Great info!

Direct copy and paste:

"While traveling, will my outgoing calls be long distance, if they are local to the city I am visiting?

Yes. You are charged long distance charges for ANY calls while outside your local calling area. Your phone number is assigned to the area you designate your local area."

This is now false, and I was deceived by that as much as you.

As posted above, I was in Ottawa and Montreal in June, and made calls back to my home in Niagara Falls were definitely deducted the long distance rate. Since you took your trip this past August, just 2 months after I took my trips, it looks like SpeakOut has changed their policy.

As for locking topics, are you sure it wasn't Peter, the admin/owner of this site? He was the last poster in each of those threads. I would think he also saw that may threads were open discussing the same exact topic. He also said to keep the discussion in one thread.

Perhaps an apology from you is in order regarding my August 28th posts under the topic 7-Eleven Rates & Plans:

https://www.speakoutwireless.ca/speak/7-eleven-rates-and-plans/local-ld-incomingoutoing-rates-confirmed-aug09/page-1

https://www.speakoutwireless.ca/speak/7-eleven-rates-and-plans/rate-question/page-1

You left the forum readers with the distinct impression that I was posting false information, then promptly locked the topic to halt any further feedback.

Seeing that you've recently discovered my findings were indeed accurate, I would appreciate the apology, not for the purpose of you admitting I was correct, but for the simple matter that you lead the readers to believe that my posts contained falsehoods & misinformation.

To HC NO "i":

Thank you for keeping an open mind as to any new information or findings from the newest contributors of this forum. I have greatly appreciated all the information (new & old) this website has offered.

Sincerely, Heather

This must have just recently changed, because when my Niagara Falls based phone was in Ottawa and Montreal just this past June, I called back to Niagara Falls, and I was charged the long distance rate. So, it's GREAT news to those who travel away from their home area. They can call back, and be deducted only the local rate. Here's a copy and paste of the email. My question is on the bottom, and their reply is on top:

The official answer if you have a (604) Vancouver area code and you travel to Toronto and you call a (604) it would be considered a local call. If you called a (416) number while in Toronto it would be a long distance call.

askspeakout

From: iamdrumming
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 5:49 PM
To: askspeakout
Subject: Calling rates while outside local calling area

I think we need an "official" answer to settle this over at the "unofficial" SpeakOut site

There has been good discussion on the "Unofficial" SpeakOut site about calling rates. Local rates vs long distance rates.

Let's just say a customer's SpeakOut phone was based in Vancouver, BC, and they traveled to Toronto Ontario. If they called back home to Vancouver, BC while they were in Toronto Ontario, and well outside their local calling area, would they be deducted the local rate or the long distance rate?

Thanks!

I think we don't need to get crazy or trivial. Regardless of the answer from the service rep or your first-hand experience w/ the only mentioned scenarios, I think we should keep an open mind to those new discoveries - based on factual accounts w/ the unmentioned scenarios. Sometimes, particularly for the veterans like some of us, we are so used to our very own usage pattern or no longer bother to check w/ those we haven't used.

Anyway, I'll keep this "discrepancy" in mind next when I travel to the other side of the country and taking note on ALL calling scenarios.

iamdrumming said:

Actually that has been there awhile now

You're right. I wasn't reading that correctly. Lately I'm wondering whether I'm reading anything correctly!

Nevermind, that phrase on the 7-Eleven site is still the same. I should really take a break from posting for a while, because everything I'm posting lately reflects something that I've misread or gotten wrong!

but I still say their website does NOT clearly say what you said, despite your claim that it does so. the only mention of outgoing calls is for the case "While traveling, will my outgoing calls be long distance,

if they are local to the city I am visiting?

" if they omit the phrase after the 2nd comma, then it 100% agrees with your statement. otherwise it's still ambiguous, because it doesn't address if the calls are not local to the city you are visiting, plus the sentence before they say all numbers in your local area code are local calls. (they don't say that statement only applies when you are physically in your local area)

anyhow I agree enough, on to other things. I guess I'll see for certain in a few weeks. either way, the FAQ on their site and this site should be clarified, IMHO.

have a great weekend

What SO CS emailed you with totally contradicts with it clearly mentioned on their site. As I said before, I take anything they say with a grain of salt.

On their site it clearly states that if you take a phone that's tied to Vancouver, take it across the country to Halifax, ALL outgoing calls are considered long distance. The phone is tied to Vancouver.

ALL outgoing calls outside your local calling area are rated as long distance, regardless if they are local to the city you are visiting, or if they are outgoing calls back to your home, local calling area. It does NOT matter what number is being called. If you are outside your local calling area, then you are outside, and ALL outgoing calls are rated long distance.

