Cell phone plans comparison
 

Hi all, I've recently found the following cell phone/plan comparison websites that let you compare various plans currently on offer by different carriers in each province. I just thought to share them on here, hope they will be of help to some of you looking for new contracts or upgrades:

www.comparecellular.com

and

www.cellphones.ca

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

Amazing, thanks so much!

This one in particular looks like a winner: http://www.cellphones.ca/cell-plans/2822/ unlimited international texting which is probably important for anyone around here!

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

Excellent thread - very helpful for people like us who are heading to Canada soon. Thanks.

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Do you get a phone with most contracts or are you better to take a sim free phone from UK?

Regards

Andrew

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

SIM free for sure. Contacts suck and lots are 3 years. Some of the smaller carriers do have some decent deals but get a SIM free phone, particularly if you can get it on the us where it's cheaper than Canada and uk.

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Very good point, US it is then when we go to flagpole.:thumbsup:

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Glad to hear this thread was helpful to some of the readers. Lets spread the word and find ways to beat the world's most expensive mobile phone tarrifs!

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Be aware that the smaller carriers are owned by the big ones.

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Yep - Mobilicity, one of the main smaller carriers, recently got bought out by Telus, so who knows whats going to happen there. Bell destroyed Virgin Mobile when they bought them, removing included call display from the plans etc. It amazes me that no government bodies step in to stop this uncompetitive behaviour.

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In Canada it's clear the big carriers welcome competition, as long as it is only between big carriers and they don't have to give too much up by way of value for money.

I still don't get this paying for incoming calls bit:confused: Is it just North America and Hong Kong doing this? The rest of the world dropped 'receiver pays' years back. From what I have read that was due to increased competition between carriers. Of course in Canada there is little competition, so no need to bother with that one.

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No they do, particularly when foreign companies try to come in to Canada. Cuz the govt fears that might promote competition!!

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Looks like 7 Eleven will soon be doing 'proper' data plans, that will be interesting:
http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/prepai...es#value-plans

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I called my provider Rogers and said I wanted to end my contract early, they offered me a better rate and I had caller ID and voice messaging thrown in for free.

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Windmobile have a good deal on ($40 per month)

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

That is a great deal, plenty of data included. thanks.

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Worth checking which bands Wind operates on - I'm not sure if standard GSM phones from Europe work on Wind's spectrum... but I can't remember offhand. I know Koodo is fine with most European phones (worked on my husband's HTC One S, but not on his Desire HD which didn't have the right banding capabilities).

Just something to verify! :)

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Isn't Wind Canada part of Wind Italy?, I maybe incorrect but surely a european company operating in North America would have the right banding so customers from both markets could roam in both markets?

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

No idea - I know that some of them have had issues with particular phones not working on particular networks. It's more complex than just GSM vs CDMA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...hone_companies

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

How extensive is their coverage throughout Canada?

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Well yes it depends on which gsm frequency s are used, but most modern smart phones use quad band radios for GSM. Normally what can cause an issue is CDMA networks as CDMA is primarily used in North America and Asia mainly but the Asian and North American CDMA band widths are poles apart.

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

I just figured it was worth pointing out to check which phone and which network. When I went home at Christmas, we got a SIM through Koodo because they operate on GSM. However, the GSM spectrum they use was not compatable with my HTC Desire HD, which is only a 2-year-old phone. We had to cut the SIM down and put it in an HTC One S, which was fine, and that phone is one year old.

Wind wouldn't work with either phone.

So I just thought it would be useful to flag up which company to go with... if it helps as well, though, if you bring your phone with you to the mall, usually the guys who work at the store use those carriers themselves, or have SIM cards available from that carrier and they'll let you test your phone with their network before you commit to them.

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It's very good advice, I'm just surprised that wind don't use a bandwidth that can be used worldwide. Hey that's the Italians for you :)

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Might have been Mobilicity now that I think about it but I don't remember 100%. THe consideration should be given in any case. :)

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Yes sounds like good advice, I obliviously assumed too much regards modern tech and mobile networks :(

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You could look at the phone manuals available on Wind to see if your phone is listed, I can't see that they would supply a phone that wouldn't work so I would presume if your phone is listed it should.

http://www.windmobile.ca/en/support/...nemanuals.aspx

The HTC 8S is listed as one they sell.

They state on their website that if you take a phone into their store they will check it for you to ascertain that it will work.

http://faqs.windmobile.ca/customer/p...ng-it-to-wind-

Edited to say, there is a list of AWS compatible phones here.

:)

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Cant see the iPhone listed :(, thanks for sharing siouxie :)

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Depending which iPhone it may wel work - and that's probably one you can google quite easily. I *THINK* the iPhone5 is a quad, and wasn't the whole selling point that it's a "world phone" so should work on any network?

They may not have it listed as a phone they SELL, but it doesn't mean it's an exhaustive list of which phones work... just which ones they have available.

Best bet is to take your phone to a booth and have them test it out. :) (Honestly, even certain phone models have slightly different specs sometimes, particularly if they're sold in different countries!)

