[kwlug-disc] Dropping Bell, Phase 5

[unsolicited]

Phone: Hands down, Roger's Pay As You Go, $100 card good for a year -> 
$8.33 per month. Add $0.01/minute eve & weekends. $3/month 30 txt 
usually covers it for me. I don't do data, but if I did, as mentioned, 
$10 will let you try and let you figure out your usage. The $10 more 
than a few times will blow your $100 for the year, but that's OK when 
just figuring things out. Currently my balance is in the $100 from 
unusage. (I don't much use it during the day, thus the $0.01/min eve & 
weekends.)

Note: Bell typically CDMA, Rogers GSM, i.e. SIM card. If you have a SIM 
card in your current phone you'll be OK. Otherwise - kijiji. Especially 
for a phone with a keyboard, or factorydirect for a BB or something.

 From my quick peek, your WD Live is just another device looking for 
subscription $ to the services. If I've misunderstood something about 
it, let us know.

For TV, I'd probably think about vmedia's box http://www.vmedia.ca/vbox/ 
- I assume it would be substantially equivalent. Add in TV (no antenna 
futzing) http://www.vmedia.ca/tv/ if you like, or not. You'd need their 
internet if you get their TV, but from all I've seen their internet is 
the best plan out there. http://www.vmedia.ca/internet/

- apparently Canada Computer has these boxes up and going in store, so 
you can go touch it / see it / check it out.

What I will most bitterly lose when I lose basic cable tv is my pvr. 
Give me the darned content locally on my own devices. Let me fast 
forward past the darned commercials. (I'm not convinced even with their 
TV I'll be able to fast forward past any commercials, and I assume they 
have commercials, as hassle free as I can with my own pvr and local 
content.)

I contacted them not long ago, and they confirm they now have pvr 
(cloud) functionality. Their web site may not have caught up to that info.

The other thing I will want is closed captioning and/or descriptive 
video. Haven't sleuthed those aspects out yet.


On 14-04-28 09:37 AM, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
> Well the satellite TV is now gone (I have receivers for sale cheap!) and
> the home phone is in the process of being ported to Ooma, so that leaves me
> with only one more Bell product to dump: Wifeski's cellphone.
>
> What recommendations for non-Bell and non-Rogers cellphone providers do you
> guys have?
>
> She is a low-volume cellphone user, mostly just calls home like "how do I
> find Suchandsuch Street?"  She texts a little bit as well.  Data is
> optional, but not necessary.
>
> She'd like to keep her current cell phone as she likes the slide out
> keyboard.
>
> I'm on Telus myself, so there's an advantage to having her account merged
> in with mine, but I'm open to suggestions on a smaller provider like those
> guys who have kiosks in the mall if they have an unbeatable deal.
>
> I've gone through the various company websites and I'm familiar with the
> pricing structures, etc., but I was wondering if you guys had really good
> or really bad experiences with any of the smaller companies like Koodoo,
> Solo or Wind or whatever.
>
> By the way, now that the satellite TV is gone, I'm seriously considering
> Western Digital's Live TV box for Wifeski's TV.  It looks pretty good, and
> as far as I can tell it's the best device for streaming the stuff I have
> already downloaded to my servers, whereas devices like Roku or Chromecast
> seem intent on selling you monthly subscriptions to Netflix, etc.  I'll
> keep you guys informed as this progresses.
>
>
>
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