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Does "PROVINCE WIDE" permit 800 number access?

s2scotty
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Does the PROVINCE WIDE voice plan allow/permit access to 800-series toll-free numbers?

 

With thanks,

/S

15 REPLIES 15

yg1
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I am on a province-wide plan

 

PLUS I happen to have purchased a 200 minutes long distance bundle

 

Impossible to call 1-800-344-3370

 

I get the following message: "The number you have dialed is not available in your area at this time"

 

Someone please explain why or can someone fix this for me please?

 

Toll free numbers absolutely do work at Public Mobile with provincial calling plans.  As for other carriers, they ALL allow calling (at the same prices as local calls) to toll free numbers.  Public Mobile is no different I can confirm that 1-800 numbers are included on province-wide plans.

 

In fact, 1-800, 1-888, 1-877, etc numbers are even included on all the Canadian carriers even on local calling plans.  We have to remember that "toll free" does not mean that a call is "free".  It just means that there are no long distance charges to call the number.  In cases where people don't have unlimited voice minutes (other cell companies), applicable daytime/airtime minutes do get used up, but there is still no charge for the actual long distance.

 

I have read that customers of Chatr have had problems making toll free calls.  I read this back at a time when i was trying Chatr out and I can say that those calls worked fine for me.  Toll free calls also work fine for me at Public Mobile.

 

If Public Mobile is giving you message saying that you need a long distance add-on, that is either a system error, or the number isn't really toll free.  There are some area codes that may look a to be toll free but aren't (similar numbering).  There are also some toll free phone numbers that can only be accessed from specific countries (example: some can only be called from the U.S.). 

 

Here's a Wikipedia article about toll free numbers.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll-free_telephone_numbers_in_the_North_American_Numbering_Plan

Phoozles
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Interesting. I have a province wide plan and tried calling a 1800 number and got a message saying I'm not eligible make Long distance calls.

 

Have things changed?

barabasy
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I just signed for a Province-Wide plan and I confirm that 1-800 numbers work fine including out of province ones. I even tried 1-800 in US.

 

I was also able to call 1-844 numbers.

mightytb
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@srlawren I know right? I'm not sure why that happened. Maybe it was a one time occurrence. I made a few calls this morning to some toll-free numbers without any issues.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@mightytb very odd, indeed!  


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ute1978
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I have unlimited province-wide and dialed 1-888 number. Worked perfectly.

mightytb
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@s2scotty Are you referring to my post? If so, no, I'm not using an old phone. I have the LG Nexus 5 and have excellent 4G LTE reception in my area. I have no idea why that was happening.

s2scotty
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Most curious. Are you using, generation-wise, a way-way back 2G phone? Is there something else that's artifacting your experience in such an exceptional way? 

JaK
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Hi @s2scotty

 

I too am on province wide and have been successfully able to use 800/866 numbers when the business I was calling was out of province. 

urameatball
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

YES!

 

I'm on province wide calling and only recently signed up.

 

Upon activation, I tested every 1-800# I could find in my wallet. All 5 of them (including out-of-province & US lines) worked perfectly.

mightytb
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@s2scotty I was curious after reading your post so I started dialing some toll free numbers (Canadian as well as American) on my province wide talk plan and got some unexpected results. For every number I dialed, it would disconnect me immediately the first few times. However, if I keep redialing, I eventually get through on the 4th or 5th try.

 

For the times it disconnected, it just dropped the call without the error message that you would normally get if you tried calling a long distance number that wasn't covered by your plan.

If you have a PM account, you can try and see if it works or not.

 

I have Canada-US Talk, so I can't say for certain.

s2scotty
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Other carrier's prov-only do not. 800's are terminated on real NPA-NXX-XXXX, where the termination may be outside of Ontario. Are we sure about the answer being "yes" for PM.

makkahn28
Mayor / Maire

I believe yes, would be surprised if 1-800 #'s don't work on Prov-Wide

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