Moved to Alberta but want to keep Ontario number so friend do NOT get charged LD can this be don

[mikil456]

Hello We moved to Alberta from Ontario Would like to keep Ontario 519 number so friends can call without long distance charges Can this be done while setting up sim car and phone activation. Is there a step by step somewhere here??? Thanks in advance

[mikil456]

Thank you for all your posts and help they are very insightful thx

[srlawren]

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@stonechucker wrote:

Employers, local businesses, doctors, dentists, government offices, etc...  when they need to contact you via telephone, will frown on calling an out-of-area number to contact you.  An out of province number is worse.  Seriously think about having a local landline number if you keep your wireless devices 'in Ontario'.

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@mikil456 this is pretty good advice from @stonechucker.  The other alternative is to activate a free VoIP service like Fongo or Talkatone (there are others) with a phone number based where you live, then you can receive phone calls on that number over mobile data or Wi-Fi.  You can give that number out to your local employers, businesses, doctors, dentists, goverment offices (meh, do they call anyone these days?) etc. so they can call you on a local number. 

Further thought:  Double-check, but I think you can also call-forward most VoIP services to another Canadian number, so you could always have it set up to just forward calls on your Alberta number back to your Ontario PM phone number if you find the VoIP call quality insufficient or you don't want to use mobile data--but do check into this and if there is any charge for forwarding.  

[stonechucker]

As somebody who lived in one area of the 519 for years, and moved to another area of 519 for the last 20 years, I understand the desire to keep the old number.  I live and work in a city that is not a local call to my hometown, so if my friends and family wish to call me, they and I will use other forms of communication if I don't call them (I have a province-wide calling plan, they only have local area calling).  Most popular is the Facebook Messenger app.

Employers, local businesses, doctors, dentists, government offices, etc...  when they need to contact you via telephone, will frown on calling an out-of-area number to contact you.  An out of province number is worse.  Seriously think about having a local landline number if you keep your wireless devices 'in Ontario'.

[smp99]

If you switch to an Alberta number I believe you will save the PST portion of Ont sales tax (8%)

[mikil456]

Yes I understand that. We live in Edmonton but majority of friends and family (from Windsor, Ontario) call us so its more fesible to keep Ontario number for their sake of not paying long distance charges. I do understand though that anyone in Edmonton would be paying Long distance to call us unles "they" have a long distance plan Thanks for your helpmuch appreciated

[computergeek541]

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You can definitely do this if you wish.  You'll need to keep in mind that anyone calling wil be placing calls to this city in Ontario (not sure if it's Windsor, Guelph, London, Kitchener, etc.).  From your end, it won't make any difference to you where you phone nubmer is from.   It's just a matter of knowing that people in that place in Alberta may have to pay for long distance to call you even if you live next door.   It'll be a good idea to switch from a provincial calling plan to a Canada-wide plan so you can actually return these peoples' calls.

[mikil456]

Thanks much appreciated for your help

[mikil456]

Thank you for your help much appreiated

[ShawnC13 · Accepted solution]

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@Alex888 wrote:

You would need to make sure that the plan you got included Canada wide calling, not just provincial, or you won't be able to call them (there are not added long distance charges with PM, you just can't call long distance if it's not in your plan). As long as you were porting in a number that you were using in Ontario it would probably be possible, I think PM only uses your current area code when you request a new number. No guarantees though, someone else may have a better idea.

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@Alex888, you can buy a long distance addon to go with your plan

[Alex888]

You would need to make sure that the plan you got included Canada wide calling, not just provincial, or you won't be able to call them (there are not added long distance charges with PM, you just can't call long distance if it's not in your plan). As long as you were porting in a number that you were using in Ontario it would probably be possible, I think PM only uses your current area code when you request a new number. No guarantees though, someone else may have a better idea.

[mimmo]

You can keep whatever number you want.  my suggestion is to read some of the Knowledge base articles.

Also when activating get assigned a temporary then port your number afterwards.

Don't forget to use your first number as a referal for the second number.

edit this is probably a good read https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-Activate/ta-p/251824

[ShawnC13]

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@mikil456 wrote:

Hello We moved to Alberta from Ontario Would like to keep Ontario 519 number so friends can call without long distance charges Can this be done while setting up sim car and phone activation. Is there a step by step somewhere here??? Thanks in advance

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If you currently have a PM plan yes switching provinces is no problem and hopefully you hae a Canada Wide calling plan so you can call back to Ontario to reach your friends.  The one down fall is that people in Alberta that don't have a Canada wide calling plan or are calling from a landline will need to dial long distance to call you.  

If you are just activating a sim with Public mobile yes you can port your Ontario number in but the aboce situations  will still be present.