Communications and post
Post
Canada Post, a government agency, operates mail services and unfortunately this is neither cheap nor fast.
Post offices provide a poste-resante mail service. Mail should be addressed in the following format:
Your Name
General Delivery
Toronto
Ontario
Canada
M5W 1A0
There are many different options for sending mail within Canada, to the USA and overseas but they vary in price. It is worth finding out all your options especially when sending anything larger than a letter.
Each city has a main post office and usually others located in places such as pharmacies and shopping malls. Stamps can be purchased from just about any retail outlet of any kind.
There is no first or second class mail. Mail delivery times are organised regionally by each post office. Check at the nearest post office for delivery dates.
An example of basic mail prices:
Letter or postcard sent within Canada up to 30g costs 46 cents
Letter or postcard sent to the USA up to 30g costs 55 cents
Letter or postcard sent internationally up to 20g costs 95 cents
Telephone
The Canadian telephone system is similar to the USA and is of very high quality. Local calls cost 25 cents from payphones and most people have a local call plan for their home enabling free local calls. Long distance calls are quite costly but more calling packages are coming available, bringing the price down. Making a long distance call from a payphone without a calling card can be very expensive.
Long distance calling cards are recommended. These can be purchased from most retail locations. Each province has its own telecom company that runs the telephone network for the province. Calling cards can be purchased from the telecom company stores but often better value cards can be obtained from places such as Radio Shack. The Radio Shack VOX prepaid card is recommended. Find out about the different card options available.
Hotels and motels usually make a charge for local calls. This is worth checking before making any calls. Normally a charge of 25 cents to 1 dollar is made per call.
Payphones can be found in most busy locations similar to the rest of the western world.
Mobile (cell) phones in Canada are far behind that in Europe. Phones from the USA will work depending on the roaming package provided by the operator. Phones from Europe need to have international roaming enabled and also be tri-band. Check with your mobile operator to find out if your phone will work in Canada.
Digital signalling has only recently been installed and is only operated using GSM technology by two companies, Microcell and Rogers AT&T. Rogers provides the best coverage across Canada and is expanding fast. Microcell covers only major cities. Calls made within Canada are charged by your mobile phone operator and usually are twice the rate for calling Canada from your home country. The cost of receiving a call in Canada is usually the same as calling Canada from your home country. Be careful. Call costs can be very high. Check before you leave.
Text messaging (SMS) is new in Canada. Not many phones support it and even less use it. The only way to find out if it will work from phone to phone is to send a text message to see if it is received. Text messages are usually charged at the usual rate from your mobile phone operator but there may be a charge when sending them from Canada on top of this.
When calling long distance you need to dial a 1 before the area code: 1-(area code)-123-1234 When calling locally, you only need to dial the last 7 digits of the telephone number.
In an emergency, dial 911
For information on a telephone number dial 411, this is chargeable unless made from a payphone.
For enquiries on long distance calls dial 1-(area code)-555-1212
Reverse charge calls can be made to most countries and are known as Collect Calls.
Internet Access
There are Internet cafes in most tourist towns, cities and some hotels. Many hostels also offer this service. Public libraries and some universities offer this service to the general public. The cost for Internet access is usually quite cheap and Internet cafes are usually open quite late.
If you are taking a laptop computer you might find it cheaper to sign up to an Internet access provider in Canada rather than paying international call rates to connect to your provider in your home country.
Internet access is charged on a monthly subscription basis and is usually between $10 and $20. Make sure you have unlimited hours or you stay with in your allotted hour schedule or you might receive a pretty steep bill at the end of the month.
Internet access providers do not operate in the same way as in Europe. Each area code has a different telephone number to call and most providers operate in a regional area. If you want to travel, make sure the provider you use covers all of the areas you travel in.
The most popular providers for modem dial up are Sympatico and AOL. Both cover most of the country but you will have to change your dial up settings at each location.
