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8:19 am
April 23, 2011
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I haven't really compared "real" vs "metered" amounts, but I have found that over three months I have not come close to running into 100MB. I've used 28 MB, 17MB and am on track to use less than 35 MB this cycle (all found by dialing *777*4# to get dollar and MB balance). I have been much less diligent in turning off cell-data when not needed due to data limits and now just do so to limit battery usage. I have turned off many of the apps' access to cell data however, which might help.
- johann
2:50 pm
May 3, 2011
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Have to agree. Don't use the tablet much in winter but when I have there's been much lower Mb data charged than I expected. Way lower. But still, it's a lousy package and once we get to May I'm getting a Telus tablet plan and will use that going forward, far more economical.
6:50 pm
March 30, 2014
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Sorry if this has been discussed somewhere already, but I didn't see it if it has.
If I were to pick up the new data plan, could I then use the Speakout data plan to connect to a service that provides VoIP and data-texting so that I'm not using Speakout's phone number, minutes, or texting? I'm talking about something like Fongo. Ideally I'd like to get a cheap data-only plan so I could ditch my phone plan and just use VoIP/text over data, but I want to make sure that's even a possible option for Speakout before I put money into it. Thanks.
8:01 pm
October 25, 2009
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The feasability of using VOIP has been discussed here before, and I tried it a lot using CSIPsimple with both my Freephoneline and VOIP.ms accounts and the results are pretty spotted for any bandwidth. It is pretty much agreed that if your data plan is slower than LTE, you will not be very happy with it. As well, there is a very informative previous post here that gives a cost comparison of using your data plan for VOIP compared to voice minutes. As I recall, while it is cheaper to use VOIP via your data plan, it is not as much of a money saver as you might hope for. In my own case, while I thought it was cool to have an unlimited conversation with a friend from Vancouver who called my home (VOIP) line and I answered it while hiking up a mountain, the reality is once the cool factor wears off, the voice quality means that anyone beyond your friends and family are not going to tolerate the trade off in quality for very long.
9:44 pm
June 6, 2009
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TSellers said:
The feasability of using VOIP has been discussed here before, and I tried it a lot using CSIPsimple with both my Freephoneline and VOIP.ms accounts and the results are pretty spotted for any bandwidth.
I agree with TSellers. I have CSlip with voip.ms on my cellphone. I paid the premium for .729 codec too. I'm on Telus with LTE but it's not usable for voip. Call quality is not suitable for business and for calls to family I end up calling back as a cell call. Voip over wifi at a hotel or at a coffee shop doesn't work well either. Generally I haven't found voip on a smartphone usable. However Skype over LTE data works fine and call quality is very usable so you may consider that. I haven't tried Skype voice with SpeakOut data yet.
Texting over data (Text Plus or WhatsApp) should work fine. Stikr201, for $10 you can give data a try for a month and see if works for you.
UPDATE. Found a tip to disable echo cancellation in the voip app on the smartphone. That seemed to help, voice carried more consistently without the gaps in speech. I will test some more, if it holds up, voip over LTE may work after all (this is on Telus, will try on our phone on the Speakout plan).
2:07 am
April 25, 2014
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The recent comments about VoIP over data, above, are not encouraging. I use VoIP over Wi-Fi and it works well, but I need it to work over a cell network, too. Also, I highly recommend Text+ for texting to real phone numbers, too.
I have a now unlocked hotspot from Roam Mobility and am looking for a data plan. In Canada, this is *very* expensive. Some phone companies only supply data if you subscribe to a monthly plan. I don't need that, so I still only use pay-as-I-go through Speakout. I need data as pay-as-I-go, too. I am afraid that the search for that here will be futile.
Wind's data might work; Roger's data is more expensive, but there are more options; everyone else that has independent data plans is being silly. Unfortunately, these are all monthly plans, so I haven't fallen for that yet.
11:09 am
December 30, 2010
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use bell's fexi plan for tablet, it is so far the best i can find that is close to PAYGO data. 20 for 1G is reasonable and for times where you may not be in canada(I usually have month long vacations from time to time), it drops to 5/month.
10:36 pm
April 25, 2014
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Personally, I find $20 for 1Gb, or even $25 for 3Gb, to be outrageous, especially on a month-to-month basis.
As far as I understood it, Bell's "tablet" plan was for tablets that have phones in them.
I don't have one.
9:17 am
December 30, 2010
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using it in in iphone 4s so it works in any phone. price wise, that is the cheapest i can find for my usage.
11:08 am
April 25, 2014
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I am using a hotspot, not a phone, and the way it was explained to me, it wouldn't work with a hotspot. I'll look into it again, however.