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I have the 4s so not sure it will work, but worth a try as you say :)

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WIND use the 1700 MHz frequency (also known as AWS). The iPhone 4S does not have 1700 MHz (AWS) frequency support.

The iPhone 4 has UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA support at the following frequencies: 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz.

http://www.apple.com/ca/iphone/specs.html

:frown:

Sorry,

They do support the iPhone 5 though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AWS_devices

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

Brilliant, love it. This is the kind of detail you have to get your head around - figuring out the specific frequencies that network uses, and then figuring out which frequencies your phone can run on. :)

Thanks a bunch! :thumbsup:

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

Thanks Siouxie guess I need to upgrade then ;)

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I think WIND does have phone slightly different frequency requirements. I have brought a phone with me from UK but have been told that it wont work on WIND. I havent tested it myself though.

Re: Cell phone plans comparison
 

WIND use the 1700 MHz frequency (also known as AWS).

You can try looking at the link I gave earlier which shows most compatible phones, or else go to the Wind store and ask them to test it (which they will, free).

:)

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What phone? You should quickly be able to determine if it would work from a quick Google.

Iphone 4 / 4S will not work on Wind as an Example.

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You will also need to check Wind offer the SIM which will fit the iPhone 5. I'm not sure that they do.

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If the iPhone 5 uses the same SIMas an iphone4/4s, then it's not a problem... You can cut/file a standard sim down to a micro sim.

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Iphone 5 uses a ' nano sim '
which is smaller and thinner than a micro sim

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Just saw a combined campaign advert in the newspaper yesterday from the 3 major mobile service providers in Canada against a new entrant from the US who has recently been issued a license to operate in Canada. It got me quite curious as they were portraying the move as a 'job cutter' in the industry and the new career being favoured to 'enjoy the subsidised network paid for by the Canadians with their taxes'. So I looked it up and it seems quite encouraging that we will soon have a new name in the Canadian cell phone market.

http://globalnews.ca/news/673574/ver...-need-to-know/

Don't blame the Canadians for placing stupid full page adverts against a new competitor, cuz it just seems to be in their genes to hate competition. Theres a reason why everything is so cheap on the other side of the border.

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CRTC is not exactly known for their positive action, but what they've done to try to introduce more competition I think is great. Some of the smaller entrants do actually offer great deals. My brother, who has been with Rogers for about a decade, just switched to Koodo - he's on a plan with 1GB Internet, 200 daytime, unlimited evenings and weekends from 5pm, unlimited texting including international and picture messaging (but not international picture messaging!), call display and call forwarding and a few other bonus bits included, all for $50/month, including a tab for a new Nexus 4. He was previously with Rogers on a plan that was not nearly as good and cost him $80/month and didn't have all the extra bonus bits. I will certainly be going with Koodo when I move home, and my mom is going to move to their low monthly rates as well, she's paying $30/month with Rogers for I think 500 anytime minutes, no data, no call display, no voicemail, and 500 text messages. Absolute ripoff.

I'm all for bringing in new competition, the more people make a statement by moving away from the big conglomerates the better!!

Another thought, having re-read the article... I know that there's a limit that foreign companies can't have more than 10% market share, which is fair enough... what if Verizon grows to more than 10% though, but started with less than that? Would they then be forced to sell off or something? It just seems to break my brain that a company would enter, knowing they can't ever grow to more than a certain size... unless growing to that size is fine, they just can't start out that big... just a thought.

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The sheer gall of the Telus/Bell/Rogers cartel has reached new heights with this campaign. Access to networks "built by Canadians with their tax dollars" they say. I'm not quite sure how they think tax dollars have been used to build the infrastructure owned and operated by three private companies, but if it's an acknowledgement that they've been recipients of extremely favourable tax treatment for years, then so be it. And if it's our tax dollars that have built it, let us bloody well have whoever we like providing services on it. They can't have it both ways...

And as for the complaint that they'll be "forced" to share that infrastructure - that's true only to the extent that it's not worth any new market entrant investing in old technology (e.g. CDMA networks in rural areas). I would have some limited sympathy with the incumbents' view if they had limited their bleating to sharing LTE and other new-generation towers. Mind you, they don't have a good reputation for dealing well with "virtual operator" companies - look what happened to Virgin's service offerings when Bell got fed up with their own brand being undercut by their joint venture partner.

Not that Verizon (the rumoured "new entrant" if it buys Wind or Mobilicity) has any better a reputation for good pricing or customer service that the Canadian majors, but at the very least its arrival on the scene may drive data prices and, particularly, international roaming charges down to a more reasonable level.

And to Schnookololy - your last point about market share is a good one. But, long before Verizon grew to that point, they'd presumably have set up a separate subsidiary company, Verizon Canada or something, with a corporate governance structure that met the CRTC's or Competition Commission's rules on local management - then all bets would be off as the foreign ownership of a parent corporation falls under a different category and the 10% market share restriction is no longer in effect.