Best Cell Phone to Communicate within Canada

If you want to stay connected with your friends and family, it's important to find the best cell phone to communicate within Canada. Finding useful features such as high resolution cameras and integrated music players may sound incredibly appealing, but none of these mean anything if the phone isn't able to get good voice quality or a strong signal. No one likes dropped calls.

In trying to find the best cell phone to communicate within Canada, you may be tempted with some handsets that come with cheap cell phone rates. All of these mobile phones are built alike, right? You only need to find the one that saves you the most money, right?

Unfortunately, this is not the case. To make matters even more complicated, there is no single cell phone that systematically gets the strongest signal or the absolute voice quality, because several other factors can come into play. There are, however, a few general guidelines that you may want to consider.

Just as within the United States, the cellular network operators in Canada use one of two primary technologies. CDMA-based networks are operated by Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility, whereas the major GSM-based operator in Canada is Rogers Wireless, which is also the owner and operator of Fido.

Is one technology always better than the other? No, not necessarily.

When thinking about the best cell phone to communicate within Canada, however, you do want to keep the differences between CDMA and GSM in mind. In general, CDMA service is better able to reach more remote and rural areas, because of the way that the cell phone towers work and how the technology operates. In this way, if you live in a smaller town, you may get better service (in general) with a CDMA-based operator.

Within major metropolitan areas, the difference is not nearly as pronounced and you can easily achieve a stronger signal, better voice quality, and fewer dropped calls with a GSM-based operator. Going with GSM has other advantages as well, like the ability to use your phone internationally to roam on networks in Asia and Europe.

Sticking with the GSM side of things, you'll also discover the concept of locked and unlocked phones. If you choose to go with a GSM-based operator, you have the opportunity to purchased unlocked overseas phones that will work with your chosen Canadian provider.

If you are looking to find the best cell phone to communicate within Canada, you'll want to keep "bands" or "frequencies" in mind. Rogers Wireless operates on both the 850MHz and 1900MHz band for its core connectivity. Looking at some overseas phones, you may find dual-band GSM handsets that only do 900MHz and 1800MHz. Before investing in an overseas phone, you'll want to make sure the frequencies are compatible. This applies to high-speed 3G data as well.

Without the right frequencies in place, your phone won't work. Never mind about finding the best communication, because you won't get any communication at all.

Getting fewer dropped calls and a stronger signal can involve many strategies and it would be unfair to say that getting a phone from Bell Mobility is necessarily "better" than getting one from Fido. It really depends on your circumstances, your location, and your chosen phone.

There are no hard and fast rules, but some people have found that Samsung phones can sometimes have poorer connectivity than phones that come from Nokia and Motorola. Others swear by the strong signal and good battery life of BlackBerry devices. In the end, you'll just need to read individual reviews and find out for yourself.

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