Originally Posted by lynx
Sorry, I didn't make myself very clear.
What I meant was that unlike the UK, you can't just get a PAYG phone and expect it to work anywhere. You still have to get it a sim card which is linked to an area, and if you use it outside that area you pay roaming charges, just like UK users do when going abroad.
So from that point of view, getting a PAYG phone (or more accurately sim card) for use in Canada is not the same as getting one for use in UK. The equivalent might be getting a PAYG phone for use in, say, British Columbia.
Unless that's changed very recently.