Using plans like Fring and GV with rogers with N1

[Friar Broccoli]

My son sent me a Nexus One as a present, and am using a Mobile for the first time in my life. I got a SIM card from Rogers, with $100.00 on it. I synced my contacts with my Gmail account, played with GoogleMaps via a few Wifi links and made a few ordinary test calls.

Since Rogers is charging me $0.45 for the first minute and $0.15 for each minute thereafter, after only a week of use I can see that this is could cost me lots of money, especially since I will be on a 6 month vacation soon. Some sort of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) looks like the solution to my problems.

So far I've looked here:
Google Voice Canada Setup

and here:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fring

Google Voice appears to be free, but a bit tricky to setup from Quebec Canada, where I usually am.

Fring looks a lot simpler, but I am not sure how it will interact with my Rogers account.

So can I setup an account with Fring using my Rogers SIM, and then pretty much forget about paying Rogers?

Does anyone know if I will then be able to use SMS without a Rogers data plan via Fring and/or GoogleVoice?

Thanks for any comments or assistance.

 

[vikingisson]

It's pretty quiet around this forum so answers might be few. First question is do you have a data plan on the SIM? You'll need that if you want to avoid the high voice charges. Also check your voice plan to see if it includes forwarding, most give you 1200 minutes and that's more than enough. With a voip account and an app you can do all voice over data. It sounds like you have a pay as you go plan. The typical voice+data plan is expensive. A data only plan like you'd get for a tablet or on those sticks is the cheapest way.
If you don't have a data plan you can get it setup and working over WiFI and then look at getting a data plan.
So yes, Fring can help but both ends will need the app so I'd prefer a full VoIP app with a real number. google voice is also good depending on where you need to call.

 

[Superbrowndude]

The last time i tried google voice here in ontario,It said it wasnt available in my country and only for U.S residents.

 

[vikingisson]

there are simple ways around that.

 

[Superbrowndude]

god damn it