Telecommunications
It is important to stay connected with your family at home.
Of course, there are telephones to help you do so :) You will have one in your office. Local calls are free but usually you cannot call 1-800 numbers or long-distance from there. To call a number outside the department, press "9" and then dial your number.
- Use a pay phone - ok, you cannot be called, but the price is 0.25CAD per local call. Long distance calls from public phones are insanely expensive.
- Share a landline with your housemates.
- Get your own landline - Bell pretty much holds a monopoly in the local market for land-based phone lines. Noteworthy: Local calls within Toronto are free, basic service including all fees and taxes is about 30CAD/month
- Get a cell phone. The major cell phone service providers are
and you can find some deals over here. But be aware that when you buy a cell phone, you receive a certain number of minutes (called airtime) that are free. You use those minutes when you are making a call (obviously), but also when you are called! If you exceed your airtime, you will be billed extra, so choose your plan wisely. Also, if you like text-messaging: Sending a text-message will cost you money, but also receiving text-mtessages! That's right, you also have to pay to receive a text-message. However with some providers text messages to international destinations are billed at the same rate as local ones.
IMPORTANT: For long distance calls, it is advisable to buy prepaid phonecards. Just walk into any convenience store and look at the posters in the window advertising them. Check their rates carefully and also keep an eye on hidden costs like weekly service charges (=each week your balance on your card will decrease no matter whether you make a call or not) and connection fees (=you have to pay extra for each call you make). They come in balances of 5, 10 and 20 CAD.
Those cards work by calling a local Toronto number (from any phone: office, public, landline, cell) which is printed on the card, then sometimes choosing a language number, and entering a PIN (personal identification number). After that a voice will anounce your balance. You can dial the number you want to reach - the prefix for international calls is 011. On some cards you finally have to press the "#" key (pronounced "pound"). After all that, a voice will read out the available minutes for talking to that destination. Finally, you are connected to your destination. This all sounds like a lot of hassle, but it will save you a lot of money! 1 minute before the balance of your card reaches 0, a voice will interrupt your call stating that you have 1 minute remaining.
BARGAIN: Go to Spadina/Dundas. You will see people sitting in front of stores with a desk selling phone cards at discount rates, usually 4 CAD for a 5 CAD balance card, 8 CAD for a 10 CAD card.. You get the idea.
But be aware that the transmission quality of some cards is really poor, others will cheat on your time, others will be always busy,.. So try different cards until you find one that seems best value for money for you or ask someone who calls the destination as you.
You are craving for email? You just need to play another round of Starcraft? Fear not, there are several internet service providers (ISPs) in Toronto happy to have you as a customer. CanadianISP is a website offering a comparison between most ISPs.
- You can connect to the internet from home using dialup (if you have a landline - cell phones won't do) using the University of Toronto's UtorDial as a provider - each year you will receive 3 credits which translates into a couple of hours of free online time which is charged at different rates according to your connection speed.
- You can get DSL. For this you need a land phone line as well, but the advantages are higher transfer rates and the fact that you can use your phone and be online at the same time. Note that you do not have to order DSL services from Bell, you can also get it from other providers even though your phone line might be from Bell.
- You can get a cable modem. For this you need cable TV from Rogers.
Finally there is the possibility of using your cell phone to access the web or your email. The former seems rather expensive, the latter is usually billed per email sent or received, although you can get special deals - check the cell phone provider's webpages.
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