This Speakout forum has some valuable information.

It seems that we might have to grab a new SIM card from 7-11. I just picked up one myself (walked up and asked for a Speakout SIM card).

The old SIM cards, what I currently have in my phone, shows me on the Rogers network but without LTE. I strongly suspect that this has to be replaced with the new SIM cards.

In that forum, people say that with the new SIM card, they now see LTE service on Telus. This suggests to me that Ztar (Speakout) has made a new arrangement with Telus instead of Rogers.

 

There's a long thread on RFD about this. Looks like the $25/year minimum plan is gone and you have to sign up for a $19 or more/month plan when you convert to the new SIM. 1st month is free and you can use your existing balance for the monthly plan until it runs out. This is a Speakout plan, not Lucky. All in all, a big mess.

 

Ztar have been in a pi*sing match of some kind with Rogers (SpeakOut wireless, other MVNOs struggle with Rogers amid 3G shutdown). I was a Petrocan/Good2Go subscriber, also run by Ztar, and in August they basically told me to go use Luck Mobile, and sent me a free SIM. They have nothing, as far as I can tell, to do with Lucky or Bell (who owns Lucky). Here in Ontario there is no retailer for Speakout (no 7/11) and I can't see that Ztar is doing anything to transition Good2Go. They don't even answer the phone.

 

This sounds terrible. Even the web site shows the lowest cost plan as $19, which I presume means $19 per month.

I can't really keep an emergency / backup phone that's going to cost me $228 a year even if not used!

And I had a few older relatives on Speakout phones, because it hardly cost anything. What other cheap options remain in Canada, for someone who hardly ever uses the phone?

 

Yeah, I've had my mom on the SpeakOut plan for a few years and she typically never uses her phone, but at least it was there "just in case".

She usually just left her phone in her desk drawer, but I guess it will stay there permanently now unless another provider steps up to offer a similar service. It would definitely have to be less than $50 a year, and even that is pushing it for something that doesn't get used.

 

For what it's worth: I tried one of the new SIM cards from 7-11, which starts with digits 89122
Unlike the older SIM cards, the phone now does come up with 4G / LTE

But the real problem appears to be getting stuck with the new monthly charges through Speakout. It will add up to a lot of money.

 

I hear your pain. I had looked at the 7/11 Speakout plan in the past when planning for full retirement when my work phone would be handed back.

On the other hand, prime telcos cant ask for virtually no money from MVNO's when primes bear the capital cost of newer cel infrastructure. Bonds have to be paid off somehow.

 

Chatr (Rogers) has a $100/year voice/text plan that might be useful. Personally I eschewed that one as I feel that Rogers is the bad guy in this mess and doesn't deserve to pick up the business after they torpedoed Ztar.

 

I stopped following the whole thing after switching all my devices to Lucky and PC Mobile. Interesting that Speakout has relaunched itself. Good2Go seems to have just remained out of business. Their web site still just says go over to Lucky mobile. There's nothing on Ztar's own web site about any of this. The new Speakout plans seem to be clones of the Lucky Mobile ones. I wonder if Bell (via Lucky) now operates the Speakout MVNO directly, or if Ztar is still somehow involved. I can imagine that 7-11 might have gone to Bell themselves leaving Ztar, whereas Good2Go which was operated directly by Ztar was just abandoned. With any luck Roger's claim that Ztar stiffed them for a pile of cash is true. Rogers are idiots and I am glad to no longer be a customer at all, even indirectly.

The stuff I used to rely on cheap PAYG SIMs for can now be done with narrowband LTE modems on PAYG plans that cost $0.02/day + $0.03/MB or so, so I can collect my cottage status reports and system alarms for $20/year. No calls or text tho, only interwebs.

 

Another alternative is Freedom Mobile, where you can get a $100/year plan I think. It's still going to be more expensive than the old Speakout.

I really hate Rogers.

The stuff I used to rely on cheap PAYG SIMs for can now be done with narrowband LTE modems on PAYG plans that cost $0.02/day + $0.03/MB or so, so I can collect my cottage status reports and system alarms for $20/year. No calls or text tho, only interwebs.

