An Update on My International Phone Quandary: Fido Surprises Me
March 20th, 2007, 8 Comments »
Earlier in the month, I bored the crap out of you with a Byzantine explanation of our phones-in-Malta situation:
We have three phone numbers we’d like to retain, Capulet’s land line plus our two cell phone numbers (currently with Fido). Ideally we’d like to use these numbers in Malta, but that’s probably not viable from a price perspective.
I called Fido today to explain our situation, and to see what they could do for me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but judging from the accents, all of Fido’s technical support seems to be in rural Quebec.
My contract with Fido is up in a couple of months, but Julie’s has at least a year left on it. Jacques (Ti-Paul? Marc?) explained that our only option was to ratchet the phones down to their minimum plan, and to use them for voice mail only (which is a satisfactory compromise, we can use a land line and calling cards in Malta).
Cost: $35 per phone per month, or about $420 for six months.
Our other option would be to buy our way out of Julie’s plan, and take the numbers (thank you, number portability) to a local VoIP provider. A colleague recommended PeopleLine. Frankly, I’ve been underwhelmed by my international calling experiences with VoIP, and I don’t like the idea that when our Internet access is down in rural Malta, so too is our phone service.
Cost: $200 to cancel Julie’s contract
I’m talking this over with Francois, and I must have said the magic words. I suspect they were “cancel”, “Vonage” and “number portability”. He shuttled me over to another department–a Super Secret Department Which Shall Not Be Named.
There, another French-Canadian gave me the offer I couldn’t refuse. Free number parking for six months, with pay-as-you-go pricing for usage. We’d have to pay a little something for voice mail:
Cost: $6 per phone per month, or about $72.
That’s what I’m talking about. Sign us up. Huzzah for free markets.
Now I need to investigate whether Fido has any voice mail notification services. Can I get an email or SMS (to another phone) when there’s a new voice mail message for a given number?