Canadians - What's the process of buying a prepaid SIM card in Montreal?

[Praeses]

Hi

 

I'm going to be in Montreal for around 10 days and would like to buy a SIM if possible for mostly data usage. Are there any specific procedures one need to follow to e.g. register the SIM ? Here in South Africa we have to go through a process of providing proof of residential address etc to register a SIM so I was wondering if there's something similar in Canada. 

Also, which mobile operator would you recommend for Montreal area?

Thanks!

[Andre S. Veteran]

Welcome! :)

 

I'm not sure but you should be able to find a data-only SIM without having to provide any proof of residence; if you want a number for calls and texts then that's more complicated.

[Symal Taneous]

You can just go to any provider and get a sim card, I would recommend either Rogers/Fido, Bell/Virgin or Telus/Koodo. There's also stores like The Telephone Booth (La Cabine T?l?phonique), Wireless Wave (Vague Sans-Fil) and Best Buy Mobile that can do Bell, Virgin Rogers and Fido, so you can just go to one of those and compare the different plans. There's one of each in the Eaton Centre on Ste-Catherine downtown, along with a few other local providers like Videotron (which uses a lot of the Rogers network) and Public Mobile (kind of a cheap provider, not highly recommended), so you can just go to that one shopping centre and compare the various plans and see what you like.

 

As for getting the SIM card, you usually just need to provide some ID. If you're getting a prepaid plan, then it's much easier than getting a post-paid plan and you won't need to pass anything like a credit check or anything like that since you're paying for the plan in advance.

 

Also, keep in mind that if you will be travelling my metro while you're here in Montreal, you won't get any signal in most stations or while travelling in the metro. There are a few exceptions, but overall it's a dead zone when it comes to cellular signals for now.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Symal Taneous