Hi to all members !!

I am newly coming to Canada as a student to Peterborough , Ontario .

Please advise on which mobile phone to buy : durable , quad band or tri , robust battery life , economical , atleast 1.3 megapixel in built camera , bluetooth ,
good memory space for storing pictures and songs , functional and robust , no other frills needed , good display and simple keypad with accessories like hands free and charger , budget maximum 350 Canadian Dollars

I only want a pre-paid connection and pre-paid SIM number in central ontario . Please advise which companies in Ontario give pre-paid connections without hidden costs and customer averse conditions ...


please advise where to buy this from in Toronto maybe at Best Buy ?????

thanks in advance
yours Angelina

nokia 6300 is your best friend
its tri-american-band (850/1800/1900)
has 2mp camera
has 256 mb microSD/TranSflash
300 regular price (prepaid or monthly)
blue tooth compatible
comes with wired stereo headset for talking while driving
Regretibly... Only From Fido!

I am surpised, Paulo, with your Fido recommendation since Peterborough is outside the Fido service area. Angelina will need to add the expanded service zone option which will drive her monthly cost significantly higher. Also, Fido's much advertised "by the second billing" does not apply to prepaid accounts.

And if she is looking to buy locally in Peterborough, she will be out of luck. I imagine only Rogers has in-store shopping for GSM in Peterborough. On-line shopping is of course an option IF she has established a Canadian credit card account but that's not likely to be the case for a student coming to Canada. [I am reminded of the problems faced by a friend who moved to Los Angeles last year to teach at California State U - no one would talk to him about setting up a mobile phone account, cable TV or internet service until he had at least one USA issued credit card AND the banks wouldn't issue him a credit card until he had several months banking history. This was a PhD holder with a prior employment history of a decade in banking and he was screwed around by the "system".] Once Angleina has established a relationship with a Canadian bank and been issued a Canadian credit card, she should be able to sign-up for automatically renewing air-time for Rogers and pay as little as 12 cents a minute for her calls.

I'm no expert on the features of all the handsets on offer, but there should be a good unit from Rogers and Angelina could get around the limited Fido network problem. I am very happy with my Motorola Razr V3, which has everything she wants and is only $169 from Rogers, including a leather case and belt clip (Telus and Bell want about $30 for the case). I am most happy that the signal and voice quality are so much better on Rogers than I experienced with Telus (using the phone mostly in the GTA and southwestern Ontario).

If she wants to be on a GSM network, but is willing to forego a few features, Angelina also has a couple of re-seller options: PetroCanada Mobility and 7-11 Wireless which both operate on the full Rogers network (essentially the only GSM network in Canada) and offer very attractive per-minute rates. A visit to the websites will provide all the information about the various phone features and if any meet her requirements.

You will be better off buying an unlocked gsm phone where ever you are and bringing it here. Buying unlocked cell phones here are extremely expensive compared to the rest of world. Just make sure the phone has at least one of the two gsm bands that rogers uses.

I'm on pre-paid and I would advise against Fido with their 15day expirary time limit if you use the minimum top up amount.