Changing Home Phone And Cell Provider

[fishinglibin]

Sorry to any members who work for Telus, but I dislike the company big time and am thinking of changing to Vonage or another provider, for the home phone. Also dislike the Blackberry, and thinking of a change back to an IPhone or try the Galaxy. Any feedback on home phone providers and pros and cons excluding Telus is welcome, and also opinions on Galaxy vs IPhone and providers. Thanks

[fishinglibin]

Have any of you heard of OOMA and used it? Any problems and pros and cons?

[Jayhad]

I have a galaxy s3 it sucks compared to the blackberry Z10 which i also have, it's twice as slow, the screen is no where near the resolution and the phone has a hollow springy sound to it, both are on the same provider but the S3 drops calls much more regularly than the BB.

 

If you are in Alberta and using a land based Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) regardless of which company you choose to pay you are using Telus' services and contributing to the share value and for that I thank you.

[Dxh]

Used to have a galaxy S3, hated it. Apps were constantly requiring access to personal info such as contact info, messages etc. The phone was quick but constantly was glitching and crashing. When you wanted it to just be a phone, it was mediocre at best. It was stolen from me at a bar downtown, enjoy that pos whoever you are...

 

Blackberry Z10 was/is a great phone, but the lack of apps available made it inconvenient and well.. kind of boring for my taste. Not that its Blackberry's fault, its too bad they couldn't get dev's to work for them, the phone itself was great. (And the Q10 qwerty keyboard imho is still where its at)

 

I switched back to Iphone 5s recently and honestly its the best of the worst. (That i have tried) The call quality is great, tons of apps and the ios seems to be the most stable out of the aforementioned. The finger print scanner worried me a little at first of being "gimicky", but my concerns were quickly laid to rest. It's one of the most convenient and relevant hardware upgrades to a phone I've seen yet. The only issue with it is that if your fingers are wet or sticky it will not read properly. I use my phone often, the time saved by just holding your finger on the scanner instead of typing in a password every time you unlock your phone quickly adds up. Very neat. Although now labeled as an isheep among my friends, I can say that I am at least a happy sheep, especially watching them reboot there android's and doing battery pulls all the time. Keep in mind the iPhone is very user friendly compared to an android, and if you are "technologically challenged" you may have difficulty operating and understanding android. I myself have worked in the IT field for several years and even I found my galaxy difficult and clumsy to use. I am not a "apple" kind of guy by any means, i much prefer PC's over mac's any day. Phone wise i think Apple nailed it though.

 

Still would like to try the windows phone out to see how that OS and the apps work on it. I've heard decent things.

 

All that being said the iPhone is not perfect either. A lot of it comes down to personal preference I suppose...

 

As carriers go, its pretty much a lose lose situation. I'm with Bell and have been for 10 years. My girlfriend is with Koodo. She seems to pay a bit less than I do every month for the same plan, but correct me if im wrong, I believe their phone selection is not as large as the big players? You have to go with a bit of an older phone. I myself have been considering switching to Koodo (although owned by Telus) I recently got a bill from Bell for 160 some $. Upon further investigation, seems Bell hiked their data overage rates by a whopping 500%.. Used to be an extra 10$/gig you went over, now its 5c/MB... Which is 50$ PER GIG......WT :$*%&: . Anyways after with arguing with a representative on the phone he agreed to add an extra gig onto my plan at no charge for the remainder of my two year contract. They are usually pretty good with their customer service. I've had to call them several other times due to overpriced bills and they really did their best to accommodate me and drop my bill even when I was in the fault.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose!

[DonAndersen]

Fishi...

 

For what it's worth, pay attention to coverage. In Alberta and BC , Telus is best. Some of the wireless companies barely cover the Calgary/Edmonton/Fort Mc areas.

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Don

[scel]

I worked closely with iOS app developers for a couple of years---I really dislike iOS. iTunes could be one of the worst pieces of bloated software ever developed. I cannot understand how people put up with it.

 

I recently bought a Nexus 5 directly from Google. It is one of the most amazing phones I have ever used. Technically, it is close to the iPhone 5s, Galaxy 4, and Moto X, except it is half the price. Admittedly, the Nexus 5 camera leaves a little to be desired.

 

Buy the phone straight up, take it to whatever carrier you want. If you do not like the carrier, just go to a different one.

[fishinglibin]

Do any of you use OOMA VOIP service, and what do you think about it?

[Dxh]

iTunes could be one of the worst pieces of bloated software ever developed. I cannot understand how people put up with it.

 

Agreed, iTunes sucks. Should of mentioned I don't use it and refuse to install it on my PC.

[Vagabond]

Fishi...For what it's worth, pay attention to coverage. In Alberta and BC , Telus is best. Some of the wireless companies barely cover the Calgary/Edmonton/Fort Mc areas.Regards,Don

This^^

I work all over west-central/NW AB....it is Telus land.

I dropped Bell 2.5 years ago and never looked back after my first 3weeks working in the patch earned me an $800+ phone bill!! I was getting nailed with roaming plus long distance charges every time I called co-workers that were in a vehicle 50ft away from me.....grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

With Telus I have no roaming charges ever,unlimited Canada-wide LD,1200 daytime minutes,unlimited evening/weekends,unlimited text(I think?) and 3gigs data/mth(I normally use around 1G/mth) for $80/mth.Also had unlimited USA LD for an extra $5/mth when the GF was in TX for a few months.....dropped that(and her lol)recently as I rarely ever call USA for anything.