Found it! My cheap canada cellphone spreadsheet I created 4 months ago,
Compared costs for the following scenarios:- 500MB data/month, 100 texts, 30 minutes of calling
- 500MB data, 100 texts, 60minutes of calling
- 750 MB Data, 100 texts, 60 minutes of calling
NOTE --we dont talk on the phone very much, so unlimited minutes plans are of little value... YMMV
And I looked at average costs as well as that twice a year "we spiked over our limit" and how easy each plan was to limit the impact. e.g., a booster pack that expires is very easy to control, but a monthly plan that charges (a lot!) more automatically is not.
I looked at monthly plans, but with the limited calling time I was interested in, I limited it to Pre paid very quickly.
Cell Companies Researched:
-----------argh stupid list feature--- there is no meaning to my indents---Results;
BEST for Moderate DATAKoodo was by far the cheapest on a monthly basis, up to 500MB of data use a month. Koodo uses a data pak, so the data and minutes never expire, and has a $15 monthly base fee for unlimited texting. Koodo drops to under $20/month very quickly for any month that you use it less (e.g. vacation to the USA), so if you have some short months, you get the instant benefit of it. It is my kids plan, as for $15/mo they can be always connected, yet let it run out of minutes and data and just "boost" as they want to prior to an event.
Average Cost:
$18.50 per month (30 min/mo of talk); $33/mo average. (60 min/mo.) -But, the monthly
cost spikes if data averages 750 MB /mo. to $55.50/monthBest for Lots of Data, with talkingPublic Mobile. has pretty much a
constant $40 per month cost, for unlimited text, talk and 4 GB data, if you buy 90 day packs at a time. This is extra great as the minutes are for 90 days, and do not expire after every 30 days, so you can really use get your use out of them.
It also has the cheapest extra data purchase cost at $10 per 200 MB good for 90 days. And that is prompted, so you get to decide if you want to have that cost or not, it is not a surprise.
Downside is that $120 per 3 months is pretty locked in, if you don't use your phone much for a couple of months, you won't get the benefit of it ($ back).
Others have mentioned Wind.
WINDI did not review them previously, as they are not in good coverage for us, so looked it up just now. Wind prepaid (DATA over 750MB) is
$35/month for unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data. This is the price point for all my scenarios above, as data under this costs $5/100MB to a max of $30/mo. However their big data offer is only $40 per month for 3GB of data + 2GB bonus data.
So Wind is very comparable to the Public Mobile positioning until the bonus runs out, or if you only want 2GB data, is $5 /month better. BUT I believe it is a 30 day plan package, so you can't share data across months. I know that we have a "mega" month of data (say we are stuck on an Ferry and the kids are bored and we download utube for them), and then a very light month (where we are usually in wifi zones). So the ability to spread the data across different months is a big saver for us. Otherwise with WIND, and even a 2GB data plan, we could be faced with an extra $20/mo of data charges a couple times per year.
Not included in the evaluation: watch out for coverage service and cost for US calling (you may do better with a separate long distance calling plan). We don't call the US from our cellphones, and coverage is either as "yes or no" type gate decision, once we narrow the cost options down.
And yes,
bring your own unlocked phone. Go buy a chinese version that is compatible and wait for the import delay (6-8 weeks) and save a few hundred dollars.
For our US counterparts -- do these cell phone rates look scary? Note that these are the CHEAPEST plans available.
ETA: 7-11 Speakout was not even close to the cheapest anymore (it used to be). Instead for a basic "emergency" phone or short duration PetroCan phone starts at $8 per month for zero standby usage.... goes up quickly from there to $20/mo.[/list][/list][/list]