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Unlocked Asian Purchase
April 1, 2010
9:29 am
apple2pie
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purchased and used an unlocked nokia while visiting thailand....

will be returning home shortly to northern ontario (no seven-11 in home city but en route will drive by seven-elevens in the same area code:705))...

can i purchase a sim card without having to buy a handset...

any input as how to proceed would be appreciated...

cheers
steve

April 1, 2010
9:33 am
bridonca
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No. 7 eleven does not sell the sims separately. You can get a fido sim for $10 on ebay, the same with rogers. A used 7-11 sim goes for about $30

April 1, 2010
1:38 pm
andreww
Toronto
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You can get the sim/phone for about $100. That may seem like a lot, but with that you will be receiving $55 in airtime. So in essence you are buying the SIM for $45.

April 1, 2010
2:10 pm
iamdrumming
Niagara Falls
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You didn't say which Nokia you bought in Thailand, but it would have to be an unlocked quad-band phone to work with SpeakOut in Canada. Canada uses the 850/1900 bands, while Thailand uses the 900/1800 bands.

April 2, 2010
1:50 am
apple2pie
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andreww said:

You can get the sim/phone for about $100. That may seem like a lot, but with that you will be receiving $55 in airtime. So in essence you are buying the SIM for $45.


so andreww, would i have been better off purchasing a cheaper used phone, instead of spending $100 while in thailand and then waited until i returned to canada and gone the sim/phone for a $100....

April 2, 2010
6:21 pm
andreww
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No, not saying that at all. To get on the Speakout network you need a Speakout SIM. As they don't sell the SIM separately, you need to buy a Speakout phone, remove the SIM and trash the phone. Currently the cheapest method is to buy the Nokia 1661 + $50 pone card, and get $20 off the phone. WIth tax it comes to about $100, and the SIM comes with $5 dollars on it. Activate the phone, then throw the SIM in your phone and you are good to go. You've spent $100, but you've gotten $55 worth of airtime. So the SIM cost $45.

7-11/Speakout is a great service, but their selection of phones is pretty weak.Not sure what phone you got in Thailand, so I can't really comment as to how good a move that was.

April 2, 2010
10:43 pm
apple2pie
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andreww said:

7-11/Speakout is a great service, but their selection of phones is pretty weak.Not sure what phone you got in Thailand, so I can't really comment as to how good a move that was.


we purchased nokia 2730 for just under a $100...

April 3, 2010
5:52 am
iamdrumming
Niagara Falls
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The Nokia 2730 is a quad-band phone, so it will work with SpeakOut in Canada. It might be cheaper for you to find a sim card in the Phone Exchange part of this site, rather that buy the whole package at a 7-Eleven store. SpeakOut sim cards regularly come up for sale on this site.

April 4, 2010
8:41 am
46jimbo
Toronto
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I'm with those who suggest taking advantage of the current 7-Eleven promotion.

Buy the cheapest phone for $39 ($59 - $20), take out the sim and use it in your new phone. As the sim comes with $5 credit on it, it works out to around the same price as buying a used sim off someone on this forum.