In Australia we call them mobile phones. In North America they call them cell phones. Whatever you call them, they are very handy to have, particularly when you are looking for work or accommodation, and most people probably couldn’t do without one these days. So a phone is probably going to be pretty high on the list for most people coming to Canada on a work permit, and the good news is that they are fairly obtainable. The bad news is that Canadian phone plans tend to suck because there is a monopoly in between three big companies at the moment – Bell, Telus and Rogers. Because of this, the price of using a phone is higher than we’re used to in Australia, and there is some quirks too, like they actually charge you for incoming minutes. Yes, that’s right, if a telesales guy calls you, you have to pay to hear him speak. Still, it’s a necessary evil, and you just have to try and get the best deal.
Choosing the Right Provider
There’s a couple of ways to go about it – bring your own phone and go on a prepaid system, or get a plan and phone bundle.
If you want to bring your own phone, make sure that it is an unlocked, quad band GSM phone, so essentially most of the recent phones that aren’t 3G and do take a SIM card. If you do this then you are limited in your choice of phone provider to pretty much Rogers and their spinoff Fido, as the other two big companies use CDMA phone technology which doesn’t have a SIM card, and you can’t transfer your phone as easily. Sure there are probably other smaller resellers (like the 7 Eleven range, which is supposed to be quite good) out there, but due to how the Canadian licensing program works, they all have to purchase the essence of their plans and network time from one of the big three. You can probably bring your 3G phone across and run it on Rogers (the only company doing 3G at the moment) too, but I haven’t really looked into that yet.
The other alternative is to go on a plan in Canada where you get a free (and crap) phone, and have a monthly plan, but you aren’t locked in. This means that they are good to get while you are working out what you are doing, then you can look at other plans down the track if necessary. The Bell spinoffs Koodo, and Solo both do these plans, and I know of a couple of people who have used them and gotten out of them no problems, myself included.
Getting a Phone
To get a phone is easy, as in most shopping centers you’ll find a booth or shop from most of the bigger vendors out there. It seems to make more sense, though, to go to somewhere that actually has a choice of phones, so if you can find a place that carries two or even all of the big three and their spin off brands, then you will probably get a more balanced view of what is available to you without having to do the legwork of going to each companies shop. A place I have used in Vancouver is Wireless Wave, who carry all three and their spinoffs, and we actually got quite a good deal out of them after lots of umming and aaahing. Actually, that’s a good point – you can always push for a better deal! Or try at least. These guys have booths set up in most Vancouver shopping malls, so if you want you can probably find one near you.
To actually sign up for one of these phones doesn’t actually take much. All you need is a fixed address they can mail your bill too, and a free hour in which to choose your plan and do the paperwork. As mentioned in the looking for work article, you can probably even get a mate to purchase you one before you land, meaning you can get the jump on applying for jobs or whatever you intend to do.
Note: From personal experience you cannot roam in Australia with your Bell CDMA mobile phone, so I assume this would go for their spin off companies Koodo and Solo.
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