fees for equipment. Rogers/TElus/Bell, for example, are notorious for charging you like $15/month for eternity to rent a digital cable box. Sometimes you have the option of buying the box outright which is more money up front but then you aren't paying the rental fee forever. (The rental fee doesn't go away once yuo pay off the box, it's a forever thing, lol.)

Hope some of that helps. THere's also a thread in the Maple Leaf right now about phone/internet etc and TONS of threads in the past so do a quick search and you will find buckets of suggestions and tips.

vivogugua

Thanks so much for the info-I really appreciate it.

vivogugua

Hope some of that helps. THere's also a thread in the Maple Leaf right now about phone/internet etc and TONS of threads in the past so do a quick search and you will find buckets of suggestions and tips.[/QUOTE]


PS
What is Maple leaf?

SchnookoLoly

One of the Canadian sub-forums.

Canada - British Expats

See at the top it says "Immigration & Citizenship", "Canniversary", and "The Maple Leaf". Those are the sub-forums of the Canada section. If you click on The Maple Leaf, there's a thread there (currently the 4th one but it may change when you look!) called "TV, Internet, and Phone". It has a pretty big conversation going on about exactly what you asked.

Fred Louise

1. Do we need a home phone? I've read a post somewhere about ditching the home phone and using internet phone. What is the best way of keeping in touch with family at home, most of whom do not have skype (91yr and 71 yr old parents and not willing to learn)

As per poster above, depends on your usage. Check out Skype to call landline too, if you bundle with another service eg. internet many providers will give you phone for $10/month & you can see if there are specials on calling the UK

2. What is the best way of finding the best deals?

You can check out forums or ring and ask around. As you don't have an unlimited plan for now, going into stores is possible but I find this tiring. I get my son to do the research for me as I hate that stuff myself

3. Is it possible to have internet installed same or next day generally?

Depends on provider.. but you can always ring and ask or go in store and ask.

4. I signed up for a 2Gb mobile phone, unlimited call in Canada deal with Fido as I needed a Canadian number asap. However, I can see that I can bundle this with home internet - is this generally cheaper if I have my own phone?

So you have unlimited calls - therefore use it to call all the providers and write down the deals they are giving you to compare.

I cut cable and downloaded the CBC Rio 2016 app to watch all the Olympics. I'm not vey technically savvy but other options are Google Chromecast - which allows you to Cast from your PC to the TV.

Or you can consider IPTV but again unfortunately I dont have that much expertise. Others will

Allie73

We have a Vonage internet phone line. We got it in 2007 when we were still in the UK. We had a UK phone number and paid extra for a Canadian number on the same line. It meant the Canadian family/friends could call us for free. We were able to keep both numbers when we moved to Canada. We just had to contact Vonage in Canada to get a new box. We only did that so it would recognize 911 calls, otherwise we would have just kept the same box we used in the UK. We pay a flat rate for unlimited North American and International calls. Due to my husband's job, he calls the UK and the US a lot, so it's worth it for us.

Pizzawheel

My koodo cellphone has a neat $20 pm extra that allows effectively unlimited calls to the UK. (when I say effectively it does cut into your 100 minutes peak per month, ie 8-5 local time. But I do my long calls home on the weekend with the kids)

Twitcher1958

We ditched our home phone two or three years ago, didn't use it much as it was only practical for local/ Canada calls and we didn't do many of those. Saved $25 or so each month which adds up. At that time, we were all on the same Koodoo plan and calls between us were free, and the minutes provided each month were enough for everything else. As someone else suggested, my advice would be not to tie in to a plan so it's easier to switch once you're sorted and if a better plan comes along.
Re skype - even if folk back home don't have it, you can still use Skype cheaply to call their phones. I can't remember what deal we have now, but worth investigating.

Muskoka

I didnt even get a landline phone when I moved to Canada. Just got a cell phone where I can call anywhere in Canada (unlimited minutes), and text UK. $57 per month with Virgin. Works for me and means anyone can get hold of me wherever I am. I'd avoid BELL too.

Aqua

we use Ooma Telo for home phone and Ooma office for our business, both are internet and really cheap for over seas calls plus you have a real phone number

We ditched cable as its soon expensive and 200 channels of rubbish, so we just stream using a vpn for bbc, itv and c4

BristolUK

That must be a nightmare.

I'm not that important.