Hey @ConradH! Philippe here. I hope your doing well. 
I'm totally understand your situation there. No one likes to receive an unexpectedly high bill.
That said, as this is account related, your best option is to contact us here for all your options, or you can request a PM from the community for assistance.
Have a great day!
Hello Chemistua,
Unfortunately, what you suggest is not possible. I understand that intuitively, it might seem possible to just block calls made to the US. However, it is not possible for the phone companies to do so. Note that it is not just a Fido issue. The blocking outgoing International calls does not block calls to US from Canada (or to Canada from US) with all the telecommunications providers -- landline or mobile (see here).
The reason is because both Canada and the US use the same North American Numbering Plan (NANP). Blocking International calls blocks the Country codes to other countries. In fact, blocking International calls also won't block calls to the other 24 Countries either because they all use the same Country Calling code, 1. Blocking that Country code would also block calls within Canada.
In addition, while it might seem reasonable to block area codes, it's not feasible. Within the NANP, there are at least 380 area codes -- 338 outside of Canada. Significant resources would be required to scan through the area codes prior to every call. Furthermore, as populations grow, area codes are continually being added.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello CallingGoogse,
Welcome to the community!
Firstly, to reiterate:
@Cawtau wrote:
....Note that it is not just a Fido issue. The blocking outgoing International calls does not block calls to US from Canada (or to Canada from US) with all the telecommunications providers -- landline or mobile (see here).
~taken from link provided above.
Note that they reference from a US perspective stating the blocks do not affect outgoing calls to Canada... The same would be true for outgoing calls to the US from Canada.
More recently, Bell notes the same (see here).
@CallingGoogse wrote:
....
- Ultimately, Fido somehow knows that a call was made to the US because they identify those calls and charge you a lot for them. ...
I never stated it was impossible for Fido to tell a call was made to a US number. However, there is a difference between identifying a call made as being to a US number before the call connects and identifying it as such after the call has been made. Identifying the local of the call takes time. Even with modern computers, it would take more time to make that determination than it takes for a call to connect. On the other hand, the providers have all of the time between the end of the call to the end of a customer's billing cycle to determine call costs. Even after a billing cycle ends, there is time before the bill is generated. That's more than enough time to identify which calls would have incurred long-distance charges.
@CallingGoogse wrote:
....
- A proof that this is possible are the pre-paid carriers like Lucky Mobile and Fizz that will simply not allow you to make long-distance US calls if you don't have an ad-on....
There is also a difference between pre-paid and post-paid services. With pre-paid services a determination needs to be made before services are used in order to verify the account has sufficient funds to access services. That's likely why they tend to have fewer call features and long-distance options (see here and here).
It is a similar situation to pre-paid versus post-paid roaming usage tracking. I don't think there is anyway to track real-time roaming usage either (see here).
For post-paid roaming, when the user first switches their phone on, the visited network checks in real time whether the home network authenticates the customer and authorises its use abroad... ~ taken from here.
That would result in the Welcoming text message we receive when our phones connect to a foreign network.
...But the data records (CDRs) with the details on each SMS and data session are sent to the home operator with some delay (up to several days).. ~ also taken from link above.
If home networks don't receive usage information in real-time, it's not possible for them to provide customers with notification that a roaming session has begun without a delay.
As with international calls, the roaming situation is different with pre-paid services where a real-time exchange is required to prevent the balance of the roaming customers' accounts from becoming overdrawn. That's likely the reason why pre-paid roaming often costs more than post-paid roaming.
I understand you are not referring to roaming usage. However, it does highlight a fundamental difference between the two service types. Ultimately, customers need to choose which type of service suits them better. If you prefer to have international calling not accessible until the purchase of add-on or service pass, perhaps pre-paid services are a better option for you.
That said, customers can determine whether a number is Canadian or from the US. You might consider verifying a number is Canadian prior to dialling the number by checking its area code (see here).
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
