Originally Posted by
bocastephen
I don't see anything compelling about Speakout at all. The value plans are monthly, which might be OK for local residents looking for a talk/text/data package that is cheaper than Rogers/Bell/etc, but without the reliability issues and technology restrictions of WIND.
For frequent, short term visits to Canada I use Fido's $1/day unlimited incoming and $30/1GB data (or the $5/60mb weekly top-ups for short trips) and stack it with Google Voice and Localphone so my overall cost is super cheap, albeit with the extra step of using the Localphone app for dial-backs. I can get unlimited inbound calls from anyone in the world (GV>localphone>Fido) and with the dial-back step, make outbound calls at Localphone's 1-2cpm rates without incurring Fido charges.
ATT has a localized plan for Buffalo which is 1 cent a minute in Canada and has Canadian data buckets. I am not sure if you need to live in Buffalo or whether a Buffalo number is good enough.
One problem that I have with many of the Canadian plans for voice is that you are tied to a regional area and it is easy to go out of the region. For example, Windsor Ontario and London Ontario (two hours down the 401 in the same area code) are different markets. While there is some movement towards national plans, it seems to be going slowly. Data and text are a different story -- they are national.
I've found that at least with Telus's data plan, it is solid enough to that VOIP Over LTE is a real possibility. I am grandfathered on ATT International iPhone plan and have made tons of VOIP calls in Canada.
On data, I also have a Telus contract tablet SIM (in a hotspot). I pay $6 a month for minimum usage and it expands to $35 a month for 5 gig usage. It proves very handy in situations for data use for someone who frequently works in Canada. Bell has a similar plan.
The forthcoming Google Mobile has 256k d/u in Canada at no additional charge, $0.20 a minute voice, and free text in Canada. That is another possibility.