I'm currently with Virgin Mobile, and I love it.
I was on a prepaid plan before, but they had a special offer about 2 months ago where if you signed a contract with them, they gave you free called ID + voicemail for your whole contract term.
I'm currently paying $28 a month AFTER taxes. Here is my plan:
MyCrew (5 people)
-Free local talk and text with buddies
- 100 anytime minutes
- 1000 evening/weekend minutes
- free incoming text (for any plan, they have this. Even for prepaid.)
- 3 months unlimited local talk, text and web
- free phone (I got the KAZR -- its awesome)
- free caller ID + voicemail
- no 911 fee or activation fee

Also, to the comment about long distance calling: If the person calls you and you're in Hamilton (and they're on your mycrew) then its free for you to talk to them. If you call them, you'll be charged long distance but not normal airtime minutes. And say they live in Toronto, and you go to Toronto; if you call them (and they're on your mycrew) then its free for you. (I called customer service to clarify this.)

P.S. That limited virgin plan looks really really good. Normally they'll charge you $10 a month if you want 100 minutes for anywhere in Canada.

hey i have the exact same as you, cuppycake! except i'm on a one year contract.
because my "crew" i'm sure is going to be changing once i move in, i'm changing my plan to the myText&Talk, for the same price. it includes:
- unlimited evenings and weekends (7pm-7am)
- unlimied texting
- 100 local daytime minutes

it's still gonna be $25 a month, cause i got mine on the promotion day as well (free caller id, voicemail, etc...)

That's really nice of them to not charge you the extra $10 a month for caller Id and voicemail.

As far as the crew goes, I find that I only really talk to 5 people a few hours a day. But anyways, I thought you can change your 5 numbers once a month?
Is that still not enough numbers for you? xD

Hey I was thinking about switching to Virgin. But I'm not sure if they had sim cards. My one friend works at Virgin and she says that Virgin doesn't use sim cards, and I just find it odd that they won't because -- how would it work?
So yeah I was wondering if Virgin sold sim cards, coz I already have a phone, and I want to use their plans..

Thanks!

Virgin mobile, telus and bell dont use sim cards. each phone has an individual number assigned to it caled an ESN and thats what they use in place of a sim. If you wanted a virgin plan you'd need to buy a virgin phone

Just to add to that - only GSM phones (like Rogers & Fido) use SIM cards. CDMA phones (like Virgin, Telus, & Bell) don't - it's just part of the underlying technology behind the network.

okay soooo the canadian system is still confusing to me. but i get it now! - at least more than before -- so cippi, what are the other GSM phone available? is it just rogers and fido?

At the moment, the only two GSM providers in Canada are Rogers and Fido, yes. Within the next year or so, probably at least 2 new companies will be setting up here as well (using GSM), and giving them some much-needed competition.

As a technology, CDMA is a dead end (it's no longer being developed and is only used widely in North America), so Bell and Telus will have to eventually transition their networks over to GSM (or its successor, known currently as LTE). GSM is used by about 80% of the cell networks in the world, so in a way we're playing catch-up. I'm sure the phone manufacturers will also be very happy once they don't have to make multiple versions of the same phone anymore for different network technologies.

Hahah good point. And yeah, in my home country we used GSM phones Thanks now I know more about this hahah - without having to research yay!

thank youuuu

Thats the crap thing about Telus, Bell and Virgin. CDMA phones aren't exactly the easiest thing to find, like on eBay and stuff, when you wanna buy a phone. So when you get a phone with Telus, Bell and Virgin, don't expect it to be a walk in a park when it coems to switching phones. I know my friends on Rogers switch their phones lkike crazyyyy. GSM phones are the norm everywhere else, like what Cippi said.. not sure why it's taking us so long to catch up.

Just a note for everyone, I'm not sure if it has been mentioned or not, but the SIDEWALK SALE which takes place during welcome week has a lot of cell phone providers (rogers, fido, etc) and they are all offering crazy discounted plans to attract students. Usually a good time to go and get a new plan because they lower them really low to compete with the other cell booths

Hey does anyone know if Speakout Wireless from 7-11 is any good?

This is this months promo:

http://speakout7eleven.ca/



Rates

Talk for as little as 20¢/minute; text for 5¢. And with SpeakOut, your time is yours, good for a full 365 days, and any unused time rolls over when you buy more. Airtime can be purchased in 4 denominations. Check ‘em out.

$100 up to 500 minutes 20¢/minute*
$75 up to 375 minutes 20¢/minute*
$50 up to 200 minutes 25¢/minute
$25 up to 100 minutes 25¢/minute

Like everybody, you want to get what you pay for. Well, SpeakOut goes one better. Not only do you get what you pay for, you get what you don’t pay for.Voice Mail – FREE**
Caller ID - FREE
Call Waiting – FREE
Three-Way Calling – FREE**
NO system access fee
NO waiting – SpeakOut phones are fully charged and ready to use, instantlyIt’s true, some things are not included with SpeakOut:
NO CONTRACTS, NO COMMITMENTS, NO STRINGS.

THANKS

Well, it uses the Rogers GSM network, so anywhere Rogers/Fido has coverage, so will you. As for the plans, they're all prepaid, and seem to be designed for people who don't talk on the phone all that much - 20 cents a minute adds up pretty fast.

Phones and plans like this are actually ideal for light users, precisely because you don't have to pay a normal monthly rate - in theory, you could have phone service for $100 for the entire year if you don't talk more than 500 minutes, which is way better value than you could get with any of the traditional plans from the big carriers. Start using it a lot, though, and you may soon be paying more than a monthly plan.

It all depends on how you plan to use the phone!

Oh, I'll also just add that low-cost providers like this never have the newest phones with all the bells and whistles, but if you're content with a basic handset that is useful for mostly just making calls, then I'd consider it.

Just to give a picture, most monthly plans are 25$ a month, which means 300$ a year. So unless you use 1500 minutes a year, you're saving money.

I found this on HowardForums:

I have a oakville number with starting with 905-616, there are also other numbers taht start with 289 area code. Basically all students in Hamilton Mcmaster that are from toronto have this oakville number and this is how it works and has been working:

1) Incomming calls to your 905-616 or 289 number you will not get charged for whether you are in Hamilton or GTA

2) The only instance you get charged long distance is if you are in Hamilton and Dialing a Toronto Number or you are in Toronto and dialing a Hamilton number.

3) Of course like you normally can, when you are in Hamilton you can call hamilton numbers as it is local, and when in GTA you can call toronto numbers as it is local

I and many many other students have been using an oakville number for years now without any charges when receiving calls in both Toronto and Hamilton.