After our "bad" experience with Bell Mobility last winter, we are trying to figure out a suitable cell phone with service in Canada and the southwest U.S. Need to be able to phone to Canada (infrequently), New York and occasionaly to Star Choice, or Hughes net for the odd tech problem.
If we buy the phone here, we obviously will have a Canadian number, or vice a versa.... The BIG problem last winter was roaming charges, different networks that wanted us to log on and pay,,, it was a real eye opener.... How does one get away from roaming charges?
We have been reading up on Virgin, which actually you can go into a store here and buy the phone (Zellers) We do not want a contract, so thinking pre-paid.... well just read another forum on cell phones:
" Yes, I’m seeing that Virgin Mobile is definitely geared toward big city dwellers. We didn’t end up upgrading to them because they don’t offer service out in the sticks, where we’ll be located all summer" Guess I had better keep researching..
Kelly
* This post was
edited 05/31/08 07:33am by The Bayfield Bunch *
Kelly & Al
2003 Damon Challenger, model 329 Chevy Workhorse 8.1 & Allison transmission. Towing '03 Hyundai Santa Fe 4 cyl 5 speed.
3 lovable doggy guys. Max, Checkers,& Cora..aka, Buddy Bear, Swamper, & Motormouse
Reverse situation. I spend Summers in Canada. I have an unlocked GSM phone with a SIM card. When in Canada (now)I use a prepaid FIDO SIM card. I bought it 4 years ago for $25. I have a Montreal phone number which I buy prepaid vouchers for. Costs me .20 minute local and .30 minute to USA. When back in the states I replace with my ATT SIM card and use my US #. While in Canada my US # is on vacation which costs $10.00 month to keep my # active.
I have not investigated, but have heard that Verizon offers service in Canada for an additional $20.00 month on their US National plans.
We are the reverse situation also, have a cottage in Ontario. We use the Verizon North American plan. $70/ mo incl taxes etc, 450 anytime minutes and 1,000 weekend min. NO ROAMING in North America. It uses the Bell towers in Canada. Works for us.
Hi Kelly, Let me give you a short story of what we found. Last fall/winter we traveled in the states for six month including all eastern states, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada Utah Idaho and Montana for a total of 28,000Km. In previous years we would change our Rogers phone over to "All North American Plan" so that we could use it down south without roaming charges. The problem was that cost was ridiculous. So we decided to pick up a "Pay as you Go' once we where across the border.We entered the states in Maine and got a TracFone and that turned out to be a mistake as we had a lot of problem getting it activated,finally getting a Net10 phone at Walmart and That worked out really great. Although both phones are owned by the same Company they are worlds apart in what the offer. with Net10 we had no problems with calling back to Canada when ever we wanted and it also has a added feature that allows people in Canada to call you with no extra charges. We found the "Customer Service" left a lot to be desired but that is not any different then all other cell phone companies that we have dealt with. We also had really decent coverage where ever we traveled, and a another plus was the rates where very reasonable. So there you have our experience. Oh and when we go back south next fall we will just buy some more minutes and reactivate it.
Take a look at there web page to get a better idea of what the are about, we bought our phone & minutes at Walmart.
No roaming, no long distance, no maintenance charges to keep a phone number active, no multiple phones to play around with and no multiple phone numbers. We've never been hit with any extra charges while traveling coast to coast. The equivalent per minute cost of the Connect USA plan is a bit higher than some but, overall annual trip costs can be lower all costs in considered. We put the plans on before we leave and take off when we get home. In between times we simply revert back to our low home based monthly rate.
Lorne Ross
2003 Pleasure-Way Ford Excel TD Camped the lower 48 states and 9 provinces
Most multiple times and now on the repeat!
We spend 6 months in Ontario and 6 months in the US. We use the Bell North America plan for the US. And the Bell Canada plan for Canada. Both expensive, but no roaming charges. With the North America plan you have to pay local taxes, which have been most times around $5.
Thank you for all those responses, something for us to think about for sure.... We will defintely give Skype a try too, but have been told that our Hughes Net satellite connection may cause some lag in the voice over... but still, worth a try ..
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