You're right in getting a Canadian prepaid instead of using your US phone since the roaming charges will kill ya.

Whichever prepaid company you go with, the long distance will work as follows:

If you get a Vancouver number, and you are in Vancouver and call another Vancouver number = local

If you have a Vancouver number, and you are in Vancouver, and call a Toronto number = long distance for you

Vancouver number, you are in Vancouver, and someone calls you (doesn't matter where they are calling from) = local for you

Vancouver number, you are in Toronto, and you call a Vancouver number = long distance

Vancouver number, you are in Toronto, and you call a Toronto number = local

Vancouver number, you are in Toronto, and someone calls you (doesn't matter where they are calling from) = long distance for you (and the other person as well, if they are not calling from Vancouver)

Example: If you are in Toronto, and you have a Vancouver number, and your friend who is right beside you picks up a payphone and calls your Vancouver number, it will be a long distance call for your friend AND for you.

The good news is that 7-11 Speakout and PetroCanada mobility have some of the cheapest long distance rates available for prepaid cellphones (but they are still pricey compared to home phones). The long distance rate for Speakout is $.45/min ($.25 reg. phone rate + $.20 long distance), but the 'effective' rate when you purchase a $75 or $100 airtime card is $.36/min ($.20 reg. airtime + $.16 long distance). The difference in rates is the new wacky speakout math since they offer different rates when purchasing larger top-up cards.

PetroCan Mobility's long distance rates are less expensive at $.30/min ($.20 reg. phone rate + $.10 long distance). But PetroCan doesn't have that "Get $75 off a phone when you buy $100 airtime" deal that Speakout has, but at least you can buy a phone from PetroCan for only $50 and they buy whatever airtime you need.

After playing with the numbers my guess is that if you plan on using less than $40 of airtime (133 minutes = 6 minutes per day average on your trip) then PetroCan is the way to go. If you think you'll use more, then go with Speakout.

(BTW, the reason I used $40 as the cut-off point is because if you bought a $50 phone card from PetroCan with your phone the cost would be the same as the SpeakOut deal, but you'd get less minutes. If you only need to buy 2 x $20 phone cards from PetroCan if will cost less. Plus you may not even need to buy the second one)

Big Ang: thanks a lot for the thorough explanation, that's exactly what I want to know esp. the case where I'm in in toronto using vancouver number and someone called me. I don't actualy care about the phone itself since I can bring my own unlocked phone but seems that I cannot just buy the sim card itself either from petrocan or 7-Eleven speakout?

Moreover, according to the petrocan website, you can only use petro-can mobile phone to use their sim card:
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Do I need a Petro-Canada mobile phone to use this service or can I use a phone from another mobile carrier?
Yes, you must be using a Petro-Canada Mobility branded mobile phone. We do not support the use of other handsets.

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Also, how about other carrier that charge $1/day and allow to get free unlimited incoming calls? or I think that doesn't apply when you travel outside the local area eh?

Also, I'm planning to forward my U.S. number to my GrandCentral account (that has U.S. local number) that will forward to my new prepaid cell in canada so I can receive calls too when someone call me at my U.S. number. Will that plan work though?

Once again, I really appreciate your help so far!

I'm in Toronto and have 2 diffrent grand central numbers as well as a magicjack number forwarded to my cell where I have free incoming so you will have no problem forwarding to Canada other than the fact that you will have to pay for your incoming calls. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

For both SpeakOut and PetroCan you will have to buy the phone and SIM together.

Violato,

Even though SpeakOut and PetroCan mobility are run by the same company, you cannot use PetroCan airtime with a SpeakOut phone and vice versa.