LandlineFREE - Dropping Ma Bell For Good

This article is > 1 year old, lots of information may be out of date.

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.

Canadian Cell Phone Long Distance Charge Overview

Long Distance Rates are the charge in addition to airtime to make a call TO those locations. Making a call from within the USA will cost more, or not be possible.

1. Calls received when you are outside of your local-calling area will be charged long-distance.(eg: on a trip out of town)
2. Calls MADE to a local number when you are outside of your local-calling area will not be charged long-distance (eg: you have a Toronto phone number, and you are in Vancouver, and call a Vancouver number to order a pizza)
3. Calls MADE to your home area while you are outside of your home area WILL be charged long distance (eg: you have a Toronto phone number, and call Toronto from Montreal)

Apparently some provinces charge 9-1-1 fees in addition to the above shown. These are government fees and should be the same across all providers.

Rogers Pay As You Go:

Rogers does include voicemail and call-display in their prepaid packages. Voicemail calls are charged at the usual airtime rate.

Like everyone else, several add-ons are available for pre-paid accounts:

• If you add a $20 or more card, you get 1/minute evenings (8PM-8AM) and and weekends, 39¢/minute otherwise. Another option is 25¢ for the 1^st 5 minutes used each day, 15¢/minute thereafter each day.
• For $1/day, you get unlimited evenings (6PM-8AM) and weekends, 30¢/minute otherwise.
• Finally, for $29/month, you get unlimited calling between 3PM & 6PM, 2500 free domestic text messages and unlimited on-device mobile browsing.

Rogers gives 20% off regular local calling minute rates (when you sign-up for pre-authorized monthly credit card top-up of $20 or more).

Telus Pay & Talk:

Has a number of add-ons, take a look at their website here (for Ontario anyway).

For example, unlimited incoming is available for $1/day, unlimited evenings (9PM-->7AM) and weekends for $0.75/day, unlimited evenings and weekends (6PM---7AM) for $1/day and even “My Faves 30”, unlimited calling to any 5 numbers, for $30/month.

Fido Prepaid Service:

Gives 10% more minutes if you set up a credit card with them and a monthly refill of $20, 15% more for $30 monthly refills.

Has other prepaid options, such as:

• For $1/day, unlimited incoming, and 30¢/minute outgoing calls.
• For $1/day, unlimited evenings (6PM to 8AM) and weekends, 30¢/min for all other times
• And instead of 20¢/minute on their non-$10-cards, you can choose 5¢/minute during evenings (7PM to 8AM) and weekends, and 40¢ otherwise.

Has the exact same coverage area as Rogers, since they're both owned by the same company.

Fido prepaid includes both call-display and voicemail. Voicemail calls are charged at the usual airtime rate. Fido does not charge for talking to a real customer service representative under any circumstances.

Allows roaming in the US, where you pay $2/minute for incoming/outgoing and 60¢ per text message.

Bell Prepaid:

The chart reflects their “pay by the minute” plans. They also offer “pay by the day” plans, which have the $3.95/month fee included.

The plans are as follows:

• Per-minute charges are the same, but for $0.75/day, you can get unlimited calling between 9PM and 7AM during the week, and unlimited weekends (which is nearly worthless).
• Or, for $1/day, you can get unlimited calling between 6PM and 7AM during the week, and unlimited weekends.
• For the above two “pay by the day” plans, you can get unlimited texts for an extra $0.50/day.

Bell does NOT include call display on their prepaid plans, just voicemail.

Bell does charge $2 to speak to a customer representative for certain inquiries for which they think you should have checked online for, or via their automated phone menu system.