Need help moving to Ottawa (student)

NukedBread · July 30, 2016

Hello fellow LTT forum minions. I would like some advice on a few topics to help ease my move to Ottawa. I will be attending Carleton University and will arrive in Ottawa in late august.

Things i want to know about:

Will the weather kill me if i bike to university in the winter? (bike ride is 12-15 mins)
What are best places to buy groceries and other everyday items?
If i want to buy a phone with contract which carrier is the cheapest and the best? (Huawei P9 or HTC 10. Yes I know only bell is providing the 10)
If anyone has bought the Bell HTC 10, please explain the pros and cons plus whats included in the contracts. (never had a contract before so EILI5)

What I want in my plan is at least 1gb with good connectivity. I don't really know about other features because like I said I have never bought a plan before.

Hope people reply to this.

Thanks in advance.

dalekphalm · July 30, 2016

4 hours ago, NukedBread said:

Hello fellow LTT forum minions. I would like some advice on a few topics to help ease my move to Ottawa. I will be attending Carleton University and will arrive in Ottawa in late august.

Things i want to know about:

Will the weather kill me if i bike to university in the winter? (bike ride is 12-15 mins)

What are best places to buy groceries and other everyday items?

If i want to buy a phone with contract which carrier is the cheapest and the best? (Huawei P9 or HTC 10. Yes I know only bell is providing the 10)

If anyone has bought the Bell HTC 10, please explain the pros and cons plus whats included in the contracts. (never had a contract before so EILI5)

What I want in my plan is at least 1gb with good connectivity. I don't really know about other features because like I said I have never bought a plan before.

Hope people reply to this.

Thanks in advance.

I won't be able to answer the local specifics (eg: Grocery stores), but for #1:

Yes.

Yes it will.

Ottawa is notorious for a very cold winter season. It also depends on where you come from, since what you're used to will really determine how "bad" winter is for you.

http://www.livingin-canada.com/climate-ottawa.html

Between December and February, the average maximum temperatures are all below zero (Celsius), and the average minimum temperatures are below -10 Celsius.

On cold days it can easily get below -30 Celsius.

Oh and then there's the snow. Snow season lasts for over 120 days in Ottawa. I don't know how effective the snow removal department is, but expect Sidewalks to often by slush or ice filled. Expect the shoulder of the road to be piled with snow, since the snow plow pushes snow from the middle of the road to the sides.

This makes bike riding very dangerous on particularly snowy days, because you can't safely ride in the bike lane (or on the shoulder), since it will be piled with snow. That means you'll be riding your bike in the actual lane, much closer to cars, in a snow and ice environment with slippery roads. This means the cars will either have to pass you extremely closely (Which, is now illegal in Ontario, as they need to provide you with 1m of distance while passing), or they'll be stuck behind you, and that's not good for anyone.

I advise you to stow the bike during the winter season.

During the spring/fall/summer, though, Biking is an excellent way to traverse Ottawa. It's a nice and very beautiful city.

Also, FYI, there are Underground Tunnels (for pedestrians - I don't think you're supposed to ride bikes in them) connected to Carlton University - they connect to various places, but I forget where exactly. It might only be internally at the various parts of the University, but it might also connect to other parts of the city. You should look into that.

For Carriers in Ottawa, you've got the major three:

Bell

Rogers

Telus

They're all pretty much the same, with only minor differences here and there. A "Contract" basically means over 2 years, part of your monthly bill goes towards paying off the cost of the phone. If you decide to leave the carrier before the end of the contract, you will be responsible for paying off whatever remaining balance is on the phone. The phone will also be locked to the carrier. You can unlock the phone as long as it's fully paid (Eg: Not on a contract, or after the contract ends), but there may be an unlock fee involved. Rogers charges $50 to unlock devices, for example. All three big carriers have LTE networks, with pretty good coverage in any major city.

Then you've got Wind Mobile, which is running an HSPA+ network (They call it "4G", but we all know that's bullshit. HSPA+ is barely faster than the original HSPA 3G spec, and at best is "3.5G"). Wind offers Unlimited Data, but WILL throttle the connection (To 256Kbps - that's Kilobits, not Kilobytes) after a set amount of Data, which depends on which plan you choose. The "top" Wind plan offers you 10GB of Data at full speed, throttled after that. Wind has a very small network. They have coverage in most big cities, including Ottawa, that "more or less" covers the entire city, but there might be the occasional dead zone. You can roam on another network while outside the "Wind Zone", but you pay $0.05 per MB of Data roaming. The top Wind plan does come with 1GB of "roaming" data to be used in Canada outside the Wind Zone.

Wind is by far the best "deal", but it has a number of pretty significant limitations, including the fact that it's slower (Non-LTE) and you roam outside their limited network.

If you never leave the city, you'll probably be fine.

Another thing to note about Wind is that recently they were bought by Shaw Communications (They are the major Cable TV/Internet provider in Western Ontario - very similar to Rogers or TWC/Comcast). This MAY mean that Wind will be able to deploy an LTE network soon, but there is no set date or even a rough time frame.

There are other "Carriers", such as Koodo, Fido, Virgin Mobile, etc, but these are all subsidiaries of the "Big Three" (Rogers, Bell, Telus). These carriers focus on discount plans and "Pre Paid/Pay as you go" type plans. If you're a heavy user - especially data, you're likely better off going with one of the main carriers or Wind.