dbd33

Features? I don't think it has any features. I receive email on it and receive messages via WhatsApp and Instagram. Once a week I call my Mother in England.

Are you saying that the price is very high or very low? When I used the phone actively, for several years, the bill was usually just under a grand a month so it seems reasonable now. Last month, with some data roaming, it was a little over $400 which is typical if I go away for a long weekend or similar.

Snowy560

You can always use Skype on your phone like it's a phone i.e. without video, held up to your ear etc.

I've just come to appreciate WhatsApp lately. I was a bit resistant to it at first but it's extremely useful. I use Viber as well although not as much.

dbd33

Understood. Skype works fine from my computer, in voice only mode, but that's using a different internet connection than the phone.

Snowy560

Data connexion on phone. I assume it works with Skype certainly with Viber and WhatsApp. They're all just alternatives. One platform doesn't have to exclude the others e.g. normal telephone call.

dbd33

Quite. It’s my understanding that the various applications use something called voice over internet protocol, a means of communication requiring a reasonably fast internet connection. My point is that such a connection is not consistently available over Bell’s mobile phone system from the approximate location to which the OP intends to move (though it is available using other methods of connecting to the internet). So I use ordinary voice. So it costs $250/month to have the phone.

Collie

Check out Localphone. Making calls to the UK from our cell phone costs under 1 cent per minute, plus whatever your Canadian cell provider charges to ring a local (Canadian) number in your area. We also use them to rent a UK phone number (99 cents a month, in a geographical area of our choice) on which friends and family can ring us - it transfers to a Canadian phone, costing us again 1c per minute, but saving UK relatives from having to learn how to make cheap international calls...

Snowy560

I bet if someone developed an App which worked like WhatsApp, called "Executive High Level Call" or similar, plus charged $100 a year for it, companies and staff would subscribe!

bgpz

I can't recall the exact tech details, but I think the issue with LTE speeds is that it's very good for fast download speeds, but upload speeds can be patchy (specifically - in my experience - they are not only lower, relatively speaking, but can cut in and out, making it tricky to be heard at the other end of the call).

It *might* be the case that if 3G connectivity is possible, it may be a more stable connection in both directions - IIRC, you don't need a huge amount of bandwidth for VOIP, but it needs to be pretty stable...

Pretty sure that if you're in a 2G location (they do still exist in places!), it really is back down to voice calls as the speeds just don't cut it.

I'm sure someone with more current technical awareness and understanding can correct me if this is inaccurate/outdated. I'm pretty sure that I've sometimes had better luck with dropping to 3G to make voip calls in the past on occasion, though.