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I'm looking at changing cellphone companies. Presently have Bell. Which one, is the best? I use my phone mostly for either long distance, to home, or for the tow truck.

Rogers could be good for you if you have rogers home phone as well, if you call a rogers to rogers number ( cell to home or home to cell, or toronto to vancouver ) it's free.

Have to give Telus a thumbs up, been with them since 1998 and no hassles, any service or billing issues were handled professionally and promptly.

NefCanuck

NefCanuck,Jan 8 2009, 11:06 AM Wrote:Have to give Telus a thumbs up, been with them since 1998 and no hassles, any service or billing issues were handled professionally and promptly.

NefCanuck
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I'm gonna agree with Nef on this one. I've had a telus line for almost 8 years now and I've had nothing but great service from them.

A minor pet peeve is that compared to most, telus tends to replace the original phone manufacturers user interface with their own that is generally pretty boring, but thats only a minor complaint and if you get a blackberry doesn't apply. Crackberry FTW!

i have been with rogers, bell and now telus, so far i have to say that reception wise, rogers was the best for me no matter what phone i was using it seemed to be superior. only fall back was that it was a bit pricey by comparison. telus i seem to loose signal alot inside of buildings. besides that, i like telus so far and they seem to be good. rogers was good aswell. only ever had a problem with bell.

my experience

Bell -- Works in Algonquin Park -- thank the teacher's union, service otherwise about the same as Rogers

Rogers -- doesn't work in Algonquin park, but works everywhere else. Service is about the same as Bell's (Fido is on the Rogers network, but I think there are some limitations)

Telus -- Great customer service, great reception out in the west and GTA, but not as great outside the GTA.

Tip:
If you want cheap, no contract, and don't mind Telus' more limited coverage area, go with Koodo. They're a Telus brand.

on another note... I have a Rogers Data Stick. It's pretty great within the GTA... I took it to tbay, and only had 128kbps Edge service, but was still able to host a video conference at my grandmother's nursing home with my brother and his family -- tho my brother's family suffered for my poor connection speed.

I've never had an issue with coverage on my Bell phones, I find their service is terrible, resolution services are crap and they make no effort to keep you happy. Currently Rogers has feature rich plans with lower rates.
I made the terrible mistake of renewing my contract instead of letting it run out and threaten to leave them, and let the real incentives roll in.

I have no issue with my work Telus Blacberry in terms of coverage or support. Will consider Telus when I can afford to buy out my contracts. I hear their coverage out west is stellar.

habmann,Jan 8 2009, 11:45 AM Wrote:

NefCanuck,Jan 8 2009, 11:06 AM Wrote:Have to give Telus a thumbs up, been with them since 1998 and no hassles, any service or billing issues were handled professionally and promptly.

NefCanuck
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I'm gonna agree with Nef on this one. I've had a telus line for almost 8 years now and I've had nothing but great service from them.

A minor pet peeve is that compared to most, telus tends to replace the original phone manufacturers user interface with their own that is generally pretty boring, but thats only a minor complaint and if you get a blackberry doesn't apply. Crackberry FTW!
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Ah yes, Telus does tend to "lock down" their phones tighter than most. But that's when you surf the net and find the skeleton key (KRZR K1M + P2KCommander = NefCanuck happily hacking the hell out of his phobe :P)

NefCanuck

I've got 2 BB 8310's with rogers and had previous phones with them for the past 8 years and have had appsolutly no probs and the deals just keep coming. Service is great withe the new Edge and GPRS formates no breaks even in the basement of a 25 story appartment.