Just so I understand, I suppose you're talking here about a purely data connection with no regular phone capabilities, right? Which provider are you using for this cheap data service?

 

There's a company called TextNow which has an app, and can do SMS through a Canadian number (which they give you). It's kind of like VoIP with a texting focus.

Using the idea by @gardner , what if one uses this super cheap data, and then puts TextNow on the phone. Or for that matter, any other VoIP application -- for voice and/or text.

Could one then have very cheap Canadian texting at a low monthly cost? And I wonder if the banks could send SMS through the TextNow number.

 

There's a company called TextNow which has an app, and can do SMS through a Canadian number

I think you could take this approach with viop.ms too. Very low cost and has an API. Not an app though, AFAICS.

https://voip.ms/products/messaging-suite

For my part, I think I would want the system to work a little like webmail. I would log into the web app and be able to see a log of SMS messages there. When a new message came, I could see it right away. I could set up forwarding rules to forward the actual message, or just a notification. 'course the whole thing would just create a new attack surface.

 

I have been working with a company that does IoT with very low data rates, using a technology called LoRaWan. (acronym corrected after original postig time).

Uses local radio sites on lower than cellular frequencies forthe last mile link to the field devices.

So that and lower throughputs puts nodes on the air for like $11K of equipment, plus power and comm to site costs that cover a radius in open areas of like 30km radial.

Used for things like tracking where all the snow and lawn maintenance gear and luggage carts and towmotors and pusher tractors are at major airports on a once a day check in basis.

So maybe some firms are hybridizing faster data rates for texting on a low rent cellular type service that is a bit more up market that what I am dealing with, yet not full LTE.

 

LoRaWAN is not fully mobile -- like you say, it depends on there being a LoRa/Internet gateway around. There are schemes to commercialize the gateway to allow end users to avoid this part of the equation, but coverage is pretty spotty and unreliable. I think there's a node covering eastern Ottawa, but nothing in rural eastern Ontario, for example.

By comparison narrowband LTE is absolutely commercial and has solid coverage everywhere there is a mobile network. It's more suited to truly mobile things, like trucks or even shipping containers, though there's no mid-ocean coverage, of course. But I can put a logger in a reefer in Ontario and watch it go to Vancouver and re-appear in Hong-Kong and verify what the internal temperature log says about the journey.

Neither technology feels relevant to the cheap phone requirements that Speakout used to address. For my part, I use the cheap SIM plans to do the remote reporting from my rural property via text messages to and from small modules and embedded systems. This is a bit of an edge case, except I know that a lot of alarm systems use (or used to) this sort of functionality.

 

In case this is helpful for anyone, the providers also usually have email to SMS gateways. You can often email phonenumber@provider.com which then sends an SMS out.

 

I think at least a few people here use Speakout. I keep it on a backup (emergency) cell phone.

One thing that seems clear is that older phones that only use 3G will no longer work with Speakout. The network changes will require 4G / LTE going forward.

However, I'm not clear on what happens to people currently on Speakout with LTE (4G) phones. At the moment, my service still works fine.

Will these phones continue to work on Speakout, with pay-as-you-go? I've seen some conflicting information out there. The Speakout web site seems to be directing people to get a new SIM card for Lucky Mobile. Is that only people with the older 3G phones who have to do this?

We have Speakout on two phones. Both LTE/4G. When we first received emails re change in service, those said to get a SIM card from Lucky Mobile if you only had 3G. I contacted Speakout and they said to contact Lucky if you had doubts about your phone's capability, but if they are 4G, they should continue to work.

We are in Ontario and our phones still work.

This is part of a reply received on August 21st:

The retirement of the 3G (HSPA) network, starting August 31, 2025, will only affect customers who rely on that network. If your phone is compatible with the 4G VoLTE network, your service will not be interrupted, and you do not need to switch. Our partnership with Lucky Mobile and the free SIM card offer is specifically for customers whose service will be impacted by the 3G shutdown.

On phone Speakout app, it does have a message saying it s time to get the free SIM. But does not explain anything further, especially if this is needed to continue with the pay as you go prepaid talk and text plan. I guess I should contact them again!