Ontop in Montreal | Phone/Device Issues and Features | Consumer forum

I agree this is a cheap phone, but I was not really expecting a lot from it except being unlocked and low cost.

When I want to be mobile with something better, I have another set of equipment, including a mobile hotspot that is provider independent and will run with my laptop in Linux. Being a retired geek, I test stuff first hand and keep my own documentation on my own hardware.

Re Device Availability in Quebec:

Due to Bill 101, Quebec's infamous languagel laws, some products cannot be delivered to a Quebec address. If the OFL ("Language police") do not accept the translations for the products into French, this applies.

While the specifics are not conspicuously displayed by merchants, when one tries to buy or order these many items the consumer ends upo finally bumping into the restriction. Many Quebec consumers who are near enough to the Ontario provincial border will travel there, to Ottawa, Cornwall or other Ontario cities to purchase.

If the consumer is going to visit Toronto, they may well bring back purchases from there - a distance of 500 Km. and a 6 hour drive each way, or by train or fly.

For financial and other products where a registration or account involving the person's legal residence are involved, unless the details of that product or service are also translated under the same provision, the purveyor, merchant or bank is not allowed to offer their product or service to Quebec residents.

Needless to say, this whole "Quebec-Canada problem has festered with much infamy over many years!"

Fortunately this opressive government cannot control the internet.

Consequently, I have a set of mobile "boxes" that can legally get around much of the matter, and when I have time, I will test this smartphone by WI-FI connecting it to a special, provider independent router I have.

When I discovered that my rogers Rocket stick, and all the USB sticks, back windows-specific software back into the computer, I was worried that I was stuck with a $200.00 white elephant.

Solution!

Then I doscovered the "Mofi". At a cost of $100.00 plus taxes, and a restocking charge of only 5% if it didn't do the job, I bought one, and, having my Linux laptop and Rocket stick, etc. with me, I went over to one of my favouraite fast food restaurants and had a n amle supper while testing...

It worked like a charm!

The Mofinetwork router handles the backed-up firmware from the stick, so it will not even be able to burden the processor of the Laptop.

The rest, AKA the LAN side, is essentially the same as a standard wireless router.

Given the fact that mobile internet is very heavily taxed in Canada, unlike the U.s.A., this alone ends up saving me an added cost of about $50.00 per month just to have an added device on this type of service, even before I start to use it!

Given another firend who is a commercial pilot and a class 1 trucker, when he is working out of Canada, he can save himself a huge bundle of money, ongoing and legal once he crosses the border into the U.S.

He has an account and stick with an American provider, so when he has entered the U.S.A., he will use that the same as any American in the U.S.

Given many improvements in the concerns for electronic devices in various classes of aviation, as well as in hospitals, this type of device can now be used far more in such places, subject to local instructions and safety rules!

Finally to say, Cheap smartphones may not be so available in Quebec, because the price and sales volume must support the added cost of translation for manufacturers to be bothered translating - as usual, money talks loud1