The Unofficial 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless Canada Consumer Page 
Facebook
Twitter
Email this
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
11:59 am
I am tired of paying the ridiculous roaming charges to use my MTS mobility contract phone when I travel to the US.
Can anyone recommend a US carrier that would have nationwide service (primarily mid-west & south west US)?
I wouldn't be using the phone heavily or very many times throughout the year, so per minute rate is less important than something with long expiry times for low denomination top-ups, and decent long distance rates to call Canada.
I believe I read Wal-Mart has their own cellular service - does anyone have experience with there service?
Thanks in advance!
1:25 pm
Net10 and TracFone, and 711 Speakout, all have decent prepaid, service in the US. Check the web to compare for your usage(and the best rate).
I think Net10 and Tracfone's can be found at most at US Wal-Marts.
5:35 pm
October 14, 2008
Offline
I used to use Tracfone, and they were very good, but now I use 7-11 Speak Out in the USA. The American version of Speak Out uses the AT & T GoPhone network.
Since Tracfone has many roaming agreements with various wireless companies, they have the best coverage in the USA. However, Speak Out is a bit cheaper if you are going for one year top-ups.
12:27 am
January 18, 2009
Offline
Consider T-Mobile also.
Once you attain gold($100) any addition to funds is good for a year.
8:16 pm
This is great! I just started researching this myself.
A bunch of us (3 couples) are planning to go to Florida for a vacation in a couple of months so I thought it would be nice to have a phone that I could use in the US while we're down there. Primary usage would be for calls within the US while we're down there (info lines, restaurant reservations, directions, hotels, friends, etc) and if needed, emergency calls back to Canada. Of course, the phone would be the way for our friends and family in Canada to reach us down there in case of emergencies too.
After the vacation, I thought I would just keep the SIM card/phone. My long term plan would be to keep it so that my friends and I can share the SIM. ie. if we're not using it and my friends go on vacation to the US, they can borrow the SIM to take with them.
So I've been trying to find a prepaid service that has long expiry dates, cheap renewals (ideally online if possible in case we can't get down there to add $ to the plan) and cheap phone rates for both US and Canada.
From what I can tell, when it comes to expiry dates - if you want the 1 year expiry on Net10, you need to spend $200 a year. On T-Mobile, once you spend the $100 (I'd probably just buy that as my first refill), you get 1 year expiry and then all you need to spend is $10 to extend the expiry for another year. For US SO, it's $50 a year for a 1 year expiry. Once I faked out a zip code on the Tracfone site (grrr!), I think it's $100 for a 1 year expiry.
So if I calculate it out long term, 3 years plus, the best deal is T-Mobile (it would only cost you $100 + $10 + $10 = $120 for 3 years).
Does this does right to you?
Am I missing something? What are the gotchas? Are there monthly 9-11 fees or hidden system access fees I have to be worried about? What happens if you don't use the phone?
Minutes-wise, has someone done the research to see which one offers the cheapest min rate (within US calls) and calls to and from Canada?
9:40 pm
April 23, 2009
Offline
I've only had experience with Net10's prepaid service in the USA. Service was decent.
1) $30+tax gets you an LG phone with voicemail, call display, earphones, AC adapter, car adapter & INCLUDES 300mins ($30worth) of airtime with 60days expiry (from any USA Walmart)
2) Top-up can be done on-line, over the phone or you can purchase a prepaid card at Walmarts, Targets & many other retailers.
3) $30 has 60day expiry; higher denominations have longer expiry dates.
4) 10cents/min nationwide USA, 15cents/min to Canada
5) This phone doesn't have a removeable SIM card but I think you can let it expire & reactivate again in future either on-line or by calling customer service although you'll get a different phone # assigned once you reactivate.
6) Existing mins rollover when you top-up before the expiry date; all mins will take on the newest expiry date.
7) You can request 2 tel #'s - a USA one & one with your Canadian area code; if family/friends call the Canadian # you are billed the 15cent rate.
8 ) Down side (to this particular Net10 phone) - it's extremely hard to hear in a noisy environment even using the included earphones.
9) Another down side - you'll get numerous automated calls to renew your car warranty!
Hope this info helps narrow down your decision. Enjoy your Florida trip!
2:12 am
thanks for all the info!
looking into it further, it looks like Net10 and tracfone offer similar features, but Net10's website blows away Tracfone's. (much easier to navigate)
Net10 has much better long distance rates for calling Canada vs T-Mobile ($0.15 vs $0.50) and the Canadian phone number would be a plus for friends and family calling from Canada. However something seems fishy with this long distance service - it sounds like you have to follow a similar process to using a long distance card.
For Net10, using diffent zipcodes changes the coverage area map. Using a ND zipcode (58202), the map shows full nationwide coverage with only a few areas being roaming zones. Using an AZ zipcode (85001) results in a map with major deadzones. Coverage will be very important as my parents will use the phone a few months of the year when they head south RV'ing in the winter.
T-Mobile does seem to have the lowest annual cost with the Gold Status program as from what I read it does sound like a $10 top-up would carry leftover minutes over for the year - I couldn't find anything regarding a 911 fee or system access fee? Also, it appears the phone could be used in Canada - roaming rates are high ($0.69/min) but text messages are $0.05 - 0.10 / message) This would be good so someone without a phone (ie my wife) could use it in Canada for texting
and in case of emergency.
For my needs, I think the Net10 phone would be the best because of the better coverage areas and lower rates to call Canada. It is unfortunate that my minutes will probably expire between trips and will always need to reactivate and get a new phone number each trip.