[edit] After checking the IEMI number. Bell says that the hotspot is incompatible with their network.
2:14 pm
December 30, 2010
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that i cannot tell as I haven't try to use the phone as a hotspot on this sim. That depends on what kind of hotspot your are using.
For early day android(gingerbread), I am 100% sure I can use the sim and make the phone as a hotspot. iphone and many newer phone however may not as bell can provision the SIM to not allowing that function and the phone unfortunately disable that function(or make it not working).
As for your portable hotspot, that is completely beyond me.
7:04 pm
April 25, 2014
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"Our web browser is designed for mobile handsets. Tethering is in violation of our Unlimited Browsing feature and can result in termination of the Unlimited Browsing feature and/or termination of your service."
So we can't use their data service with a hotspot. I asked ztar/Speakout for a pay-as-I-go data service, but I don't imagine that they are interested. Anyone else interested in them starting such a service?
7:58 pm
December 30, 2010
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as I said, if you are running early day android, they would not even know you are using it as hotspot but newer android and ipone/wp all relay the information to them and it may or may not cause termination.
basically, an android gingerbread can be a hotspot without any issue, anything else I have no idea.
8:57 am
April 23, 2011
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ddalley said:
"Our web browser is designed for mobile handsets. Tethering is in violation of our Unlimited Browsing feature and can result in termination of the Unlimited Browsing feature and/or termination of your service."
So we can't use their data service with a hotspot. I asked ztar/Speakout for a pay-as-I-go data service, but I don't imagine that they are interested. Anyone else interested in them starting such a service?
Well, they have discontinued the "Unlimited Browsing" feature, and are now selling "high speed data" for $10/100MB, so I don't know that they would be as worried as previously if are using a hotspot - they get extra money if you use extra data. Even their "value plan" data upgrades of $25/GB are such that they probably still profit off of large data users.
- jb
8:52 am
October 25, 2009
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I have tethered the computer in my van once and awhile in order to check email so I can use a proper keyboard for replies. So far I have not received any rap on the knuckles. As the data allowance is so miserly anyway I don't use it much, but I agree, why should it matter to them, data is data and you're paying for it no matter how you use it.
12:10 pm
December 30, 2010
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may be their agreement with rogers is different ?
4:25 pm
October 25, 2009
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may be their agreement with rogers is different ?
That, or didn't I read somewhere above that some older versions of Android make it so tethering does not show up? I'm using a Miui Rom 4.1.2 on an older Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-9100, maybe that has a bearing on it.
I also have a work SIM that is on Rogers, and I have also tethered that the odd time to check email on the same phone, and nothing has been said about that either. Perhaps it's because I don't do it all that often, or do not transfer a lot of data, or both. Maybe they have some sort of quota that they watch for?
6:58 am
May 3, 2011
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Yesterday I got the Telus Flex Data plan set up. $5 a month mimimum then tiers up to 5Gb a month for $45. $10 + HST for the SIM card. Set up was quick and simple, the sales guy at the Telus store was outstanding, a very surprising experience for me given past experience with Robelus outlets. Speed already is better than on Robbers network, especially on low signal strength nodes. Telus coverage in our area is better as they share towers with Bell in a couple of critical areas where Robbers has zero signal. I was also told that tethering via my tablet's WiFi hotspot is allowed. It is a perfect plan for us given that we only use it much during summer. The rest of the year the $5 a month is half what we paid Speakout. So far pretty happy with it.
2:22 pm
April 23, 2011
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The telus plan sounds reasonable as you describe it, but when I look at it, it seems to be $10/month minimum, for up to 100MB, which jumps to $30 for up to 500MB, $45 for up to 2GB, $70 for up to 6GB and $85 for up to 10GB. After 10GB it is 5¢/MB or $50/GB
Where is the $5/month part you spoke of?
http://mobility.telus.com/en/O.....ndex.shtml
Thus like any tiered structure, you're pretty good when just below the cuttoff of usage, but not as good if you are just over the cutoff.
With the speakout plan, you are the same cost for up to 100MB, but if you go a bit over 100MB you are only charged 10¢/MB ($100 per 100MB), thus if you use 200MB with speakout you are charged $20, but would be charge $30 by Telus. If you use 300MB with speakout you are charged $30, while being also charged $30 with Telus. If you use over 300MB you are better off with Telus.
So far my experience with speakout is that I've had three months of less than 30MB of use, and one of about 70MB of use. I would do very well with a straight price/MB system, but the 100MB is quite workable, and I don't fear going over as much as I once did.
- jb
