Australian coming to Canada, Quebec - mobile?

[alexbob1318]

Hey all


I'm flying over to Quebec from Australia this Christmas weekend and I'm there for a few weeks to see some friends and do some skiing, and then to Las Vegas after.

I'm not going to use my Australian phone due to the roaming costs, so I'm looking for a local option to purchase in Canada.

I've been told to try and get something from carriers called Rogers, Fido and Bell?

I'm hoping to spend around $50 for the two weeks, I won't be making many calls, it's just an emergency that I'd probably use to text Australian phone numbers.

I've seen Fido and some $10 prepaid plan that has 10c international text and the call rate back to australia is only 0.75c a minute, is this a good option? Can I put $50 on so the extra charges come out of that?

I'm 17 and have some ID however is it easy to get a sim card for an iphone in a store over there?


Cheers
Alex

[claudiu_corbea]

If you will only use it as an emergency, I'd go with prepaid and you don't need any ID for that. Telus usually has the best prepaid rates. You can get just a SIM card and use your phone but only if it supports 850/1900 3G bands (most likely not), but you can always find a cheap 50$ phone at Walmart and some of them come with 50$ credit so you get the phone for free.
If your phone doesn't have the North American 3G (850/1900) and you don't want to buy another one, your only option is Rogers or Fido since they both use the same and only GSM network in Canada (Telus, Bell, Koodo, Bell use another network which is HSPA only on 850/1900).

[alexbob1318]

Thanks for that. Would only be a couple of occasional 1 or 2 minute calls to Australian numbers (friends who are roaming in Canada with their Australian service) and some texting, so not much. Can recharge more if I need to.

I have an unlocked iPhone 4S, so it does support 850/1900 3G, and my 3g network in Aus (Telstra) is also 850. So hopefully that'll work as long as I get a microsim.

Is there a particular plan/recharge you would recommend from Telus? Also do you know what the overseas SMS and overseas call rate to Australian mobiles/landlines is for the plan? I'm having a hard time getting around the websites and understanding the terms as they are very different and much more complicated than over here (we never pay incoming call charges etc)

Would be super appreciative
Thanks

[lmcjipo]

The Fido $10 prepaid plan that you referred to might not be good for you based on your usage.

Remember that the $10 Fido plan doesn't give you any minutes and it also doesn't give you any text messages. It just gives you a lower rate for the airtime and for the text messages. What this means is if for example, you make 20 international SMS (excluding taxes), you wind up paying $12.

With Rogers and a $10 international texting plan, you get 250 outgoing international text messages (and unlimited incoming messages). Combining this with getting the pay per minute plan where you pay $0.25/minute for the first 5 minutes in the day and then $0.15 after that in the day might be better. Calling Australia would be $0.75 per minute. You can also opt to get a long distance phone card once you arrive in Quebec to reduce your long distance charges.

I don't know anything about Bell or Telus rates.