PC Mobile selling SIMs now?

[mikereidis]

Okay I added the APN with proxy. Still unable to browse the external Internet but I did notice that I can go to SIM Toolkit > Self Serve and it gives me a mobile web page with my PC balance. The URL is: http://mselfserve.ca/pc/index.htm

Interesting that you can get to that URL at least. It seems you are on their internal network, but the switch to let you out hasn't flipped yet.

Be patient (unlike me, LOL) and wait until after midnight EST at least. Do NOT be tempted by pda.bell.ca or pda2...

For fun I tried that URL in my PC browser and see it gives a Bell error message.


>ceredon: First time I called into activate the reps answered 'thanks for calling Bell'. Once u said I was calling to activate a PC mobile SIM he switched into PC Mobile mode.

LOL, always fun to catch them. Like the guy with an Indian accent, possibly trying to fake a Can-american accent, who is named "Bill".

[cmstlist]

Be patient (unlike me, LOL) and wait until after midnight EST at least. Do NOT be tempted by pda.bell.ca or pda2...

It would seem that inet.bell.ca behaves similarly, as can be evidenced from my little $1.40 experiment. Glad that all I tried was a ping test I have a whole whack of Bell APNs in this phone because I've also used it to test out the Galaxy Tab prepaid plan on a Bell SIM - obviously I have to avoid using those on PC!

Does the Self Serve URL work from your PC Mobile SIM as well?

Tried again, still can't see more than the gateway page. Will check again tomorrow.

[cmstlist]

It's 9:15 Pacific now, past midnight Eastern. Same results still - I can access the PC Mobile portal but no external sites.

In Terminal Emulator on the phone, I can resolve DNS properly. For example when I ping bit.ly it resolved to 168.143.172.53 which is correct. However the ping had 100% packet loss.

[cmstlist]

Haha looks like I spoke too soon half an hour ago. My balance dropped another 25¢ from $8.35 to $8.10, and now I'm getting Internet access. Apparently somewhere between midnight-1 AM Eastern is the magic moment.

Speed Test is seeing 3218 down, 1543 up - but high ping latency. No balance depletion.

The "3G Mobile Hotspot" app that comes in the leaked Telus Milestone ROM is no good on this SIM. I think it tries to connect my phone to a Telus tethering APN. It says "Can not setup data link". Trying again with Wireless Tether for Root Users. Still getting problems. That's a bit of a shame. Trying Barnacle Wifi Tether as well - aha, that one works! I tether my N1 to the Milestone and I see 2648 down, 1522 up.

I'm streaming 128 kbps CBC Radio 3, no stutters. And now I'm playing YouTube HQ music videos. Hot damn. There's no way Bell is going to let this go on forever.

So here is my hypothetical use case - let's say I am venturing out of Vancouver to see my friends in Victoria and my uncle in Nanaimo. I use the Milestone or some other 3G device as a "Mifi", toss it in my backpack, and tether that to replace the missing Internet on my WIND phone when out-of-zone. That way I get my Internet but I can also still use voice/text from my own phone number at low roaming rates. (e.g. an incoming call on Wind AWAY is 25¢/minute, whereas on the PC SIM it would cost 45¢ min after "incoming long distance)

Heck this would make a great tablet SIM too. But we all know Bell will find a way to make this suck more within a few months' time, don't we?

[mikereidis]

Does the Self Serve URL work from your PC Mobile SIM as well?

Speed Test is seeing 3218 down, 1543 up - but high ping latency. No balance depletion.

The "3G Mobile Hotspot" app that comes in the leaked Telus Milestone ROM is no good on this SIM. I think it tries to connect my phone to a Telus tethering APN. It says "Can not setup data link". Trying again with Wireless Tether for Root Users. Still getting problems. That's a bit of a shame. Trying Barnacle Wifi Tether as well - aha, that one works! I tether my N1 to the Milestone and I see 2648 down, 1522 up.

I'm streaming 128 kbps CBC Radio 3, no stutters. And now I'm playing YouTube HQ music videos. Hot damn. There's no way Bell is going to let this go on forever.

Heck this would make a great tablet SIM too. But we all know Bell will find a way to make this suck more within a few months' time, don't we?

Yes, the Self Serve URL works for me, except when my local Wi-Fi is active. I'm not aware of any way to check my account balance when I have WiFi Internet connectivity except for the texting method. Would be nice to have normal Internet account info access.

Congrats on your success ! I wonder if it becomes active around the same time as your account drops by 25 cents. I have to think it works this way for the officially supported Nokia 7230 UMB too, so you'd think the CSRs might be aware of this issue, or will eventually.

