Cell Phones

Switching from Fido (Ontario plan) to Virgin Mobile (Quebec plan)

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Nov 11, 2013
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Toronto

Switching from Fido (Ontario plan) to Virgin Mobile (Quebec plan)

I live in Toronto and have a 647 number with fido. I managed to call virgin and get a QC plan, and they gave me a 514 number.

I want to port my number from fido to virgin but on the phone (even with 3 separate calls) all the agents at Virgin told me they couldn't port the number or else my QC plan would be changed to a ON plan (which is obviously inferior)

Has anyone had success with this type of stuff, if so how long did you wait to get your number ported, or did you go in-person etc? Tips and tricks would be nice!
23 replies
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Nov 28, 2013
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As far as I know, the only company that lets you port non-QC numbers into a QC plan is Koodo.
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Oct 19, 2012
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I'm not sure why you went through all of that trouble. Fido easily allows you to have a phone number and plan from any province and it is clearly listed on their Community Forums website. Also, I believe Fido's Quebec plans are the cheapest currently.
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Nov 11, 2013
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Toronto
soljah12 wrote: I'm not sure why you went through all of that trouble. Fido easily allows you to have a phone number and plan from any province and it is clearly listed on their Community Forums website. Also, I believe Fido's Quebec plans are the cheapest currently.
I noticed Fido had the same plan that Virgin was offering, but the problem was also due to signal and speed. With Virgin right now i'm getting full bars all the time, and speeds of 80mbps down, compared to Fido I was getting 3ish bars and 25mbps down...

Besides I transferred my 647 number to a prepaid plan with Fido, paid the 10$ and the number won't expire for a year, so I'll see if virgin lets be transfer one of these days, or if Fido gets a better plan soon.
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Oct 19, 2012
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Burlington
OriginalPoster wrote: I noticed Fido had the same plan that Virgin was offering, but the problem was also due to signal and speed. With Virgin right now i'm getting full bars all the time, and speeds of 80mbps down, compared to Fido I was getting 3ish bars and 25mbps down...

Besides I transferred my 647 number to a prepaid plan with Fido, paid the 10$ and the number won't expire for a year, so I'll see if virgin lets be transfer one of these days, or if Fido gets a better plan soon.
Yeah, the signal with Virgin/Bell is a lot better for me all over Ontario than Fido/Rogers. What plan did you get on Virgin? We went with the 8GB for $56 Quebec plan with Fido. We also get 2GB free for two years (expires in 2019) and get a 10% discount for having it as a second line.
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Nov 11, 2013
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Toronto
soljah12 wrote: Yeah, the signal with Virgin/Bell is a lot better for me all over Ontario than Fido/Rogers. What plan did you get on Virgin? We went with the 8GB for $56 Quebec plan with Fido. We also get 2GB free for two years (expires in 2019) and get a 10% discount for having it as a second line.
That's actually a pretty great deal! I don't use that much data, so I just went with the $49 for 6GB. I'm surprised the plans are so vastly different and Quebec is only an hour or two away from Toronto. Surprising to see what real competition can do to an industry.
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Mar 5, 2013
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soljah12 wrote: Yeah, the signal with Virgin/Bell is a lot better for me all over Ontario than Fido/Rogers. What plan did you get on Virgin? We went with the 8GB for $56 Quebec plan with Fido. We also get 2GB free for two years (expires in 2019) and get a 10% discount for having it as a second line.
Same here I don't have any issue regarding coverage with VirginMobile, You got a better deal in QC free 2gb I'm paying extra $5 for 2gb as an Ontario plan $55 8gb is far more better than other for my usage.
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Oct 19, 2012
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d1ulove3 wrote: Same here I don't have any issue regarding coverage with VirginMobile, You got a better deal in QC free 2gb I'm paying extra $5 for 2gb as an Ontario plan $55 8gb is far more better than other for my usage.
We're in Toronto actually. Also got the free 2GB for two years when I had an Ontario plan with Fido before switching over to a Quebec plan and they just let me keep it. It's sickening how much better the cell plans are in Quebec versus Ontario!
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soljah12 wrote: I'm not sure why you went through all of that trouble. Fido easily allows you to have a phone number and plan from any province and it is clearly listed on their Community Forums website. Also, I believe Fido's Quebec plans are the cheapest currently.
Wait - you can have an Ontario number on a Quebec plan on Fido? Link?
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Nov 11, 2008
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soljah12 wrote: I'm not sure why you went through all of that trouble. Fido easily allows you to have a phone number and plan from any province and it is clearly listed on their Community Forums website. Also, I believe Fido's Quebec plans are the cheapest currently.
wearysky wrote: Wait - you can have an Ontario number on a Quebec plan on Fido? Link?
It was possible on Rogers, but out of province port block was introduced end of March. Pretty sure it applies to Fido as well.
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May 8, 2009
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Easy solution. Port Fido ON 647 # to Fongo at a one time fee of $25 (plus tax). They say takes up to 2 weeks, but really only takes a week on average.

