buying a phone in canada - some advice

Helix

here's another thing i picked up that can prove quite useful for newcomers. the initial thing from everyone seems to be to go pay as you go over here. do not do this as the rates are horrible

the next mistake is thinking that because all the good phones are only really affordable on a 3 year deal, that a bill option isn't the one for you. again that's not necessarily true. there's a loophole that'll let you get sorted.

what you need to do is head into the store of whichever carrier you choose, and outright buy the cheapest phone they have in the store. any old piece of crap, once it's dirt cheap (you should be able to get one for <$120).

since you're buying the phone outright, youre no longer tied to a contract. you will be able to get a bill pay plan, but you'll also be able to cancel it whenever you want without having to pay up the remainder of your term.

where this benefits you, is that you can now simply pop the sim card into the phone you brought with you from ireland (if you brought a phone with you from ireland) or buy something cheaper online. just make sure that your phone is compatible with the network (ie public work on CDMA so no sim cards there, and Koodo will only run on certain kinds of androids, they're fine with iphones though).

hopefully this will save some people a bit of stress

DazzlerIE

What tripped me up was the fact that the networks aren't uniformly GSM like in Ireland

My HTS Desire S outright wouldn't work with Telus, and had issues connecting to Mobile Internet on Rogers/Fido (Didn't try Bell)

Any phone bought in Ireland (and sim-free) will def work on Rogers/Fido, but might have problems with data

I'd look to Wind, Virgin or Koodo for pricing, as all the other companies are a rip off

I pay almost 80 dollars a month with Fido (That's for voice and data)

Helix

i was with fido for a while, using 3 different irish phones (a nokia n95, an iphone 3gs and a sony ericsson elm) and all 3 worked fine for data

if youre in toronto, montreal or vancouver, then id look at public mobile (cheap android phones and an introductory rate of $30 per month for unlimited canada wide calling, international texts and data with no contact) and wind (loads of selection on phones to buy outright, but if you're definitely only staying for a year they might be a little bit pricey)

if you have an unlocked iphone already, id go with koodo

ondadole

"Speakout" from 7 Eleven shops is a prepaid phone service. Reasonable prices, almost as good as ready-to-go phone plans in Ireland imo...:)

jjbrien

I went with Virgin I took my unlocked IPhone from Ireland and they just poped a sim in I didnt need to buy a phone im on a montly bill i got 150 day time mins, 500mb data and unlimited evenings and weekends and unlimited international texts and picture messages very handy when you want to text home. No need to pay for a sim or anything like that. Plus its a good way to build credit