LandlineFREE - Dropping Ma Bell For Good

Use this site to make your comments known to the world! Any and almost all complaints accepted here! Simply get a little edge off by knowing that the world now knows a little bit more about what you think about Rogers Wireless.

Here I hope to explain exactly how long distance works with cell phones in Canada.

First, for the most part, there is no such thing as "Roaming" in Canada (for the most part)

The cities I'm using as examples here aren't really important. You could replace Vancouver with Halifax and Toronto with Montreal if you want. As long as we're talking about two Canadian cities, this guide is valid. If you are travelling outside of Canada, then this guide does NOT apply.

Examples:

The Toronto Star had an article about a no-frills cell phone service provider that hopes to offer service in Southern Ontario and Quebec over the next few years with "orphan spectrum".

It looks like the answer is "NO".

Well, to elaborate a little bit, they will roam onto whatever cell phone network is around, but they won't let you make a cheap call over Wifi.

Someone over at Howardforums seems to be a Rogers employee and has offered some information on the service. Keep in mind this post is from February/08, so a bit old, but lots of relevant information on the TAlkspot service. In fact, it was called "Home Calling Zone" back then. I definitely think that "Talkspot" is a better name

Here are some snippets:

Take a look at my overview of the Rogers Talkspot service: Why to get it & How it Works.
It seems hard enough to find, and I can't figure it out why, but here it is:
Rogers Talkspot (Be sure to scroll down)

Yes, that's right, a special router is NOT required for Rogers Talkspot and Fido UNO. You just need a plain 802.11b/g router. I'm not sure what the encryption options/setup are required, but in general, any router should do.

I've had a couple of people bring this up, and even disagree with me.

For an overview of the Talkspot and UNO service, take a look at my overview here.

Seems I've been getting some visitors wondering about how much it costs to send and receive text messages between cell phones in Canada.

So, here are the details:

There is no "long-distance charge" for text messages sent or received in Canada, so even though you might have to pay long distance charges to RECEIVE a call OUTSIDE of your home area, there is no such charge on text messages. The same applies for sending text messages from OUTSIDE of your home area.

Get long phone messages on your Fido or Rogers cell phone, and tired of waiting through the whole message before you can erase it?

Press "3" twice, and it will skip to the end of the message.

Pressing "3" once will skip ahead "a few" seconds (not sure how many exactly, they actually say "a few").

Pressing "1" twice will go back to the beginning of the message, "1" will skip _back_ a few seconds.

Talkspot Service: Not for Telus or Bell

Both Bell and Telus do NOT have a Talkspot Service. It is hard to say whether they have one in the works or not.

Rogers and Fido basically adopted the Talkspot service from T-Mobile in the US, which runs over GSM. Because Bell and Telus run over CDMA, and not GSM, they can't just simply adopt the technology.

Also, it is hard to say whether they will even one day have such a service, since it directly competes AGAINST their traditional wireline businesses, which are basically pure profit and they would hate to lose.

Looking for the ultimate in being Landline Free?

A satelite phone with an omni-directional antenna/service is the way to go.

These phone systems don't require a dish that aims to the sky, but rather just use a cell-phone-style antenna that doesn't have to be aimed at any part of the sky in particular. The satelites that the devices communicate with are actually constantly moving anyways, unlike, say, a DirecTV, Dishnetwork or Bell Expressvu system.

Start Date

Telus will start charging 15 cents for incoming text messages as of August 24th. Bell is the only other provider that has such a charge (which they started on the Olympics, probably to avoid news coverage).

An interesting new service is now available from the cell phone companies. Since for many people, a majority of their phone calls are received/made from home, this is a pretty big deal service.

What Talkspot and UNO are all about

Basically, their new phones work on both the cellular network AND your wireless internet wi-fi network at home over a technology called "Unlicened Mobile Accesss". So when you're inside the coverage area of your home's wireless router, your cell phone calls will be routed over the internet, rather than the cell phone network.

I thought I'd put up a quick page on the different prices for Prepaid cell Phones for the major Canadian providers.

All figures are based on the Ontario prices, but I believe for prepaid that there isn't much difference, if any at all in pricing. Coverage, on the other hand, may differ greatly.

I have not included MVNO providers, such as Petro-Canada, Primus, President's Choice/PC Wireless, Virgin or 7-11 Speakout Wireless. I will include them in a separate article (or perhaps in this one), but this is the majors for now.