Newbie Cell Phone Question

[yzermanfan42]

Hi,

I am fairly dumb when it comes to cell phones, in fact to me it seems as though cell phone companies make things complicated on purpose. Anyway, my question is this - I have an old cell phone I used to have with Telus like 5 years ago. I'd like to have a phone for emergency use only (like hopefully less than 10 minutes a year kind of thing). So I was wondering if i could somehow use the old phone and get a phone card or whatever for like $10. Is it possible to get this old phone working? How much would the cheapest option be?

Thanks.

[Prototype]

Depends on the emergency.

I've heard an old wives tale that any charged up cell phone is able to call 911. Have never tried it myself.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5220461_ca...911-call_.html

[Hanni]

Originally Posted by Prototype

Depends on the emergency.

I've heard an old wives tale that any charged up cell phone is able to call 911. Have never tried it myself.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5220461_ca...911-call_.html

I've hear this as well. As far as your question, I would give Telus a call and make sure the phone will work as pay as you go. Then you could just buy a $10 phone card for it that should only ever not work if you run out of minutes.

[mykalberta]

You can go to 7-11 and get a pre paid cell for free for the price of a $100 phone card. I think so long as you use the phone a few times a year the minutes dont expire.

I doubt any company will have a plan for what you want.

[CubicleGeek]

The 911 "wives tale" is true. If a cellphone is in a coverage area that supports the device's air interface, you can make 911 calls for free. (i.e. A Telus CDMA phone in a Bell-only area would be able to make a 911 call over the Bell network). This is regulatory.

Call Telus and ask if they provide any plans that are 100% usage only and you might be able to get away with a monthly plan that really only costs you the network access fee. When I went abroad to work, I didn't want to lose my local number so I called Fido to lower my plan to the lowest possible with no included minutes, text messages, etc and it costed me about $7 a month. I did end up making a couple of calls when I had to come back for a short period during my expat and I think they charged me $0.25 a minute (ouch).

I am not 100% sure what the rules for pre-paid are in North America. But for the ones I've used in foreign countries where you purchase a prepaid SIM that has a number and a certain number of minutes, they deduct a certain fixed amount every month if the account is unused. After the account goes to zero for a period, the phone number is recycled and your prepaid SIM will not work anymore. You'll have to get a new one. Your best bet is to call and ask.