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 1 year old, lots of information may be out of date.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.

Provider

Per minute (per minute)

Long Distance in CAN/USA

Fees per month

Sending Text Messages (SMS)

Prepaid Credit Expiry

Bell Prepaid

30¢ for 1^st 2 minutes, 5¢ thereafter

40¢/minute

$1 PLUS $3.95/month for non "Pay-By-The-Day" plans

15¢/message

30 days for $15 cards

60 days for $25 & $50 cards

Rogers Pay As You Go

40¢/Minute

30¢/min CAN

66¢/min USA

50¢/month for 9-1-1

15¢/message

30 days for $10, $20, $30, $40 cards.

365 days for $100 card

Fido Prepaid Service

30¢ for $10 cards, 20¢ for all others

30¢/minute

50¢/month for 9-1-1

15¢/message

30 days for $10,$20 & $30 cards

60 days for $50 cards

Telus Pay&Talk

25¢, but up to 40¢ if you don't keep your balance up

30¢/minute

75¢/month 9-1-1

15¢/message

30 days for $10 cards

60 days for $25 and $50 cards

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.