calling Canada advice please

selsdon_2

Hi, was wondering if any kind soul could help me out here.
I have a work colleague out in Canada at the moment who i need to stay in constant contact with.
I bought him an unlocked quad-band nokia, advised him to buy a local pay-as-u-go Sim and that i'd call him using t-mobile's International Pass Option which enables me to call Canadian numbers (landline or mobile) for 4p a min.
However when trying to buy a local sim he's been told he needs to have a contract and that he'd have to pay roaming charges to receive a call from me.
Does this sound correct?
Surely if i'm calling a local canadian sim there's no roaming charges to be incurred and surely he should be able to pick a pay-as-u-go sim without having to provide proof of residence?
Desperate Of Berkshire!

redux

I think there are pay as you go options; maybe your friend met a dealer who didn't want to sell them. Try other shops?

You can find details of the brands and tariffs at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/canada.html , and there are links to company websites by clicking on the network logo on that page.

US and Canadian networks do charge for incoming calls; that's where they make up the extra cost of mobile calls, while callers to them pay the same as a landline.

When they talk about roaming, they probably meant within other regions of the same country. But I don't think that incoming calls in Canada will be more expensive if they came internationally, though I have read ambiguous remarks that this may happen in other places for example Mexico.

Obviously your friend needs to clarify this to have confidence in what the charges will be, but I hope that it's just a bit of confusion over words used, and these remarks might help him ask the right questions.

But as you'll see, the rates there aren't a bargain anyway. I think you should try to time things to call him mostly on a landline if possible.

For him to make outgoing international calls, it would be worth looking into callthrough access (like calling cards); I'd suggest a DialNow account.

If you decide to go for text messages some of the time, look into separate providers who use a mobile Java program to send an equivalent via data, costing a few cents each for the message and the data. There's a thread about this on here somewhere; do a search for Vyke (which is one of them) and you'll find it.


edit - oh, and if you're likely to surpass the included calls on T-mobile's bundles (I think you might be limited in how many you can apply within a certain period), or anyway, look at callthough with Yourcallworld, which costs 3p/min on T-mobile. Or use contract inclusive minutes with other callthroughs on ordinary area code landline (e.g. London, not 0844 etc) access numbers - see MSE Callchecker for ideas

kiwifruit_2

try www.alphatelecom.co.uk Before I got a phone/broadband deal with sky, I used to use this company very regularly to call NZ. They are a prepay, so you dont end up with any great surprise of a bill. Ive just checked there rate for Canada and its 3p per minute to a landline. Very easy to use as well

selsdon_2

many thanks for the replies lads, appreciate it

using landlines or any access numbers is not an option i'm afraid (the latter due to the time delays)

i clicked on that link redux and under incoming calls (on rogers) i get the following:

Long Distance and international Calls Within Canada local airtime plus: CA$ 0.30 - € 0.21 USA local airtime plus: CA$ 0.66 - € 0.42 Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Sweden, UK local airtime plus: CA$ 0.75 - € 0.48


am i reading that correctly in that it will cost $0.75 per min to receive calls?

redux

I think that means that's the price of outgoing direct-dialled calls, and don't think it will apply to incoming calls, but that's the point that seems to be ambiguous, and perhaps you can find contact details on the Rogers and Fido websites, then call and ask

System

7-11 stores sell a prepaid package that is quite easy to use, and get.
It's on the same system as UK mobiles (GSM) so it should be able to text as well call. A family member has the US version, and it works well.

You can't buy a sim card on it own, just get the cheapest phone, and the sim will work in the unlocked Nokia, if that's a better phone (You said its quad band).

http://www.speakoutwireless.ca/
http://speakout7eleven.ca/

mikegahan

If you trry 18185.co.uk you can send texts to most destinations overseas for 1p each. I do not know what your colleague would pay to receive tham.