The Rogers SIM will be dead.

The phone number that used to be assigned to it will then be assigned to your Speakout SIM.

The old Speakout number will be deactivated, and returned to the "pool" of available numbers for use at some future date.

Now that customer service has "updated" my service I am able to get coverage in areas that I previously could not (Wasaga, Collingwood, Mansfield). It seems that my speakout coverage is now equivalent to my friend's Rogers coverage.

The account should have been properly setup initially, and it took three calls to customer service, but I've now go the phone and service that will keep me happy.

Speakout coverage is NOT the same as Rogers

.

Be cautious if you are purchasing Speakout to use outside of major urban areas! I would not recommend it.

Some CONS:

-coverage looks like full Rogers network according t the map, but, clearly this is not the case. ie. no speakout coverage in Wasaga Beach. Others have suggested in postings that some areas covered by Rogers lack SpeakOUT coverage (ie Sudbury, Kawarthas,Tofino, Ucluelet, and Campbell River). I'd suggest to think twice if you plan to purchase for use in an area outside of a major urban center.

-Speakout has already manipulating (reducing) services. The December 2006 brouchure says for long distance calls total charge, including air time is $0.30 /min.
The May 2007 brochure fails to define this rate. (Such is the nature of having no contract).

Another reason is that 7-11 uses GSM, not CDMA (like Virgin).

If Chris in "Canadian Speak Out phones in US
" gets a US SIM for free and the calls goes on to the Canadian account, that would be yet another reason for me to echo the above review.

I only wish I had found this website sooner, before going to the websites of all the other phone companies. Peter's "other prepaid" has quick links to all of the relevant info.

Before encountering the website, the best deal for me seemed like Virgin Mobile. I'm looking for a phone (possibly 2) for very occasional use. I'm currently being gouged on my Telus Talk-20 plan by paying $32/mo for talking only 10-20 minutes per month on the phone.

So I was looking for a new phone plan based on the assumption that I would use it about 20-30 minutes per month.

All of the big guys out there (Telus, Rogers, Fido) had pretty shabby pay-as-you-go plans because the minutes all expire within 30/60 days, so the minimum annual cost is pretty high.

Virgin Mobile has a $100 top-up with 365 day expiry, which seemed to be what I wanted. But there were a few factors that swayed me towards the 7-11 deal:

- The free phone deal, which saves me about $60-70 (the cost of the cheapest phone at Virgin). I don't care what kind of phone it as as long as it's not total trash. From all the reviews I read of the 1112 it is a simple, solid phone that does the basics well.
- The fact that Virgin charges $0.25/min and is increasing their rates soon to $0.30/min, so 7-11 is 0.10/min cheaper
- The fact that all of the 7-11 top-ups have 365 day expiry, whereas with Virgin they expire sooner if you buy less than $100 worth of top-up

Thanks again for all of the info!