<p>I'm attending McGill but my parents live in New York which means my summer and possibly other breaks will be spent at home. Anyone have any advice on what cell phone plan I should look into getting so I can call people in montreal and at the same time not spend hundreds of dollars calling my friends who are all staying in the US / the occasional phone call to my parents?</p>
<p>Your best bet is probably a local Montreal number and then just using a local phone card (long distance calling card) to call into the states. Anything a canadian service provider offers you won't be nearly as good as the rates with a calling card, and many plans now come with a whole pile of evening/weekend minutes, if not unlimited, so you can just call then. You'll be in class during the day anyway.
The best way to get the most out of your plan (In my opinion) is to get billing by the second and unlimited incoming calls. With these two, you'll probably never go over your limit for airtime unless you make long calls from your end.</p>
<p>In terms of canadian service providers, I'd go with Rogers or Fido. Telus and Bell use CDMA technology which is crap, plus it limits your phone selection A LOT. If you get an unlocked GSM phone, you can just drop in a new SIM card whenever you get a new plan. You could get a monthly plan for Montreal and a prepaid (Pay-as-you-go) for NY in the summers or something, and you'd only need one phone.</p>