Cell & Regular Phone Stuff

ACE LONG DISTANCE CARDS: Ace Long distance calling cards available at some Toronto variety stores seem like a good deal at $5. or less for calling, at typically 1 cent per minute throughout North America, BUT there are some major catches that might frustrate you like they did me. The card is only good for 8 weeks after it's activated & 1 year after you buy it. If you phone in to test the pin number without using it, they consider that activation & the countdown begins. The tape over the pin number is difficult to remove & the pin numbers underneath are hard to read. Occasionally when there was still less than a dollar on the card & the two months weren't up, the message said there wasn't sufficient funds when there was. I've had values go down, even when I wasn't using the card, which has turned out to be a 21 cent a week administration fee. I live in London Ontario & lots of times in the evenings the trunk lines are busy & the recording asks you to call back. Initially when I used this card, the quality of the line was so staticy that it was annoying to talk to somebody. There doesn't appear to be very many Canadian cities you can use this card from. All things considered, I do not think ACE calling cards are worth the frustration. Use some other long distance carrier, this one just has too many problems.

CANADIAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION has a do not contact service that you can register for if you are getting unsolicited phone calls. You might also try the TELEZAPPER.

Steve Punter's Southern Ontario Cell Phone Page has reviews of some cell phone models, maps of cell site towers in your area so you can get a better picture of which cell carrier might give better coverage & many other technical articles on cell phones.

GOLDLINE LONG DISTANCE: Goldline DCall long distance account for Canadians, only 3.33 cents (not including tax) a minute to anywhere in Canada, U.S.A. or Briton. You don't pay a monthly fee, administration or other hidden fee, or sign a contract & you don't have to guess how much long distance you're going to use each month. You charge up your account (via credit card over the internet or by phone) & you can use the minutes whenever you want from up to 8 different phone numbers (including your cell), or from any phone (by using a pin number). Your account balance credit doesn't expire at the end of the month. I've used this for quite some time now & I'm quite pleased with this plan. Last updated August 28 2006

WINTEL CALL 25: $0.25 CDN per call anywhere in Canada or the U.S. regardless of length of call (flat rate). There is no contract & originally no monthly service fee, but in the first quarter of 2006 Wintel implemented a $2.95 per month "network" charge, which takes away from this being such a great plan. You must allow WinTel to assign them as your long distance carrier. Once signed up (can take up to a week to initiate) you use a 7 digit local access number to reach WintTel, then you dial your 10 digit long distance number (without the 1 in front). The only catches are that if you fail to use the local access number, you pay by the minute & if you dial outside North America you pay by the minute. Obviously if you reach an answering machine or make a really short call, you still pay $0.25 CDN per call, which helps WinTel average out the cost & offer such a low price. What I sometimes do to find out if the person is in & available, is phone using the Goldline Long Distance plan mentioned above (4 cents per minute), then I phone back using WinTel. Last updated March 21/2006

CELL ACCESS FEES: If you own a cell phone in Canada, you've probably noticed that you pay at least an extra $6.95 plus tax each month for access fees & that the access fee has gone up in recent years, even though the CRTC reduced the portion of this fee they charge to the cell phone companies. The access fee is comprised of 3 things, the usage fee for the frequencies which the CRTC dramatically reduced to 1.3% in 2001, a contribution equalization regime to help pay for phone coverage in remote areas & for system upgrades. Any way you cut it, the access fee should be substantially less than it is according to my conversation with the CRTC, but the CRTC has deregulated this area, so the cell phone companies took advantage of that & hiked access fees rather than lower them (a money grab). See what CBC Marketplace has to say about access fees.

FIDO CELL PHONE IS THE BEST IN LONDON: My wife & I have had cell phones from all 4 of the Canadian cellular providers (Bell, Telus, Rogers/ATT & Fido) in Ontario Canada & we have surprisingly found that at least for local use in London Ontario, FIDO is clearly the best cell phone to have. The FIDO network seems to work in almost every corner of every mall in London, which is something none of the other 3 major brands do (we did extensive testing in the spring of 2002 & the fall of 2003). The Fido digital cell network outside major cities is quite limited or non existent, but Fido's advantage is that it works better than the other 3 cellular carriers in major cities. For rural coverage outside main cities, analog coverage is available (uses Bell cell sites) but there is only 1 model phone that Fido offers (Nokia 6340 for $125 - $300.) that can handle both digital & analogue areas, plus there is an extra per minute charge of $0.20 for analogue areas. For us London is where 99% of our cell usage takes place & we now have well over a year of much happier reception using a Fido cell phone, than we did with the hit & miss "dead zone" coverage of Bell, Telus or Rogers ATT. Fido uses the advanced GSM digital method used in Europe & is the only Canadian cell phone company offering models that will also work in Europe. Fido also is the only Canadian cell network to offer "per second" billing instead of rounding calls up to the minute. Last updated October 21/2003. Update fall 2004, Rogers bought out Fido & while some services will merge, for now they continue to operate as separate companies. However I have noticed my cell phone changes to analogue mode more often now that the Rogers & Fido towers have merge & analogue mode drains the battery much quicker. Fido now being owned by Rogers has already resulted in 1 price increase, even though initial literature said there would be no change. I can no longer recommend Fido as an excellent cell phone company now that it is merged with Rogers.

CELL PHONES MIGHT CAUSE BRAIN CANCER: Cell manufacturers & service providers really don't want you to know that the radio frequency that your cell phone transmits might cause brain cancer if using several hundred minutes per month. It is very much an unknown what various radio frequencies can to do human tissue when the transmitter is in very close proximity. Some European preliminary tests have shown that nearly all people with brain cancer who also use cell phones extensively, have the brain cancer on the same side of their head as they hold their cell phone to. Cell manufacturers say the tests are statistically insignificant, but I believe these tests may be an early indicator that radio transmissions from cell phones might cause cancer. If you want to minimize your exposure & you need to talk a lot on a cell phone, buy a cell phone where the antenna sticks out on an angle at the back of the phone away from your head, which reduces how much of the radio frequency gets transmitted into your head. Alternately, buy a headset for your phone so you can set the cell phone on a table away from your body, which dramatically reduces how much radio frequency goes through your body. Sept. 2003 Read CBC Marketplace article on cell phones also see CNN article.

Beware of shortcomings in Telus (formerly Clearnet) cellular services.

TELEPHONE LINE ISOLATORS: Telephone line isolators such as the Omega JackaBee (model OT120B) sold at Wal-Mart (3 for $24.36 CDN), are designed to put one on each phone in your home, to prevent you from picking up the phone, fax or modem & interrupting someone who is already having a conversation on another extension of that line. They seem to do the job, except that I found that they also inadvertently block out "call display" on most brands of phones. Additionally, if you answer the phone on one phone & put it on "hold" so someone else can pick it up on an extension phone, the extension phone is dead & can't access the caller. January 28/2001.

IN-USE INDICATOR LIGHTS ON PHONES: We recently purchased several new cordless & corded phones for our home, all with an "in use" indicator light which we thought would light whenever someone was on an extension phone, so we wouldn't need isolation filters. Unfortunately the light only lights when that particular phone is in use, which isn't much help. Some days you just can't win. January 28/2001.

Also see Computer stuff & opinions.

By Doug Hembruff.