We are all looking forward to dropping Bell, and the kids don't need to have data plans or smartphones at this time. They have more than enough internet access as it is! My son says the Palm Pre is not a good product. Our contract will end on Aug 31, the kids hate the cheap phones and are eager to ditch them. I wanted sturdy flip phones for them, like we have from Verizon, but the Bell phone is noticeably lower quality. Even the predictive text software is poor quality. I hate the cost - it's annoying that they charge for call display and voice mail.
Because of their strong desire for a quality phone, I explored getting a 7-11 Speakout phone with sim card, the Verizon Escapade (which is dual CDMA and a sim card, marketed for travel) unlocking it, and putting the sim card in it. But reviews of the Escapade are not great.
I see some real potential with toktumi, although my son doesn't like it that he would have to speed dial to connect to toktumi, and then place the call. I think that's relatively simple, and when they add texting, it will be just what we need, if it is reliable enough. I'm going to try it out starting on the 30th, so I'll have it on my phone when I visit my son in August, and we can both give it a try.
As I mentioned before, I am concerned about long distance charges for their friends, but it seems that a number of my daughter's friends are using Verizon in Toronto without causing extra cost for others.
Oh, and it was a bit difficult to get those Bell phones with a US credit card, so our daughter got a Canadian credit card. Which I am considering commandeering every time I go up there, just to avoid fees. I don't want to give up the AA mileage, so I will have to do some math to figure out the best option.