So I'm wondering if around 3200 down and 1600 up is the absolute limit. The Optimus One and my Optimus Chic are supposed to be good for HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, but who knows if they can actually hit that. The officially supported Nokia 7230 is only good for 384 kbps on 3G, so that could be another reason PresChoice figures bandwidth usage will be limited. ( http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_7230-3034.php )

The PresChoice terms of service specifically state that UMB does not include tethering and that per kilobyte charges apply when doing so. So if I had it working with no added charges I might keep that info to my self. But I bet it'd work if I tried it... Is that a hotspot in your pocket or ya just happy to see me ?.... LOL.

I've tried radio streaming also; works better than the hardware FM radio since it doesn't fade. Had a few dropouts this AM but I'm inside and phone was in an inside pocket. Outside pocket works better it seems. Hmmm, does this count as "browsing" ? LOL. I plead ignorance and out of date PresChoice FAQs and pamphlets etc.

Re: Bell: This may last longer if we all try not to "abuse" this by running high bandwidth apps all the time. I note the pamphlet references the bell.ca acceptable use page. So PresChoice COULD cut us off if we use it too much.


BTW, I re-read the pamphlet and note it DOES say the $15 top-up lasts 30 days and the $25 lasts 60 days. The closest thing to an official reference for the $100 is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preside..._phone_service which says it's an "annual plan". I've planned to top-up with the $100, but might start at least with $25. This way I won't feel it so necessary to check my balance so often in case of changes or some muck-up.

My wife has an 8 year old Bell prepaid phone we pay $10 per month for; an ancient grandfathered plan. I'm planning to switch her to PresChoice mobile also, but perhaps without data. I figure we can swap phones or SIMs as needed since I'll be using the data.


One interesting thing I've noticed is that picture and video messaging, as well as Win Live Msgr/Hotmail both require you to have and pay for the UMB feature, in addition to their respective features and charges. So this might be a reason why there are many more ports open than just web browsing ports.

Another thing is that PresChoice appears to still be trying to sell ring-tones, wallpaper, songs, apps, etc. Does anyone still buy ring-tones and wallpaper ? $4 for an Eminem ringtone ??!! WTF ? Anyway these services may also help keep the other ports open.

[cmstlist]

Congrats on your success ! I wonder if it becomes active around the same time as your account drops by 25 cents. I have to think it works this way for the officially supported Nokia 7230 UMB too, so you'd think the CSRs might be aware of this issue, or will eventually.

What I can tell you is they charged 25¢ on day one but I didn't get any Internet access. Once they charged a second 25¢, the Internet activated.

My wife has an 8 year old Bell prepaid phone we pay $10 per month for; an ancient grandfathered plan. I'm planning to switch her to PresChoice mobile also, but perhaps without data. I figure we can swap phones or SIMs as needed since I'll be using the data.

Of course her 8 year old Bell prepaid phone isn't going to work on PCMo because they don't take outside CDMA phones =) But dumbphones are cheap now.

My only trip planned within the next month is to the USA. If I don't have any strong reason to use this, I will let the balance expire, and revive the SIM again for any future trips outside of WIND zones. Would be great for long train, bus or road trips that don't have wi-fi.

[cmstlist]

First thing in the morning I received junk texts from 77878 ("sprized.com") and they deducted 15 cents a pop. I replied STOP and got charged for that too. PC Mobile gave me the "one time courtesy refund". I guess if this number is on the list of some other crap service I'll have to change it :P

[mikereidis]

Of course her 8 year old Bell prepaid phone isn't going to work on PCMo because they don't take outside CDMA phones =) But dumbphones are cheap now.

My only trip planned within the next month is to the USA. If I don't have any strong reason to use this, I will let the balance expire, and revive the SIM again for any future trips outside of WIND zones. Would be great for long train, bus or road trips that don't have wi-fi.

First thing in the morning I received junk texts from 77878 ("sprized.com") and they deducted 15 cents a pop. I replied STOP and got charged for that too. PC Mobile gave me the "one time courtesy refund". I guess if this number is on the list of some other crap service I'll have to change it :P

Maybe Internet works for an extra day after removing UMB. Anyway, I'm not gonna complain.

Yes, 8 yr old CMDA phone ready for scrap heap. We will likely both have LG Optimus One or Optimus Chic or one of each.

Do you know if locked Bell/Telus/Solo/Virgin etc. phones will work with PC SIM without unlocking the phone ? I unlocked mine before trying.

If I went to the US I'd try a prepaid SIM bought there. US Roaming is one of the ways PC actually makes a profit I'd guess. Also their roaming requires auto top-ups for during AND 90 days after removing and automatic is one of the ways we can get hit for more than the current value of our pre-paid balance.

Do you know how you got targetted with the scam/spam texts ? Any way to protect ourselves ?


