I  visit Craigslist almost every day, looking for good deals on items on my wish list. This week, something caught my eye and I followed up on it.

I don’t like contracts because life is unpredictable, but I decided to bend my own rule and take over someone else’s Telus mobile internet contract for a seven month duration in exchange for a free Sierra Wireless 306 Mobile Internet Key.

My initial contact with Telus makes me believe this contract takeover will be a good deal for me since, for a small fee, I can stop it over the summer and restart it in the fall (which would extend the contract into 2011). Telus is the main wireless provider in BC, meaning that so long as I stick to the main roads, ie. the Alaska Highway, I could have internet access most of the way to Whitehorse and back south.

The key alone is worth over $200 and was my biggest obstacle to signing up for such a service since I didn’t want to lock myself into a contract in order to finance the purchase of the key. The plans aren’t cheap, starting at $30 (plus taxes and network fees, of course) for a mere 500mb, up to $65 (plus taxes and network fees) for 5GB. Telus says that I can sign up for a cheap plan and move up to another plan once per billing period if I think I will be going overboard. For May, I will sign on for the $40 1GB plan and see how far that takes me.

I won’t be excited about this purchase until I am parked in a Walmart parking lot or a highway turnout and able to post to the blog, but I can feel the potential of this breakthrough bubbling deep inside me.

Now, I just need to decide on how I’m going to get online in Dawson. One step at a time!