Nibbles2005

Hi,

I am going to be spending two weeks in Toronto and two weeks in the UK during the next 3-4 months until our permanent move. In this period my partner will be in the UK and want to know the best way or company to get a mobile from which has cheap texts particulary (but also phone calls) to the UK and to recieve from UK. Indeed even when we are over full time it would be good to have a cheap way to send and recieve texts back home/

Anyone had this problem before and have any suggestions?

Thanks

Julie

Almost Canadian

Email

Alan2005

What he said. Don't expect any joy from Canadian carriers - and roaming is damn expensive

Nibbles2005

This is a very serious question and important to me

Edo

Yeah, I also want to know a serious answer. Anyone pleeez?

Jingle

We use Skype now for pretty much everything at home.

My boss travels to the US constantly and all our communication is now done through Skype - email, teleconferencing, etc etc. using Blackberries, iPhones, Macs and PC's.

Skype seems to have really lifted their game lately - it might be worth a look, J

Oh they also do texting!

Alan2005

Sorry - but the fact is that cell phones here are a total rip off. Everybody who comes to Canada from Europe or Asia soon finds out about the backwards and expensive mobile technology you get here.

To answer your original question: if you want to make it cheap - get a crappy phone from koodoo or fido and an international phone card from 7-11.

Almost Canadian

And I gave you a serious answer. You are not going to get anything like the cost of texting/calling on a cell phone in Canada that you experience in the UK, and as for using such devices to call the UK, you must be crazy!!

I would suggest a landline with some sort of international package and email as a substitute for texting.

Best of luck

Buchan6

Julie,
1.) For emergencies use your UK mobile.

2.) For "general" calls buy an International calling card.
I used to buy mine from Loblaws / Canadian Superstore. Once you've bought one and entered the serial no online you can buy further credit on line. Calls are re around 5c / minute. You dial a local number so can use them at work or from a friend landline etc without them getting the international call cost.
That was useful as during the week phoning home is difficult due to the time differences.

Best of luck.

MR79

Its true my wife worked for fido (one of Canada's biggest providers) and Canada are very backwards in terms of mobile technology, you get charged for making / recieving calls/texts, it can become an expensive game and so your best bet maybe to talk to your UK phone provider and see if they can help, or go online at -

www.fido.ca
www.shaw.ca
www.bell.ca

also rogers wireless, check future shop, canadian superstore.....good luck and all the best but sykpe is probably going to be ur best bet......

MR79

dbd33

I call the UK once a week for about ten minutes using a Bell mobile phone. It costs about $400 a month to do this which I suppose is a bit less than $10 a minute. Note that the connection quality is poor, it only works if you don't move, making it something of an immobile phone.

Alan2005

'kin hell - assume you aren't paying

dbd33

I do pay it. I used to use the phone a lot, the bill was consistently $2,500 a month, so I got used to large phone bills and now $400 doesn't seem so bad. I use the mobile to fill in a boring bit of driving. I don't know what the same calls would cost from a landline, probably still a bundle. Canada's not good for communications/high tech stuff.

Alan2005

Still $10/minute is expensive, and $400 a month is quite a chunk of your average persons income. Have you tried using a phone card? yes you have to dial about a million numbers first, but you won't be tearing up dollars and throwing them out of the window.

dbd33

Can you use a phone card with a mobile phone?