Fido.CA is the
website of the Fido Cellular. Fido.com is a dog website.
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 Fido
Solutions, formerly known as Microcell Telecommunications is a Canadian
cellular telephone service provider.
Since November 2004, Fido is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Rogers Wireless. Fido was the first carrier in Canada to
launch a GSM-based network and the first wireless service provider in North
America to offer General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) on its network. Fido
ranked the "highest in customer satisfaction among contract service
providers" in Canada according to the J. D. Power and Associates 2007
Canadian Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study.
Fido was unique in that they offered plans with unlimited voice and/or data
transfer to their customers. When Rogers purchased Fido, they ceased
offering such plans and only allowed previous customers to keep these plans
as long as they sign an agreement.
We all believe that we are practicing good
cell phone etiquette when we venture out into the world with our cell phones
and our daily mission. It is not uncommon for us to get a little wrapped up
in ourselves and violate the basic rules of cell phone etiquette. This can
be particularly difficult when we aren’t even sure of the rules when it
comes to cell phone etiquette.
Obviously, talking on your cell phone in public places that a quiet
environment is paramount is considered quite rude. Libraries, court rooms,
and high end restaurants are the most obvious, and yet people still believe
that they are exempt from this very basic example of cell phone etiquette.
Even more appalling is the basic attention that a cell phone can require.
Regardless of where we are or what we are doing, we can be reached, and of
course, we can be distracted. Whether we are having a quiet moment with a
loved one or a meeting with a potential client, cell phones can quickly drag
away our attention. There is little that matches the glaringly obvious
communication faux pas as the cell phone that creates the distraction and
the answerer who puts their “live” individual on hold.
It seems like everywhere a person goes there is at least one person in view
with a cell phone to their ear whether it is on the road, in a store, in a
parking lot, walking down the street, etc. Even in places where cell phone
usage is banned such as concert halls or movie theaters there is the
occasional offender, or more likely, at least a few people using the text
messaging feature on their phone.
Cell phone usage has exploded over the past decade and continues to rise.
Nearly two hundred million people in the United States have cell phones and
there are well over one billion users worldwide. That means there are a lot
of phones sending their frequencies over the airwaves at any given time.
Concern has arisen over whether or not cell phone usage can harm a person’s
health. Brain cancer rates in the United States have risen since cell phones
were introduced, leading some people to wonder if cell phone usage is the
reason for the increase.
Cell phones (telefone
celular) are increasingly used in the modern world. They are no longer a
luxury, but are considered a need. They can send and receive e-mail, get
information on news, entertainment, make a call home while traveling and
contact the police or the ambulance during an emergency.
The radio, telephone and computer technology fused together to make the cell
phone technology. Nevertheless, with the advancing technology, marketing
became much tougher, and cell phone operators devised numerous clauses in
their contracts to ensure that their competitors do not erode their customer
base. Thus the cell phone contract was born.
A cell phone (telefone celular) contract is an agreement between the buyer
and the wireless cell phone service provider. Usually it is of 1 or 2 years
of duration, during which a consumer is legally bound to remain with the
wireless service provider. Certain operators give a trial period to their
consumers. After the trial period of 14 or 30 days is over, when the
contract is entered upon and the phone is bought, the penalty for breaking
the contract can range from $150 to $600, depending on where the phone was
bought.
Before the contract finishes, if a new phone is to be bought, then some
companies give a customer loyalty discount, which in effect extends the
contract. This may prove to be expensive when compared to buying a new phone
with a good discount. Thus, you may be locked in to a single operator,
without your knowing it, if you do not read and understand the terms of the
cell phone contract.
If one is not satisfied with the service provided by the cell phone (telefone
celular) service provider, then one can come out of the contract, without
paying a termination fee, if someone else is willing to go through the
contract for the remaining period. Finding someone willing to undertake this
may be difficult. Numerous websites have come up which help you in finding
someone to transfer your contract to, however cell phone service providers
do not endorse such websites as they only connect the buyer and the seller,
doing nothing with the actual transfer.
