Cellphones in British Columbia,Canada
You may want to get a cell phone (mobile phone) when you get to Canada. You will find phones here are just as common a sight as they are anywhere else - perhaps more so when you notice the drivers.
Your home phone comes with free local calls and so by comparison any cell phone is going to be expensive. But they have become a modern day necessity as well as the must-have status symbol for teens.
Bringing your phone to Canada
The phone bands used in Canada are different from the UK. In Canada the 850 and1900 Mhz bands are used on GSM phones. (UK frequencies are 900/1800). However you may have a tri-band or quad-band phone that is capable of using these frequencies. If so you can bring it on your research trip. Remember to set up international roaming for the phone before you leave home.
When you settle in Canada you will need to switch your plan to a Canadian service. This is easily done by buying a SIM card (about $25). However some providers lock their phones so that you cannot switch SIM cards. Check this before you leave by checking with your provider or simply trying someone else's SIM card (from another network) in your phone.
Once you have got your new SIM card you can either buy pre-paid plans or sign up for a contract with a provider in Canada. The choice depends on your usage of the phone. Pre-paid plans tend to be expensive for high usage as calls are about 30¢ a minute.
B.C. Service Providers
* Bell Mobility
* Rogers
* Telus
* Fido
* Virgin
* Solo
Things to note::
Coverage
As Canada is such a big place coverage is not something you can take for granted. Especially if you are living in remoter areas. Do check the coverage for each provider. If possible find out check with people in the area you will be living or working in.
There are useful coverage maps at:
http://www.mywirelesswave.com/wireless_maps.asp
Looking at them shows you just how unpopulated a lot of B.C. is.
Paying for Incoming Calls::
In some cases you pay for receiving calls on your cell phone. It depends on the terms of your service, and may be influenced by the time of day and length of the call.
:: Billing by the minute ::
Many plans will bill by the minute not the second.
Voicemail
Plans do not necessarily come with voicemail and if they do may have limits on the number of messages that can be stored and the period they will be kept. This is to encourage you to upgrade to a higher cost plan.
You will probably be charged for retrieving your voicemail messages.
::Text messaging::
This is a new thing here, and certainly compared to the UK is less frequently used. If you want to use text messaging a lot look into the charging for text messaging.
:
re-paid plans::
A pre-paid plan means that you pay for service. Each carrier has their own varieties of these service plans. You need to choose the plan that works best for your anticipated phone usage. This involves guessing whether you will make most calls in working hours, evenings or weekends.
There is a catch with some of these plans. You buy a plan for, say $30. This buys you airtime at an agreed rate. But the plan runs out in 30 days, or when you have used up all your airtime.
::Virgin phones::
Those from the UK are probably familiar with Richard Branson's Virgin phone. This is a recent arrival in Canada and may shake things up a bit. Although it is branded as a Virgin phone, the service is run by Bell and when you make calls you have the same coverage as any other Bell customer.
The advantage that Virgin has over the other services is that the top up credit is valid for 90 days. And when you add credit to your phone, all the credit on your account gets the full 90 days (including the credit that was already on it!).
::Contracts::
The alternative to pre-paid plans is to sign a contract. You can have monthly plans or sign up for 1, 2 or 3 years. The longer term plans usually come with a free or heavily discounted phone.
There are a bewildering array of plans. Your choice depends on your anticipated usage of the phone.
Comparing the plans
There are lots of phone shops in the shopping malls. You may well find that all the major carriers are within a few steps of each other. Going from one to the other can be tiring and leave you with your head spinning.
The nearest equivalent we have found is Wireless Wave. They sell phones and plans from Rogers, Fido, Bell and Telus. They have stores located in the Vancouver area, Victoria, Nanaimo, Kamloops and Kelowna amongst other places. Even if you cannot get to one of their stores, their web site has a useful comparison tool. You can compare rates and features.
...Bobby554
You may want to get a cell phone (mobile phone) when you get to Canada. You will find phones here are just as common a sight as they are anywhere else - perhaps more so when you notice the drivers.
Your home phone comes with free local calls and so by comparison any cell phone is going to be expensive. But they have become a modern day necessity as well as the must-have status symbol for teens.
Bringing your phone to Canada
The phone bands used in Canada are different from the UK. In Canada the 850 and1900 Mhz bands are used on GSM phones. (UK frequencies are 900/1800). However you may have a tri-band or quad-band phone that is capable of using these frequencies. If so you can bring it on your research trip. Remember to set up international roaming for the phone before you leave home.
When you settle in Canada you will need to switch your plan to a Canadian service. This is easily done by buying a SIM card (about $25). However some providers lock their phones so that you cannot switch SIM cards. Check this before you leave by checking with your provider or simply trying someone else's SIM card (from another network) in your phone.
Once you have got your new SIM card you can either buy pre-paid plans or sign up for a contract with a provider in Canada. The choice depends on your usage of the phone. Pre-paid plans tend to be expensive for high usage as calls are about 30¢ a minute.
B.C. Service Providers
* Bell Mobility
* Rogers
* Telus
* Fido
* Virgin
* Solo
Things to note::
Coverage
As Canada is such a big place coverage is not something you can take for granted. Especially if you are living in remoter areas. Do check the coverage for each provider. If possible find out check with people in the area you will be living or working in.
There are useful coverage maps at:
http://www.mywirelesswave.com/wireless_maps.asp
Looking at them shows you just how unpopulated a lot of B.C. is.
Paying for Incoming Calls::
In some cases you pay for receiving calls on your cell phone. It depends on the terms of your service, and may be influenced by the time of day and length of the call.
:: Billing by the minute ::
Many plans will bill by the minute not the second.
Voicemail
Plans do not necessarily come with voicemail and if they do may have limits on the number of messages that can be stored and the period they will be kept. This is to encourage you to upgrade to a higher cost plan.
You will probably be charged for retrieving your voicemail messages.
::Text messaging::
This is a new thing here, and certainly compared to the UK is less frequently used. If you want to use text messaging a lot look into the charging for text messaging.
:
re-paid plans::A pre-paid plan means that you pay for service. Each carrier has their own varieties of these service plans. You need to choose the plan that works best for your anticipated phone usage. This involves guessing whether you will make most calls in working hours, evenings or weekends.
There is a catch with some of these plans. You buy a plan for, say $30. This buys you airtime at an agreed rate. But the plan runs out in 30 days, or when you have used up all your airtime.
::Virgin phones::
Those from the UK are probably familiar with Richard Branson's Virgin phone. This is a recent arrival in Canada and may shake things up a bit. Although it is branded as a Virgin phone, the service is run by Bell and when you make calls you have the same coverage as any other Bell customer.
The advantage that Virgin has over the other services is that the top up credit is valid for 90 days. And when you add credit to your phone, all the credit on your account gets the full 90 days (including the credit that was already on it!).
::Contracts::
The alternative to pre-paid plans is to sign a contract. You can have monthly plans or sign up for 1, 2 or 3 years. The longer term plans usually come with a free or heavily discounted phone.
There are a bewildering array of plans. Your choice depends on your anticipated usage of the phone.
Comparing the plans
There are lots of phone shops in the shopping malls. You may well find that all the major carriers are within a few steps of each other. Going from one to the other can be tiring and leave you with your head spinning.
The nearest equivalent we have found is Wireless Wave. They sell phones and plans from Rogers, Fido, Bell and Telus. They have stores located in the Vancouver area, Victoria, Nanaimo, Kamloops and Kelowna amongst other places. Even if you cannot get to one of their stores, their web site has a useful comparison tool. You can compare rates and features.
...Bobby554