I'm going through the Android guides and trying to figure out all the settings. I'm seeing more and more that Bell "helpfully" customized for me and won't allow me to change. Such as various pre-programmed numbers for such things as voicemail. They are set to 1-647-383-2322 which is a Toronto Bell Mobility number. (Found very little by googling that # ; strange IMO). I don't know if that number would work for PC voicemail, but I'd guess it means long distance charges accessing voicemail (and other features) if your phone is outside of Toronto area.

I'd guess that if I followed the official easy "touch a button" way of retrieving voice-mail on Android it will call that number. So clearly, I'm going to have to root the phone and/or install custom or non-Bell-stock firmware.

Downside is warranty coverage for the phone may be invalidated. But if the phone lasts a month I'd guess it will highly likely last a few years at least, like most half decent electronics. Hmm, maybe credit card type extended warranties would suffice as I'd bet they rarely even look at the allegedly broken device more than briefly.


I'm happy to see my 613 cell phone area code can call my 819 home phone without a 1 pre-pended. I had to use the 1 when the Bell SIM was installed. So I'm guessing it's long distance to cross the area code divide of the Ottawa river with Bell, but not with PC. I'm not sure there's anything posted on the Internet or on paper that describes exactly when a call becomes long distance.

[cmstlist]

- Yes, Solo/Virgin/PC phones should work with a PC SIM, but not Telus without unlocking
- I do have a prepaid SIM, T-Mobile for my AWS Nexus One
- I was probably spammed because the prior owner of this phone number got signed up for spam. I should also add that they seemed to think my SPAM messages had something to do with RBC (similar to reported to upthread). Clearly their record-keeping system is a pile of crap.

I just flashed my Milestone to the CyanogenMod 6.1.2 port, to see if the hotspot works better on that. Of course I disabled mobile data before booting it with the PC SIM, because CM6 comes with a long APN list and it would have automatically put me on the pda.bell.ca APN (ack)

Yes the 3G Mobile Hotspot app that comes with CM6.1.2 does appear to manage to tether, but only for a short time and not very well. But this time Wireless Tether for Root seems to work, even though it squawks about an incompatible kernel and having failed to start tethering. When I tether my N1 to the Milestone and run a speed test, I get 3650 down / 2592 up. Not too shabby.

[cmstlist]

I'm now getting a blank balance on the online portal, a "Unfortunately this service is not currently available, please try again later" by SMS, and "technical difficulties" when I call #7266. Odd.

[cmstlist]

Still no balance but Internet works...

[mikereidis]

I'm now getting a blank balance on the online portal, a "Unfortunately this service is not currently available, please try again later" by SMS, and "technical difficulties" when I call #7266. Odd.

It should work now ; works for me now.

It was down this weekend because of some maintenance Bell was doing. I only know because I logged into the MyBell system for my wife's phone.

Another slight downside to using a cheap MVNO...

Is there any way to manage an account using the normal Internet ? I've seen I can activate a phone online (and wait a few days), but I can't see any method to see balances, plans etc, like with the SIM Toolkit Self-Serve.

I would try "Online Activation" but I'd worry that would mess something up on my now working phone.

[cmstlist]

Yep it was just a temporary glitch.

I just find it really funny how big of a contrast there is, that $1 on PC Mobile can buy you:
- 4 days of unlimited HSPA
- or 5 minutes of talk
- or just under 7 text messages (~1 Kbyte)

[mikereidis]

I just find it really funny how big of a contrast there is, that $1 on PC Mobile can buy you:
- 4 days of unlimited HSPA
- or 5 minutes of talk
- or just under 7 text messages (~1 Kbyte)

Well don't cry too hard if/when they switch this off or at least block most ports.

I find it hilarious that I can walk around the house with slim phone in pocket as a hotspot used by normal "big" computers.

I'm constantly reminded of the Futurama Fry quote: "This EyePhone is a phone too!?"

Particularly since I plan to use voice very little. To me it's a swiss army knife of camera, PDA, Internet device, etc. The phone part is just a useful addon. But unlike the swiss army knife, various parts can be used synergisticly together.

[ceredon]

This experiment made me realize just how bad Fido's 3G coverage is near my house. Usually, I get 1-2 bars on 3G and often drop to Edge. Data speeds are nonexistent if I am in the wrong part of the house. With the PCMobile (Bell) SIM in place, I was getting 3-5 bars and good data speeds consistently. It's been a long time since I've had download speeds over 1Mbps and ups over 2Mbps with Fido, even at work, just a few hundred feet from a Rogers tower in the middle of the RIM campus. Only major downsides to me switching myself away from Fido, are my retentions plan and the fact that Bell/Telus/PC don't have Edge to fall back on with their HSPA phones.