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May 02
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Rogers and Fido aren’t the only options for carriers for your iPhone in Canada. The other options are Petro Canada Mobility and 7 eleven Speakout Wireless. They are both GSM prepaid cell carriers that offer great rates. Their rates are far better than what Rogers or Fido offers for prepaid service. I just picked up a Petro Canada Mobile phone and sim for my sister in law to use on her iPhone when she is in Canada. Almost went with Rogers or Fido, but their service is pretty expensive and the options are limited for light phone users.


Here are the details on Petro Canada Mobility:

- 20 cents per minute anytime
- 5 cents to send or receive texts
- 10 cents extra per minute to call the USA or long distance in Canada
- Includes - caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, three way calling
- Airtime refills can be purchased in either $20, $50, or $100 denominations and expire 180 days later or 365 days later for the $100 option

Here are the details for 7 eleven speak out wireless:
- 20 cents per minute anytime
- 5 cents to send or receive texts
- 10 cents extra per minute to call the USA or long distance in Canada
- Includes - caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, three way calling
- Airtime refills can be purchases in either $10, $25, $50, or $100 denominations and all expire 365 dater later.

The problem with Petro or Speakout is that there is no data options so you will just have to use wifi. The other problem is that you cannot just buy a sim card from either carrier, you have to buy a phone. The cheapest phone from Petro Canada is $59 and is the Nokia 2610. The cheapest phone from Speakout is $75 and is the Nokia 1600. Both of these phones are terrible.

The good thing is that they are unlocked and you can sell them on ebay to recover your costs. Both of these carriers run on the Rogers network so there is no difference is coverage or service. Rogers charges 40 cents a minute for prepaid and Fido charges 30 cents. All of their refill cards expire in 30 days unless you buy a $100 card.

Petro or speakout will save you a lot of money in the long run. There probably isn’t a lot of people using an iPhone on either one of these, but it is a good option. I hadn’t even heard of either until a few days ago.

http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/mobility/2303.aspx

http://www.speakoutwireless.ca/



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written by ruffdeezy


9 Responses to “Other carrier options”

  1. 1. Anonymous Says:

    If you buy a Petro/711 phone, is there an option to carry over your current cell phone number?
    I remember someone saying the the sim cards that come with these phones are pre-programmed with numbers already.

  2. 2. ruffdeezy Says:

    You are able to port your number into petro. The number is assigned when you call into activate it. Petro’s website details how to port in I think. I think 7-11 phones come with an assigned # but I believe you can also port your # in.

  3. 3. Gdog Says:

    Hey great info, thanks for this!

  4. 4. ruffdeezy Says:

    No problem, it was kinda fun seeing “Petro Canada” pop up as the carrier.

  5. 5. Ralph Says:

    You just need to insert the sim card? Are you sure there is nothing to do with the iphone??? It will automatically show petro-canada as the carrier? Is is the same with iphones 3g bought in the US?

  6. 6. ruffdeezy Says:

    This was done on an unlocked first gen iPhone. iPhone 3G cannot be unlocked yet.

  7. 7. Tony Says:

    It seems that if you buy a new iPhone outright, you need to activate it with Rogers before you can use it with Speakout. I’m not sure what to do about this part since I do not have an active rogers account, only Speakout…

    I just ported my number from Telus to Speakout with no problem.

  8. 8. mMichael Says:

    Tony, if you’re near an Apple store, they don’t insist that you activate in the store. I activated at home.

  9. 9. mMichael Says:

    I just read that you need an active account with Rogers, so this method might not work. Looks like you’ll need to buy outright–but not from Rogers/fido/Apple. You might look for an iPhone here: http://www.ehmac.ca/ipod/

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