22geno, if you are with AT&T or any GSM cell service you can purchase a prepaid Sim card from Roger's Communications Co. in Canada, the service is called FIDO. Pull out your regular Sim card, insert their's and you have a new Canadian phone number and calls are treated as if local. AT&T did have a "Call Canada" program available at extra cost to US subscribers but it still seemed somewhat high to me. We just use prepaid land line phone cards while there but that wouldn't help your office call you. US AT&T phones roam fine on Rodgers but the cost can be very high, however if your office is paying the bills???
Cell phone coverage was important to us as we planned our Alaska trip. AT&T has good coverage in Alaska according to this RV Forum. A look at their map shows coverage where you would expect it in terms of cities. Rural areas are SOL, but that is the case in the rest of the US as well.
Roger's Communications is the dominate provider in Canada for cell coverage. Canada, most of Europe and the world at large has pre-paid phone plans that work well. Although Rogers is an AT&T roaming partner for US based AT&T customers that have monthly plans, you will not like their charges for calls from your AT&T phone. US based pre-paid phones do not work at all for any form of roaming in Canada.
You can purchase a Rogers SIM card with your own Canadian telephone number, voice mail etc for an initial cost of $49 and about $ .15 per minute usage charge. You can purchase before you leave – google “Canada prepaid cell phone”
We long ago elected a pre-paid AT&T (Cingular) account since we live in rural America and coverage is not good – we seldom use more than 30 minutes a month. With that plan, we pay $8.33 per month for cell coverage and our unused minutes accumulate. Currently we have several hundred minutes in the cell phone ‘bank’.
More importantly, since you have minutes in the bank, AT&T cannot cancel your plan/number since it has an account credit.
When we get to Canada, we take out the AT&T SIM card in the phone and put in a prepaid Rogers SIM card. Now we have cell coverage throughout Canada from the dominate provider.
Make sure you have an unlocked GSM cell phone capable of at least 850/1900 MHz reception. That phone will work in big city America, rural America(850 MHz is used here) and Canada.
Go to ebay, and search for “unlocked cell phone” – the last search had over 12,000 hits. We use a Nokia 3150 – it has 850/1800/1900 MHz reception, is inexpensive, rugged and readily available for about $25.
You now have a phone. Buy an AT&T ‘GO phone’ SIM card and it will work in Alaska. Buy the Rogers SIM card and it will work in Canada. Use the phone to make calls and also call your ‘regular’ cell/home number, pick up your messages, and return calls.
Inexpensive and reliable. The phones are so inexpensive that we purchased several – we have a Canada phone and an America phone – and one backs up the other in case of an accident.
Goodness, our cell phones are Cell One out of Alaska, and they work many more places then friends with other systems around the lower 48. The sale is done, the "changeover" is plodding along. The contact you made was not educated on the issue.
All of your phones will work in AK, as long as they have an agreement of use with the tower owners (now ATT), which most do. Don't worry about it.
As a rule, you will only have a signal near towns.
You do not need to pay more money to buy special phones and cards.
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