9:20 am
I do know that both Net10, and Tracfone sims are locked to their phone (to keep track of airtime). So you are tied to the phone they give you.
a T-mobile or US 711 speakout sim will be able to work in a Cdn Speakout handset.
6:26 pm
April 23, 2009
Offline
Ed said:
thanks for all the info!
- it sounds like you have to follow a similar process to using a long distance card.
Ed: Net10's instructions for calls outside of the USA - dial *1 then send, choose 1 for english & then dial 1+area code+number & do not press send again. Calls rated at .15/min Canada. I used it with no problems.
7:04 pm
Safari - thanks for clarifying - from the way it is worded on their website they make it sound shady. Glad to hear it is user friendly!
7:23 pm
April 23, 2009
Offline
More Net10 info: I forgot to mention you can specify which USA area code you'd like for your # & you need to let them know you'll require dialing to Canada (or any other countries) as it takes 2days for the international dialing capability to kick in. Walmart rep set everything up with the Net10 rep for us even though we could have done that ourselves. Great service. Bonus is all the accessories fit my Speakout Nokia 1208. Oh - it also came with case with belt clip.
12:37 pm
noway1234 said:
I do know that both Net10, and Tracfone sims are locked to their phone (to keep track of airtime). So you are tied to the phone they give you.
a T-mobile or US 711 speakout sim will be able to work in a Cdn Speakout handset.
Meaning the phones are locked then or the SIMs are somehow locked (physically?) to the phone? If yes, then I'm leaning towards T-Mobile or US SO. I want the ability to use the SIM in my own unlocked GSM phone.
7:55 pm
October 14, 2008
Offline
Both the phones are locked as well as the sims. For instance, all Tracfone's have special firmware, so you can not use a T-Mobile sim in a Tracfone, and you can not use a Tracfone sim in a T-Mobile phone.
Whoever you are going to go with, check the coverage, wherever you are headed. Where I have been in the USA, Speak Out USA (which uses the AT & T GoPhone network) is greatly superior to T-Mobile's coverage.
8:04 pm
Hmm, good point. Can you add minutes online with US SO? That's the nice perk with T-Mobile in case I don't go back to the States for a while. And the $10 minimum top up for a 365 day expiry after you buy $100 worth (which I'll probably do right off the top).
9:33 pm
October 14, 2008
Offline
Unfortunately, you can not add airtime online with Speak Out at this time. I agree, the $10 365 day expiry is nice, but you have to get the big $100 top-up first. T-Mobile's costs would even out with Speak Out's after about 6 years (T-Mobile $100 first year + $10 a year for 5 years = $150) (Speak Out $50 a year for 3 years =$150)
I have heard good discussion about the T-Mobile plan. You have to look at ALL the pros and cons. You have to look at everything, especially coverage. Having a plan like that is great, but what good is it if the phone can't get a signal? Definitely research the coverage. Where you are going T-Mobile coverage may be even better than AT & T's, it definitely is possible, but look at all the factors.
11:26 pm
January 18, 2009
Offline
A little twist to this. I have t-mobile for use in the US but you reminded me of the cdn numbers you can set up with Tracfone for cdns to call you for no cost to them. You may be able to do the reverse also, but....
I have just joined Voip.ms (CDN company) which has all sorts of capabilities after you have something like a t-mobile. I will pay$1.49 a month plus 3.2 cents a minute plus 1.13 cents a minute when I am in the states and the calls that people make to my toll-free (yes, no cost to caller) will be forwarded to my home phone or to my cell phone anywhere in North America for those costs. So a Canadian or American can call me through the toll-free # I have (1-866-...-.....) if I am anywhere in the US or Canada and I pay the $1.49/month plus 4.33 cents a minute, plus of course regular t-mobile air time. But that's a pretty good rate for anyone in NA to call me anywhere in NA.
People are using this service for voip phones for home and business and are happy, but you can use the call forwarding function and not get your computer involved in the phone process.
NOW if you have a good laptop and wireless in your travels you can phone through a headset and your laptop with a softphone for just the 4.33/minute rate and people can call you and you can answer through the laptop/wireless (say in the evenings) just by shutting down the call-forward for that evening or whenever you are near your laptop long-term.
Hope this is clear enough. It's not stricly cell phone useage but the cell phone can be forwarded to and used with the service.
Added benefit is that if this works well for you you can cancel your long distance plan with your home telco, keep basic phone service, make your long distance from home calls through the soft phone and laptop and home network. It is working well for me and I am seriously getting ready to cancel long distance service at home.
Hope this is a good read!
2:32 pm
Next issue - I tried to order a SIM online from T-Mobile's website. It wouldn't let me. I called their cust service and they said a) they don't ship to Canada and b) the credit card I buy with must match the billing/shipping address so basically I'm screwed. The only way to get a SIM is to go to one of their stores in the US, which is fine but then you don't get the "web discount" price. Does anyone know of a way around this?
2:36 pm
May 4, 2009
Offline
I would suggest buying through ebay.
4:26 pm
March 15, 2008
Offline
Both T-Mobile and AT&T have retail stores in the US where you can buy their SIMs. In addition US stores like Wal-Mart and Target carry a wide variety of PAYG phones at very attractive prices. You'd have to buy such phone/SIM/airtime once you crossed the border and then call up family and friends to give them your new US phone number. I'd also do some homework at carrier and store websites to make sure that airtime can be purchased online. (I believe both T-Mobile and AT&T allow this, but you'd have to double-check, of course.)
