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9:49 pm
March 20, 2011
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Bridonca, I have a couple questions re the comparison. 1. Do you know if the President's Choice minutes last for a year as with SO? 2. Does the PC system use SIM based phone like SO? 3. Would there be any issue using the PC system to do voice and data in Manitoba using an unlocked SIM based smartphone and have capability to swap in a T-Mobile card when in the US?
Thanks for all the time and expertice answering questions from dum__ss newbie like myself!
5:36 am
April 22, 2009
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The $100 President's Choice mobile phone top up card lasts a year, anything smaller lasts 1 month or 2.
President's Choice/Loblaws still mostly sell the older CDMA phones, but they now sell a few phones that do take SIM cards. You can also buy separate President's Choice SIM cards for $10 here in Halifax. I do not know if you can buy the SIM cards in all areas of Canada though.
I do not know for sure if Bell/Telus have activated HSDPA towers in Manitoba yet. It is supposed to happen real soon now if it has not already. I do not live there, so I cannot give a first hand experience. You need to be near a Bell/Telus HSDPA tower for President's Choice Mobile SIMs to work.
When shopping for a phone, you need to find one that works with Bell, Telus, Virgin or Koodo, and it has to be unlocked. These phones should work fine with T-mobile's 2G network.
5:55 am
March 20, 2011
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Thanks for the info and prompt reply! Telus has just launced its HSPA service but coverage is brutal... Looks like I will still need to opt for the Speak out option and a T-Mobile card for roaming in the US,and put up with watered down data service.
Thanks again!
4:15 pm
July 12, 2009
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The Telus HSDPA may or may not be on the air and it won't make huge differences. The rollout that may have happened already and/or is to happen soon will be of limited use anywhere outside the perimiter highway surrounding the City of Winnipeg. At best it will be a corridor along the Trans Canada Highway from Winnipeg to Brandon and possibly to Steinbach.
If you Google "Telus HSPA coverage Manitoba" you will find dozens of links and lots of discussion about what is happening in Manitoba. These are probably the best description of what is happening:
http://tek.ca/2011/02/telus-hs.....uary-16th/
or http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/02.....uary-16th/
There are lots of unhappy people.
Telus partnered with Sask Tel so Saskatchewan is covered or in the process of being covered. Telus and MTS did not partner.
MTS partnered with Rogers for HSDPA. The rollout of the MTS HSDPA is scheduled for the end of March. I was in Manitoba at the beginning of February and Rogers/Speakout phones both showed more 3G coverage than on a visit last fall so the network is expanding.
http://www.thompsoncitizen.net.....toba-begin
Telus apparently bought spectrum in Manitoba for province wide coverage, so they can't force MTS to provide roaming. Bell didn't bid on that auction — partly because of their deal to carve Canada in half with Telus. Bell could force MTS to allow roaming for phone and text because they have no spectrum licensed in Manitoba — where that leaves President's Choice is anybody's guess.
http://www.howardforums.com/pr.....mp;page=14
Scroll down to a post by Que_Ball that has explanation and links explaining the rules.
Coverage in Manitoba is going to be strange for a long time to come. MTS have roaming agreements with Telus and Bell for voice and text but no data on Telus or Bell CDMA phones — that covers most of the province. MTS covers most of the province for voice and text and parts of the province with data on their CDMA network. Rogers covers a fairly large part of Southern Manitoba with their GSM network. There is less coverage than MTS CDMA in lots or rural areas and nothing in the north. When the Rogers/MTS partnership is rolled out completely, MTS and Rogers 3G phones will have as much or more coverage than the MTS CDMA network. You can roam outside Manitoba on the Rogers network with your MTS 3G phone. You can roam outside Manitoba with your MTS CDMA phone on the Telus and Bell Networks.
Confused yet?
Telus and/or Bell will not ever have full province wide 3G coverage without building a huge amount of towers and repeater sites. That will happen slowly if at all. They may provide coverage along the major highways in southern Manitoba but even that will not be complete in the forseeable future.
6:49 pm
April 6, 2010
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Looks like PC got smart, don't see the 25 cents a day browsing listed anywhere, now its 100mb or 500mb for $10 or $25 per month. I guess that's the price for having them add Androids to the phone line-up. Bummer, I was thinking of switching my E71 over.
