Bell = Huge deal for Canada

[trainguy77]

Sorry, but it was entirely government related, and according to CBC I was correct as well. Besides the fact that Skype didn't offer 911 support (see article), it was also used an audio codex that was (at the time) restricted by the government.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/08/skype-iphone.html

Yeah I heard about the audio codec listening issue. It doesn't say the government restricted the codec.

And yeah it mentions 911. But since skype still doesn't offer e911 I wonder how they got around that. It seems fishy. Either way its hear and I am glad.

 

[milani]

Yeah I heard about the audio codec listening issue. It doesn't say the government restricted the codec.

And yeah it mentions 911. But since skype still doesn't offer e911 I wonder how they got around that. It seems fishy. Either way its hear and I am glad.

I think that in the case of 911 compliance the law was simply changed or a distinction was drawn between voip and regular voice communications. And I agree, I'm also glad it's here (officially!).

 

[Demosthenes X]

LOL. Good luck to you actually getting Bell to honour anything they say. I had Bell service very briefly, and although I was quoted $60/month, my bills were consistently $100 a month. Not because of anything I did, because the reps straight up lied to me when I signed up.

You can call and complain to them, and they might waive some fees here and there, but have fun spending hours ever month on the phone with India telling them they're wrong, while they read a script to you.

Bell is, bar none, the worst company in Canada for customer service. Their plans are very attractive price wise... but they won't honour them. They know you'll give up calling every month and complaining because they've screwed up the bill.

And FWIW, I'll bet even money that plan will not be available on the iPhone when it launches. Bell's website describes it specifically as a BlackBerry plan, and your "unlimited data" carries the usual BB fine print of "Unlimited data for personal email, instant messaging & Internet browsing". I'll wager that doesn't include the iPhone's browser, only WAP browsers.

 

[trainguy77]

LOL. Good luck to you actually getting Bell to honour anything they say. I had Bell service very briefly, and although I was quoted $60/month, my bills were consistently $100 a month. Not because of anything I did, because the reps straight up lied to me when I signed up.

You can call and complain to them, and they might waive some fees here and there, but have fun spending hours ever month on the phone with India telling them they're wrong, while they read a script to you.

Bell is, bar none, the worst company in Canada for customer service. Their plans are very attractive price wise... but they won't honour them. They know you'll give up calling every month and complaining because they've screwed up the bill.

And FWIW, I'll bet even money that plan will not be available on the iPhone when it launches. Bell's website describes it specifically as a BlackBerry plan, and your "unlimited data" carries the usual BB fine print of "Unlimited data for personal email, instant messaging & Internet browsing". I'll wager that doesn't include the iPhone's browser, only WAP browsers.

Not only that. When added up based on the website as I did in my previous post its the exact same price as rogers.

 

[milani]

I'm sure that both companies recognize that it's not in their best interest to drive down prices.

 

[goosnarrggh]

you have to PAY for 911?! That should be illegal. Thank God we have the FCC in the US i guess that's one important great thing here....

In Nova Scotia (that's the only jurisdiction I can speak about directly), there is a mandatory $0.43 911 monthly fee, levied by the provincial government, against every registered phone line in the province. This fee goes towards paying operating costs of the regional 911 call centres.

Some prepaid or discount carriers may choose to absorb that fee so that the customer doesn't see it directly - but the fee is most definitely still there.

In addition, some carriers might decide to milk you by charging a separate 911 access fee that doesn't go towards actually running the 911 system at all, but rather as a way for the carrier to recover some of the costs they incur in providing unlimited calling minutes to 911. These fees are not mandatory by any governmental decree, but rather are imposed by the carriers themselves. In Nova Scotia, Roger's fee for this is $0.50 per month.

So, to be a Rogers postpaid customer in Nova Scotia, you are paying $0.93 per month, plus tax, for 911 service. Sales tax is a uniform 13% throughout the entire province (no city or county sales taxes as I think is sometimes the case in the USA), so the total is more like $1.05 per month.

That being said, you always have 911 service, even if your account is in arrears. Heck, you still get 911 service on a GSM phone even if you pull the SIM card out of the phone entirely so that it isn't connected to any service at all. Similarly, you still get 911 service on a CDMA phone even if the phone has been deactivated and the associated account has been closed.

 

[foreignconcepts]

LOL. Good luck to you actually getting Bell to honour anything they say. I had Bell service very briefly, and although I was quoted $60/month, my bills were consistently $100 a month. Not because of anything I did, because the reps straight up lied to me when I signed up.

You can call and complain to them, and they might waive some fees here and there, but have fun spending hours ever month on the phone with India telling them they're wrong, while they read a script to you.

Bell is, bar none, the worst company in Canada for customer service. Their plans are very attractive price wise... but they won't honour them. They know you'll give up calling every month and complaining because they've screwed up the bill.

And FWIW, I'll bet even money that plan will not be available on the iPhone when it launches. Bell's website describes it specifically as a BlackBerry plan, and your "unlimited data" carries the usual BB fine print of "Unlimited data for personal email, instant messaging & Internet browsing". I'll wager that doesn't include the iPhone's browser, only WAP browsers.

INDIA? Hardly, you've just got some punk kids from Moncton!