Does anyone here use Bell?

[TarekCoyote]

As you can see in the Cellphone topic there, im getting severely frustrated with the limited nature of Telus Mobilities Cellphones.
Everything, is forbidden and blocked.
No custom ring tones, no "telus" branded apps and games, GROSS subscription rates, NON-FREE Receiving of Text Messages, and hundreds of other nitpicks.

I love the Samsung Instinct, i think its an amazing cellphone. But the onyl other place that serves it, is Bell Mobility.

Now i COULD jsut run to Rogers and get an iPhone. But honestly.. haha while the iPhone 3G is a good product, the Rogers service i find is REALLY questionable with the rates and range. My parents both use it and its been nothing but a thorn in the side for them.


So hows Bell? Ive NEVER had a friend who uses them before so i have no comprehensive data or study on this band of service. The contract rates to get the cellphone remain the same, ($49 for 3 year contract) but it seems to be the service im looking for on a software/hardware level.
But hows the 'service' itself?

[Wyrd-Hotd]

Im rockin' Bell, up north to, i have pretty good service compared to most people, i have some ringtones i got for free, but i am on a plan with my parents so i dont know overly to much about it, but so far things have been good, the customer service is pretty good to.

[TarekCoyote]

Im rockin' Bell, up north to, i have pretty good service compared to most people, i have some ringtones i got for free, but i am on a plan with my parents so i dont know overly to much about it, but so far things have been good, the customer service is pretty good to.

What sort of locks and limitations does the Bell provider enforce?

[Wyrd-Hotd]

im not entirely sure, i havent messed around with my phone overly to much.. nothing quite like that at least...

[Adaru]

Im rockin' Bell, up north to, i have pretty good service compared to most people, i have some ringtones i got for free, but i am on a plan with my parents so i dont know overly to much about it, but so far things have been good, the customer service is pretty good to.

What sort of locks and limitations does the Bell provider enforce?

I'm pretty sure that it'd all be the same. :0(

Triumvirate monopoly of cellphone providers of evil!
If possible, I'm clicking onto Rogers with the lowest price plan possible and then buying unlocked phones from other countries.

[Vanilla Skunk]

I used t have bell, years ago.  I would give their customer service four out of five stars, where Telus wouldn't even get a single star.  They use the telus network for the actual radio tecnology, but they don't brand out he whole phone like telus does.  I hate those ugly green icons.

However, most of the locks are moreso LG phones that just don't have the feature.  Period.  They have gotten better though.

Beyond that, when researching a phone, look and see if it hs DRM.  That is a manufacturelock, not a provider lock.

Lastly...  Fido doesn't lock anything out of their phones, except for using out of country sim cards.  I used a rogers chip in a fido Nokia E62 without any mods.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Ravenwood]

I've just recently switched to Koodo, with a Keybo.  I've heard some good stuff about Fido, which Trapa uses.

[Vanilla Skunk]

Fogot about the newbie cell companies...

Kodoo and Virgin both use the telus radio system as well, fyi.

I'd rather stick with a GSM phone myself.

[Kithop]

Right now Rogers/Fido is the only GSM game in town, unfortunately, so we're with them.  I've had work phones for the past few years thankfully so I'm kind of buffered from seeing/worrying about the bill, but yeah.

They all suck up here.  Especially when it comes to data rates. :(

I've heard rumours Telus is launching their own GSM network though, or possibly even switching entirely (!)...