In Fongo web portal, forward the 647 # to 514 #. Free call forwarding for life. Free inbound SMS to the 647 # through the app for life. Free outbound calling to most Canadian cities with the 647 # via wifi or data for life.

Problem solved.
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Oct 19, 2012
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wearysky wrote: Wait - you can have an Ontario number on a Quebec plan on Fido? Link?
We had an Ontario number and plan but switched to a Quebec plan and we just kept the Quebec number. This was done on the phone and the Fido rep offered to port our Ontario number onto the plan; however, they said that once we port an Ontario onto the Quebec plan, we wouldn't be able to make any changes after that time as their system won't allow it. They warned us that if we did this, we'd have to lose our Ontario number and change to a Quebec number in order to make any changes in the future. We just said we'll keep the Quebec number as everyone we know has Canada wide minutes now anyways.

It really seems to be the luck of the specific rep you get when you call as we previously asked to have a Quebec plan and they had previously refused so very YMMV.
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soljah12 wrote: We had an Ontario number and plan but switched to a Quebec plan and we just kept the Quebec number. This was done on the phone and the Fido rep offered to port our Ontario number onto the plan; however, they said that once we port an Ontario onto the Quebec plan, we wouldn't be able to make any changes after that time as their system won't allow it. They warned us that if we did this, we'd have to lose our Ontario number and change to a Quebec number in order to make any changes in the future. We just said we'll keep the Quebec number as everyone we know has Canada wide minutes now anyways.

It really seems to be the luck of the specific rep you get when you call as we previously asked to have a Quebec plan and they had previously refused so very YMMV.
That is how it used to be. Now the system won't even allow porting.
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hvwozq wrote: That is how it used to be. Now the system won't even allow porting.
What about porting through Fido self-serve? Wouldn't that work the same as Koodo, where you get a QC number, get a QC plan, then port in your Rest of Canada number free via self-serve, keep the plan and kick out the QC number?
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titaniumtux wrote: What about porting through Fido self-serve? Wouldn't that work the same as Koodo, where you get a QC number, get a QC plan, then port in your Rest of Canada number free via self-serve, keep the plan and kick out the QC number?
My understanding was that Koodo's was the only site that actually allowed this (else presumably Howard Forums would have their own Fido thread).
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wearysky wrote: My understanding was that Koodo's was the only site that actually allowed this (else presumably Howard Forums would have their own Fido thread).
Rumour has it that Fido self-serve would do it as well. I've never tried with Fido as their deals aren't as good as Koodo.
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titaniumtux wrote: What about porting through Fido self-serve? Wouldn't that work the same as Koodo, where you get a QC number, get a QC plan, then port in your Rest of Canada number free via self-serve, keep the plan and kick out the QC number?
wearysky wrote: My understanding was that Koodo's was the only site that actually allowed this (else presumably Howard Forums would have their own Fido thread).
titaniumtux wrote: Rumour has it that Fido self-serve would do it as well. I've never tried with Fido as their deals aren't as good as Koodo.
There is no option to port any number by yourself. Even if there was, do you think they are stupid enough to disable it for their own reps but not the customers?
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soljah12 wrote: I'm not sure why you went through all of that trouble. Fido easily allows you to have a phone number and plan from any province and it is clearly listed on their Community Forums website. Also, I believe Fido's Quebec plans are the cheapest currently.
So what you mean is that it's possible to get an 8GB Quebec plan from Fido while giving them your Ontario address, and have your Ontario number ported to it later?

Because that makes it hotter than the koodo plans.
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hvwozq wrote: There is no option to port any number by yourself. Even if there was, do you think they are stupid enough to disable it for their own reps but not the customers?
You mean Fido reps can't submit port requests on behalf of customers either? That's too bad.

I know too little about Fido. Rogers network doesn't cover my basement nor some other places we go to, so they're not an option for me.
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