CanadaGeek

Looking for a comparison between cell phone providers in Vancouver/Richmond area. Comparison attributes:

1. Coverage area wise
2. Monthly fee
3. Family packages
4. Plan
5. Contract terms / termination
6. Customer support

Also, when is pre-paid better than post-paid?

...Geek

ChrisBoar

GO checkout the relevant forum on the Digital Canada Forum.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/

glparker4

Consider one of the new entrants such as Wind Mobile or Mobilicity. Both companies offer unlimited local, long distance, free international text, and data for $45/month. The catch is that this plan must be used in a home zone. The home zones vary for each carrier but both companies cover Richmond and Vancouver proper well.

Mobilicity - htttp://mobilicity.ca
Wind - http://windmobile.ca
http://coveragemapper.com - check signal coverage of both companies for your location

Both companies offer prepaid and postpaid options. Postpaid requires a credit check. Prepaid requires adequate funds in your account on your billing/renewal date.

JB0591

Another new provider is Koodo

www.koodomobile.com

They are backed by Telus so coverage is very good. They do zoned plans or nationwide plans.....the new thing here is contract free but you pay more for phones instead.

Please remember you pay for everything here, so dont be surprised by not having free voice mail etc or voice mail limited to so many messages etc. or having to pay for caller display, call waiting or paying for incoming calls etc.

To give you and idea of a Koodo plan, $35 + HST provides:

Calls:
150 mins anytime minutes
Free calls after 6pm Evenings & Weekends
Unlimited Local Family Calling (if on same bill.....not applicable to newcomers without decent Canadian credit rating)
Unlimited Incoming Calls

Text Messaging Services:
Unlimited SMS and MMS
Unlimited international outgoing texts

Features:
Call Display
Call Display Outbound
Call Waiting
Conference Calling

To add voice mail it would cost $6 + HST.

I dont work for Koodo but wanted the reader to understand the sort of cost of mobile contracts in Canada. My main advice is go with one of the new companies after checking:

1) their coverage area
2) which network they fallback onto once out of zone
3) out of zone costs
4) free incoming calls and texts

CanadaGeek

Thx Glparker. This is good info. I also looked at FIDO while my trip to Richmond. Do you have some idea about that?

CanadaGeek

Thx JB0591

glparker4

Fido is a discount brand owned by Rogers. Koodo is a discount brand created by Telus. Neither of these are new companies. While these subsidiaries may meet your needs, the plans may not be a competitive as the new entrants. As mentioned, Koodo and Fido do not include voicemail, unlimited data, and unlimited North American long distance.

burks

Please do not try Mobilicity. It doesn't matter what they say their coverage area is, I know several people who signed contracts with them only to find that they could never get a signal even if they were in an area they were supposed to. Their customer service is also pretty poor. The people I know have preferred to buy out their contracts rather than live with Mobilicity.

In my opinion, the newer companies are offering extremely competitive deals because they are still prone to quite a few teething problems. I would stick to one of the bigger companies. In my experience Bell is the best. I am with them now and they have some pretty good plans, as well as good customer service. Rogers customer service sucks in my opinion. I might just be unlucky, but every time I went to a Rogers store to ask about plans they would also try and give me stupidly over priced plans.

JB0591

My understanding was Koodo was relatively new. I stand corrected. The biggest issue with real new companies is coverage. I have friends with Mobilicity and they are having major issues when they go out of zone.

CanadaGeek

So what is the best option? Shall I stay with bigger names such as Roger/Telus or can I go with discounted names such as FIDO/KOODO as they also are backed by big guns!!!

...Geek

JB0591

In my opinion if the provider is backed by a big gun then they are ok to go with. I am happy with my deal with Koodo when compared to Rogers/Bell/Telus.....

My friends on Mobilicity struggles with signal coverage and the fall back functionality (onto another network) is not reliable.

allie2

I use Mobilicity and find it to be excellent but I live relatively close to Downtown Vancouver and close to a signal mast. There isn't a contract to sign with Mobilicity - they are always PAYG, though you can pay 12 months in advance to get 30% off. I pay $30 per month for unlimited everything (inc. North America wide calls, data, BBM and international texts), and if I happen to be out of service area (randomly 12 blocks away I have no signal (13 blocks away, I have a great signal), nor did I have a signal in Tswwassen!), I can pay roaming charges which have totalled $3.50 in the last 2 months. You cannot use an iphone on their network, so that might decide it for you!

burks

You're lucky because you're in downtown Van. I'm in Langley which is supposed to be in their coverage area but the people I know couldn't even get a signal in their apartment dead bang in the middle of downtown Langley.

If you are based in downtown Van and don't plan on leaving it much then mybe its great.. but if you're going to rely on it when you leave the are it's problematic.

fasea

Edit - Sorry probably best to ignore this, It was meant for a different thread where someone was specifcally looking to bring a iphone 4 over!

It may be useful anyway .... but maybe not so much :-|


Hi,

I've looked into this as were moving to Vancouver soon. I work for Vodafone so might be able to help give some more information. (cant tell you much about coverage though!)

I think if your bringing a phone over (which is what we intend to do) and its a smartphone. Your options very much depend on the 3G frequencies your phone supports.

For the iphone 4 to work on 3G you must use it on a network which runs its 3G network on 850mhz, 900mhz, 1900mhz and 2100mhz.

Both WIND and Mobilicity (strange name!) use none of these frequencies instead they use a AWS band which is a mix of 1700mhz and 2100mhz. The iphone 4 doesnt support this band - hence you cant use it on there networks.

For iphone 4 your best bet would be Bell or Telus, they run there 3G network on 850mhz and 1900mhz which is fine for your Iphone 4.

Personally I'm looking to use Wind as they offer a $45 unlimited plan which includes minutes/texts and more importantly data! Its offered on prepay hence I dont need to pass a credit check and will work on the phone I like and have which is the Samsung Nexus S. This supports the AWS band (the only phone sold in the UK which does).

I would caveat this with the fact that if your not interested in 3G then you have more choice, it just means your data rates will be a lot slower which is not something I'm prepared to accept especially on a smartphone. I'm expecting google maps and its navigation to be very useful when I'm trying to find my way around Van!

Hope this helps

Cheers

Andy