Had a Telus phone, but had to get rid of bc no reception in Belleville area, cornwall and Thunder Bay(specially the surronding). Now i'm with Bell and its good with the exception of my basement :)

I guess they all have thier ups/downs.

mo_focus,Jan 9 2009, 03:13 PM Wrote:Had a Telus phone, but had to get rid of bc no reception in Belleville area, cornwall and Thunder Bay(specially the surronding). Now i'm with Bell and its good with the exception of my basement :)

I guess they all have thier ups/downs.
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I always find it odd when people switch from Telus to Bell and find they have better service. Telus phone should switch onto the Bell network of towers when they have no reception from the Telus towers. It was for that reason that if i was going to switch carriers b/c of reception problems I'd switch to Rogers from telus.

oldeguy,Jan 8 2009, 09:46 AM Wrote:I'm looking at changing cellphone companies. Presently have Bell. Which one, is the best? I use my phone mostly for either long distance, to home, or for the tow truck.
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As another thought on this. Do you want to leave Bell b/c you don't like their service/reception? Are you on a contract with Bell?

If you're not set on leaving and your either at the end of a contract or willing to sign a contract then a call to the retention department at bell might be a good idea. Generally as is your case if you're a current customer with bell you can call the retention department and then can offer you plans that aren't listed or necessarily available to a first time buyer. This is what I did with telus when i went from pay and talk to a contract plan and when i switched from my regular cell to a blackberry last year.

habmann,Jan 9 2009, 05:17 PM Wrote:

oldeguy,Jan 8 2009, 09:46 AM Wrote:I'm looking at changing cellphone companies. Presently have Bell. Which one, is the best? I use my phone mostly for either long distance, to home, or for the tow truck.
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As another thought on this. Do you want to leave Bell b/c you don't like their service/reception? Are you on a contract with Bell?

If you're not set on leaving and your either at the end of a contract or willing to sign a contract then a call to the retention department at bell might be a good idea. Generally as is your case if you're a current customer with bell you can call the retention department and then can offer you plans that aren't listed or necessarily available to a first time buyer. This is what I did with telus when i went from pay and talk to a contract plan and when i switched from my regular cell to a blackberry last year.
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I'm looking at changing to Rogers, mostly because of the "my5" feature. I mostly use the cellphone to call my three "kids" all long distance, my wife, when I'm at work, 'cause long distance calls from work phones are PROHIBITED, and my "boss" in Whitby, which again is long distance. I actually have no issues with Bell, except cost. I like one phone from LG, that only Bell carries, so I'll call the retention department tomorrow. Good idea, Thanks!! :o

I have MIKE which is telus and I have telus to telus free. good company had them since 2003 no real problems

Yak Mobile is a good alternative, not affiliated with any of the companies listed above... Not sure if they offer local service in your are a yet but if they don't they could down the road.

I'm working in wireless customers care for Rogers so if y'all have any questions maybe i can help. Ironically i'm still with Bell but as a long time bell customer and now working for rogers wireless, i can tell you there's no real difference in the end. You get treated well sometimes and you get screwed sometimes. It's all part of business.

Maybe if i'm about to quit, you can all give me ur rogers wireless numbers and i'll enter ur account and throw on all those freebies and goodies lol.

cornflakes,Jan 16 2009, 10:31 PM Wrote:I'm working in wireless customers care for Rogers so if y'all have any questions maybe i can help.  Ironically i'm still with Bell but as a long time bell customer and now working for rogers wireless, i can tell you there's no real difference in the end.  You get treated well sometimes and you get screwed sometimes.  It's all part of business.

Maybe if i'm about to quit, you can all give me ur rogers wireless numbers and i'll enter ur account and throw on all those freebies and goodies lol.
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Do u use V21/ICM? Can you open Fido BAN/CTN's as well on your end or are you limited to RWI? Do u have access to Retailweb/Library as well?>

6 years with Bell now, will probably spend another 6 years.

i do a lot of camping, and spend a lot of time away from the city...Bell has never let me down, and I've been is some pretty remote areas.

when bell finally does a full conversion to HSPA, that allows them the Long Term Evolution upgrade path, then they will finally be considered a REAL cell provider, that doesnt give them the advantage though, it brings them finally INLINE with the competition, but not surpassing them, cus they shoulda done this long time ago.