Re: OT: Cellular telephone service

The Virgin mobile minute 2 minute plan does look like a good offer for
me, since I only really need the phone to find my friends on the
weekend. I really like that the website is clutter free and everything
looks quite straight forward. The only downside is that since you don't
pay a monthly flat rate, the cost of the phone is greater. Seems like a
good deal for me since all I really want my phone to do is make a call,
have call display, voicemail, etc. Text messaging annoys the hell out of
me, and I think camera phones are silly. If I want to take a picture,
I'll get out my camera and take a good one.

I'm getting a bit exited about getting a phone now...

Reid

Les Klassen Hamm wrote:
> I just checked the www.virginmobile.ca website, and it's VERY
> intriguing! Looks like there are some little gotcha's (Int'l long
> distance looks very expensive) but for other useage, there are some
> awesome and simple options. It also looks like you have to buy one of
> 6 phones, so if the phone matters, that may be an issue. But for
> $12/month you can call for .10/minute, and there's another option
> without the monthly fee (some .25/minute, then .10/min), but what gets
> me is that they say there are no system access fees and all that other
> suprise stuff. Free call display. Free voicemail. Coverage looks good.
> I'm going to look into them for a third phone for family use. You
> prepay minutes, but you can do that automatically with a credit card.
> I'd be curious to hear from someone on a current plan.
> Les...
>
> Keith Snape wrote:
>> Having used both Rogers and Sasktel within the past two years - I
>> guess I can comment on both. As a Sasktel employee though, I'm a
>> little biased.
>>
>> Admittedly the pricing on certain plans (very casual / low use is a
>> prime) with Rogers, can end up being a bit (say $10-15 a month minimum
>> for very low use, compared to Sasktel's bare minimum at $25ish). In
>> other cases for certain high-use plans may swing in Sasktel's favor
>> (large amounts of long-distance canada wide, etc). Get as much detail
>> on the plans you're comparing as you can get - look at plan cost,
>> administartion fees, 911 fees, minutes, time-of-day impact, inclusive
>> features - even factor in taxes.
>>
>> Hardware offerings is uncontested Rogers. GSM just develops and
>> populates quicker due to higher overall world-wide market and use.
>> CDMA's historically always been a bit laggardly on new hardware as
>> well. This looks like it'll get a bit better (in much
>> quicker-than-normal periods of time for new hardware in market) over
>> the following year or so. You want gadgets - look at Rogers hardware.
>>
>> That being said, my one big suggestion is to pick your dealer
>> carefully. They're the ones you'll be dealing with for any and all
>> hardware related questions or issues, so the long-term relationship is
>> important (I think). Avoid mall kiosks, flightly sounding employees,
>> and whatnot. They're the ones who don't really care to be doing what
>> they are doing, and don't pay attention when they're at it. They're
>> the ones most likely to screw something up that has you calling
>> customer services or the technical support queues, sounding like you
>> missed your meds
>>
>> If buying Sasktel hardware - you get what you pay for. Avoid the $0
>> or $0-30 priced phones, most are a cycle or two outdated, and
>> feature-lacking.
>>
>> Oh - and remember that you can always change your rateplan with
>> Sasktel. My specific deal with Rogers had so many strings attached to
>> plan changes that I never did, so it was a suprise when I went to work
>> for Sasktel and discovered with them you can change your plan as often
>> as you need. Be it 10 days while you're on vacation, or every two
>> months. No charge, no limit. It can really be used to keep your
>> bills as low as they can possibly be.
>>
>> Dave - you might want to re-check the US/North American roaming
>> comparison again. Depending on how far back you were last looking, it
>> may have changed very drastically in Sasktels favor. Then again, I
>> may be the one out of date.
>>
>> Number portability is still looking like it's on track - as far as
>> I'm aware.
>>
>> On 9/1/06, Dave Hall <dave-slg@dnh.sk.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Sep 01, 2006 at 03:31:10PM -0600, Reid Towsley wrote:
>>> > In the next month or so I would like to buy a cell phone, and
>>> while I am
>>> > sure I can figure out which phone is the right one for me, what I
>>> would
>>> > like to ask is what company should I get my phone service through? I
>>> > haven't been keeping up to date at all with the cellular services
>>> around
>>> > town since I haven't needed (read: couldn't afford) a phone until
>>> now.
>>> > Has anyone here dealt with a few different companies and would
>>> like to
>>> > share their experiences?
>>>
>>> I'm happy with Rogers service and coverage (I don't travel much off the
>>> major highways in Sask.) I just do TDMA because U.S. roaming is
>>> cheaper
>>> than GSM and used to be a bit better/cheaper than SaskTel. I also
>>> like my
>>> trusty old Nokia phone which just works (tm) and works well.
>>>
>>> My main complaint is their rates have been slowly creeping upward.
>>>
>>> Once number portability comes in next year as scheduled (hopefully),
>>> I'll
>>> probably look at switching.
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "Well, there's SPAM, egg, sausage, and SPAM. That's not got MUCH
>>> SPAM in it."
>>>
>>> To unsubscribe, send a message with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
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>>> Archives are at http://list.slg.org/
>>>
>>
>> --
>> "Well, there's SPAM, egg, sausage, and SPAM. That's not got MUCH
>> SPAM in it."
>>
>> To unsubscribe, send a message with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
>> quotes) in the body to linux-request@slg.org
>> Archives are at http://list.slg.org/
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> "Well, there's SPAM, egg, sausage, and SPAM. That's not got MUCH SPAM
> in it."
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
> quotes) in the body to linux-request@slg.org
> Archives are at http://list.slg.org/
>
Received on Fri Sep 1 18:49:38 2006