In December 2007, I put $105 on my Speakout phone. (it was the free phone deal, which comes with $5 of airtime). It currently has $34 on it now. Works out to about 9 bucks a month. I’d say one call a day and a couple of texts is about average for me too.
$9 won’t even cover voicemail, caller ID, system access fee, and 911 fee on most “plans” that lock you into a contract. And I can swap the SIM into any phone I want at any time.
Speakout just gave me a $25 credit for pointing out that Port Edward / Prince Rupert number thing to them. How awesome
Of course, I put it on Pam’s phone, since she seems to use it more than I do.
Hey MiG, so the Esso/7-11 in town is getting the Speakout Phones? That’s amazing, the plans available with Speakout seem so much better than the plans offered at East Wind
and, if I were to buy $100 in air time, I would get a Free Cell Phone with it?
whoa!
and the air time lasts a whole year? :S
that’s amazing! to tell the truth, 'cause $30 lasted me 2 weeks with the Rogers Unlimited Night / Weekends, and After 6 PM plan
you’ve made a believer out of me, I think I’ll be switching over!
so, can I buy $100 in air time from Esso / 7-11 (then get the free cell phone???..) then put the Speakout SIM card in my Motorola Rzr V3 and use that? with the $100 in air time?
I e-mailed and asked when they would be available in Prince Rupert. They responded saying Speakout phones work here, but unfortunately, they can’t seem to get Prince Rupert phone numbers, so they can’t sell them at the Prince Rupert 7-11.
I responded telling them that they can assign Port Edward numbers (250-600-xxxx) just like Rogers, and they will work just fine in Prince Rupert. They replied that they looked into it, and I was right. They are setting it up, and sending the phones to the local Prince Rupert 7-11 store. They gave me a $25.00 credit as a thank you.
So perhaps the local store people don’t know they’re coming yet, because perhaps when they ordered them, they asked for Prince Rupert numbers.
But the national 7-11 people know they’re coming for sure.
Anyway, another option is just to get a friend in Vancouver or Prince George to pick one up for you, and dial 611 and change the number to Port Edward. My first Speakout phone was bought by a friend in Vancouver. I kept the Vancouver number until the Rogers Prince Rupert launch day, then I called and asked for a Port Edward number and they switched me to a 600-xxxx number. My second Speakout phone (Pam’s), I bought myself in Vancouver, and switched to a 600-xxxx number.
So keep checking, they’ll show up eventually.
Another thing to look into is the PetroCanada service. They offer the same kind of deal as well, but I haven’t checked to see if PetroCanada here carries the phones. If not, it’s probably the same reason – they don’t realize they can use Port Edward numbers.
A couple of months back when we first started discussing this stuff I checked in at Petro Canada. At the time they did not carry them. As for the local 7-11, I’m not the least bit surprised they wouldn’t know they are getting the phones. They will probably just show up one day without them expecting them.
Who wants to contact the local PetroCanada people and ask them to bring in the phones? They need to order Port Edward numbers is all.
For some people the PetroCanada deal is better than 7-11, since you can use Petropoints to pay for minutes. Only the $100 top-up lasts a year, though. The lower amounts last 6 months (all top-ups last a year on the 7-11 one).
Other than that, it’s the same as the 7-11 deal, except no free phone. But the phones are cheaper, I hear. It’s run by the same people who run the 7-11 Speakout service.
MiG can you text with those plans? and can you browse the internet? are you using your G3 as a phone yet? I just update my itouch to 2.0.2 firmware and used qiuckPwnGui tp unlock it…
I just checked my phone and I have 780 min of usage since I had it, since Dec My god when this contract is up I’m selling it or hack the crap out of it there are a lot of cooked roms I want to try on it…LOL
I had a virgin phone ( pay as you go ) when I moved here. It worked great in Van City
I could talk, text , access the net, Send video and stills. They ( Virgin ) piggy backed on the Bell network. When I moved to town a little while ago I lost the ability to talk on it, I could still text and email etc. But I had to go to Port Ed to answer my voice mail or make a phone call on it. The Virgin reps could not for the life of them figure it out. They insist it should work no problem. I asked City west what was up and they basicaly laughed at me. Does any one have a clue as to why this would happen?
