Hey, so I'm wondering if anyone knows of/has any experience with any sort of cellular service provider in Canada that works well with Arduino+GPRS shield based projects.
I'm looking into getting a shield for some projects but It would be dumb to put a $25, 500mb/month plan into it... For something so small something along the lines of $0.05/kb or something might be more than enough. (I'll probably be sending requests to my home/mobile server where any processing/heavy data usage would happen, and just commands would be sent back)
I use PetroCan for this job. You can walk into most PetroCan stations and plunk down $60 for a handset and a SIM. Register it online. I used the $25/3 months plan mostly, but there is a $20/month with unlimited texting.
If you are in an area with 7/11 stores, the 7/11 phone plans are similar, but used to be a little cheaper.
I was looking at 7-11, they charge $0.05/kb which is perfectly reasonable, and their $25 card doesn't expire for a year. But would you know if an account would be considered "active" if there's no voice conversations or texting happening?
Not sure about 7/11, but my PetroCan acct has been alive and well and functioning for years despite never once have making a chargeable voice call. I once used the *611 to check my balance, but that was years ago. I use it for texting, so there is plenty of SMS activity in my case.
Both 7/11 and Petrocan are MVNOs on Rogers, so I expect they operate identically.