I repeat, ALL, ALL outgoing calls are rated long distance, if you are outside your local calling area.

That's all. I'm done with this thread.

If you take the phone to Halifax with a Vancouver phone number when you
make a call to Vancouver from Halifax then no it would not be long
distance.
Askspeakout

this is now the 3rd confirmation I have received from SO on this point, again matching what forum reader Heather had first mentioned in another thread.

sorry to drag on the discussion, really I am! I want to point out something about the 7-Eleven site's info, which you several times have pointed to.

your 2 statements above are very, very clear. I but as far as I can tell, the info on their site never explains it as such (and thus the root of my original confusion). I think even the faq on THIS site doesn't explain it well. (both FAQs really need to be updated on this topic!)

7-Eleven's page simply says the following 2 things quoted below. note that statement 1 doesn't talk about your physical location (but I think they are only talking about being physically in your local area), and statement 2 says nothing about outgoing calls BACK to your home area, while you are traveling.

given this limited context of statements from their site , the recent answer I got from SO CS still SEEMS valid. so basically I'm saying the info on their site is still ambiguous and does not say what you stated (which again I originally thought to be true, ie. your statements)

quote from their site:
---
(1) Are all numbers in my area code considered a local call?

Yes. SpeakOut Wireless offers a larger calling area than traditional Wireless service providers. In fact, many areas in your province are considered a local call. See the current SpeakOut Rates.

(2) While traveling, will my outgoing calls be long distance, if they are local to the city I am visiting?

Yes. You are charged long distance charges for any calls while outside your local calling area. Your phone number is assigned to the area you designate your local area.
---

ANY and ALL OUTGOING calls (except toll-free calls) outside your calling area are rated as long distance calls.

ANY and ALL INCOMING calls within or outside your local calling area are rated as local calls, because the phone call was not initiated by the Speak Out phone.

I'm really surprised this whole discussion has gone on this long as well.

sorry to bring back the (not quite) dead horse 🙂

Incoming calls (even if outside your local calling area) are deducted the local rate ($0.25/minute), because the phone call (obviously :)) was not initiated by the Speak Out phone.

I did receive calls while I had my (905 based) Speak Out phone was in Ottawa and Montreal. Both times I was only charged the local rate ($0.25/minute), because the call was incoming.

As with talking to the SO CS, I take their advice with a grain of salt. I would much rather find the info out on the Speak Out site itself, because most of the questions we have have been answered on their site.

Again, I don't see this as an argument. It's a good discussion, although it has been beat like a dead horse many times

iamdrumming said:

I have already tested this. My phone is tied to area code 905. I have traveled up to Barrie (area code 705) and called a Barrie number, while I was in Barrie. I was charged the long distance rate. Also, I went to Ottawa (area 613) and called an Ottawa number, and was charged the long distance rate. Lastly when I was in Montreal, I called a Montreal number, and I was charged the long distance rate.

in your test above, it all makes sense and I 100% agree and understand. but it's still missing *the specific scenario* I was asking about.

Q: if you take your (905) SO phone, then travel to somewhere else, say (705) and from THERE call home (905 number) or receive call from (905), are you charged LD or local? Note that I'm also wondering about incoming calls from your home area.

of course, if this statement...

ALL outgoing calls made while outside your local calling area are charged the long distance rate.

..if this statement trumps all other factors, then it makes sense, again it's what I originally thought would be true. but it still doesn't answer about INcoming calls, and it contradicts what SO CS told me. p.s the reply I quoted from was after a couple email exchanges with them, and then I narrowed the question to the specific scenario I mention in this post.

their reply to *this particular scenario* clearly said it would be charged at local rate.

iamdrumming said:

This is how I read the above quote, since it's only 2 sentences.

The first sentence states that all calls made from the handset WITHIN the Vancouver area will be rated as local calls, since the phone is based in Vancouver.

hi iamdrumming

I think you're right that perhaps you get different answer depending on what CS agent you talk to.

but one clarification about the quote I gave from SO CS (since it's only 2 sentences)

note that the answer was directly in response to the precise question I asked of what happens when the (604) phone is physically located in Halifax. I had clearly asked them about the case where I take the phone OUTSIDE of the Vancouver area.

if you ONLY consider this situation (which is what I asked them to respond to) then their answer1 takes on a different meaning to what you've interpreted above. (no dispute about sentence2)

perhaps the agent was simply wrong, as you say.

note that the faq on this site and info on 7-Eleven's site don't seem to unambiguously answer this scenario.

don't get me wrong, I don't want to argue the info you posted (as I said, I originally thought your answer was the correct one before SO told me otherwise). I just want to get the clear answer, because if what SO told me is wrong, then the usage scenario I was thinking of for my son completely changes.