Thus once you find a buyer for your cell phone contract, you have to contact
your cell phone service provider to complete the transfer. This may take
quite some time, as your provider will do a credit check on the buyer and if
the creditworthiness is not found sufficient for the contract, the transfer
will not take place. In case the transfer does take place, then you have the
option of keeping the same number that you originally had. Usually, it has
been seen that with transfers, you may have to supply the cell phone also as
a free incentive to the buyer. High-end cell phones offered free along with
the transfer usually get buyers within a couple of days.
Cell phone (telefone celular) service providers generally give a trial
period before enforcing the contract term, which may be of 1-year or 2-year
duration. Almost all providers give at least 14 to 30 days of trail period.
A 1-year cell phone contract has a shorter commitment period, which may
prove to be beneficial if the phone needs repairs, or is lost.
In addition, since the period is short, one may avail of new discounts that
come up. After the term of 1-year ends, the phone can be kept without any
contract and no penalty is charged for quitting. However, in a 1-year
contract, the activation fee and/or the phone may not be cheap. Certain
discounts and promotional offers cannot be availed of as in a 2-year period.
In a 2-year cell phone (telefone celular) contract, the activation fee
and/or the phone may not be expensive. Huge discounts on the phone may be
availed. Special promotions may be availed. However, since the phone is kept
for a longer duration, more money may be spent on repairing, insuring, or
replacing. The opportunity to buy a new phone reduces, and thus may not be
eligible to switch cell phone service providers. Expensive phones may also
opt for phone replacement insurance plans. However, due to the costs of such
plans, few subscribe to these plans.
Pre-Paid or No Contract cell phones (telefone celular) are not available
with all cell phone service providers. They are attractive as they require
no commitment, the credit history is unimportant, and there is no penalty
for quitting. However, call charges may be more expensive, and no
promotional discounts etc., may be availed of.
It is always advisable to read and fully understand the terms of the cell
phone provider as stated in the contract form, including the fine print,
before signing the cell phone (telefone celular) contract.
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any
previous authorization from the author. However the author's name and all
the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.
Fido brings full Twitter text to Canadian customers
TORONTO, May 5 /CNW/ - Fido announced today that customers can now send
and receive updates from popular messaging service Twitter by SMS text message
over their mobile phones, via short code 21212. The feature comes at no
additional cost for customers on text messaging plans.
When the service goes live today, Fido customers who subscribe to a text
messaging plan will be able to update their Twitter status and receive updates
(known as "tweets") via text messages on their mobile phones. Twitter texts
are treated as standard messages under all text messaging plans.
"With more than one million Fido subscribers across Canada, it is
important that we continue to save money for our customers with value like
Twitter SMS text messaging on their mobile phones," said Sylvain Roy, Senior
Vice President and General Manager, Fido. "We will continue to support and
strengthen our relationship with Twitter in the future, to bring the latest
mobile services to our customers."
"We're thrilled to be working with Fido," said Kevin Thau, Twitter's
Director of Mobile Business Development. "Twitter is a real-time messaging
service for sharing and discovering what's happening - right now. By
partnering with Fido, customers using Twitter can now view, post and reply to
messages within their text messaging plans, ensuring the application stays
affordable and true to its real-time nature."
In addition to being able to send and receive tweets, customers will also
have access to all Twitter capabilities including the ability to add (or
"follow") new people and reply to updates. To limit the amount of received
messages, they will also be able to select whether they want to receive
updates from all the people they follow or from a select group of people.
Traffic to Twitter continues to accelerate with a yearly growth rate of
more than 1,300 percent.
Twitter will not be charged as a premium SMS service on Fido. Each
outgoing tweet will be counted as one message within a customer's text
messaging plan. Messages outside of a plan are 15 cents each. If customers do
not subscribe to a text messaging plan, out-of-plan text messaging charges
apply. These rates apply anywhere in Canada on the Fido Network.
About Fido:
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Fido gives low prices a good home by offering Canadian consumers simple,
high-value low price wireless voice and data products and services with
excellent customer care. Operating on the global standard GSM and HSPA
technology platforms, Fido customers can roam in over 200 countries/areas.
For more information, please visit fido.ca.
For further information: Miranda MacDonald, Tel: (416) 935-3638, Cell:
(647) 302-5059, miranda.macdonald@rci.rogers.com
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