The Unofficial 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless Canada Consumer Page 
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2:46 pm
Hey
was wondering if anyone has purchased any of the above phones. Do we purchase sims seperately. Can we use the speak-out airtime on these phones as they have 1 year validy.
Also can these phones be used in India? I meant the phone only using an Indian sim card.
What does Virgin Mobile Marbl mean?
Thank you
5:29 pm
March 15, 2008
Offline
To use SpeakOut Canada cell service you need an unlocked GSM phone that works on the 850/1900 MHz bands. AFAIK overseas, including India, you need an unlocked GSM phone that works on the 900/800 MHz bands. (There are a few countries like Japan where there is no GSM service.)
Motorola, among others, makes unlocked GSM phones that operate on all 4 of these bands. Such phones will work anywhere GSM is available providing you have an appropriate SIM card and carrier account. SpeakOut Canada SIMs work only in Canada so you will need some other carrier(s)'s SIM(s) to get service in the US and overseas.
Virgin operates cell phone networks in several countries. The oney the use in Canada, actually operated by Bell, isn't GSM so no Canadian Virgin Mobile phone will work with SpeakOut. (I'm being somewhat specific because e.g. Virgin's network in the UK is GSM.)
You can't buy SpeakOut SIMs separately, at least not from 7-11. You can sometimes buy them from members of this forum or on eBay, but that's an unofficial channel.
9:06 am
What about the new Virgin mobile phones (which I was told by 7-11 rep are CDMA) that they are offering for SO? If so, can I use my old Virgin phone and register it with SO?
I am quite confused, as it seems SO now has both GSM and CDMA phones available. Perhaps Zstar bought time on two diff networks but they market it as one plan. (The SO Virgin phones are cheaper and come with 33min time and they are said to require activation, as you would expect from CDMA phone).
11:58 am
October 21, 2008
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Speakout phones are only GSM, not CDMA. And they use the Rogers (GSM) network.
Virgin Mobile phones are CDMA. And they use the Bell (CDMA) network.
Speakout does not sell Virgin Mobile phones, however 7-11 stores sell a variety of phones from a variety of carriers, such as Virgin Mobile.
There are no Speakout Virgin phones.
5:21 pm
Big Ang said:
Speakout does not sell Virgin Mobile phones, however 7-11 stores sell a variety of phones from a variety of carriers, such as Virgin Mobile.
There are no Speakout Virgin phones.
Thanks for the clarification.
So basically, while the "Handset Guide" that you find on the Speakout site shows 10 phones, only 5 are usable on the Speakout network, the rest are really 7-11 playing retailer for other networks. A bit disappointing really. Not sure if it's worth the switch.
6:02 pm
October 14, 2008
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With the handset guide, that is for phones you might find in a 7-Eleven retail store. That's also why it says on the top of the grid "Handset selection varies by location". It is not for the SpeakOut service specifically. That's why it shows phones sold for the SpeakOut network, but also shows phones sold for other networks, such as Virgin, Rogers, and Fido.
