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Best Smartphone Plan Covering US and Canada?
j00bhaka writes "I am a US citizen attending university in Nova Scotia, Canada. I currently have the Verizon America and Canada plan (also known as the North American plan). My bill is currently around $80-$100 per month. I chose this for a couple reasons. One, I have had my number for about 7 years. Two, I do not permanently live in Canada. I live in Canada for 8 months out of the year at school, then travel home for the summer months. Either way, I would be dealing with international roaming without having both countries in my plan. Currently, I obviously don't have a smartphone. Through Verizon, I could purchase one, and add their international unlimited data plan on top of my (already) hefty phone bill. I have looked into Telus and Rogers here in Canada and cannot find anything better. As a student, my budget is obviously limited. Is there any way to reasonably have (and utilize) a smartphone while I am living in both countries? If so, what do you suggest I do?"
and we only just got plumbing installed you insensitive clod!
. .
For your internet on the go, you would rely on wifi and your notebook/netbook.
I guess the biggest question would be - why a smartphone specifically?
Assuming you have some sort of decent Internet access at school, at something available at home, why not just get a VoIP line (a' la Vonage, MagicJack, etc)? You'd have a single number that would cross borders with you easily, and it would be one heck of a lot cheaper.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
...and swap out SIM cards. See if that is cheaper. It might be.
Then use Google Voice to forward to both numbers.
You're a student? Here's some advice that you did not solicit: Consider whether this is an opportunity to save yourself some longterm pain by keeping your expenses low. Consider the actual cost of the plan...as it affects the level of debt you'll carry (if any) as a result of tuition loans.
Maybe a smartphone and data plan is a must have....for a student... ...don't think it is though. I know, it'd be a tough living, wouldn't it?
Here's the thing... there is no network that can legally operate in both countries. American interests own the American networks, and Canadian networks are owned by Canadian companies. You're going to be on somebody's roaming network when you're in the other country.
AT&T warns iPhone users that they won't want to take their heavy-data-using phones into Canada, Mexico, or anywhere because they'll be charged high roaming data rates.
I think Verizon might be your best selection because they've at least won't be charging you by the bit. Still, watch your Canadian usage of a US plan carefully because they'll still have to pay roaming rates even if they're not passing them on to you. Too much roaming network usage on an unlimited plan is usually a TOS reason to worm out of the deal.
Get this. Up until 15-20 years ago (practically) no college students had cell phones. They all managed to survive and get through school despite that handicap. You may have to endure being a social pariah for a few years but it isn't necessary to have a smartphone.
I don't know if it's still available but you can use the Verizon WirelessWeb feature on a smartphone without getting a data plane. Whether they'll let you upgrade to a smartphone without upgrading to data is another thing. They allowed this for the first time with the Centro.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
There really is no good price for international roaming. Since you want to keep your US number, this is what you do:
1. During the school year, put your verizon phone on the cheapest possible plan that includes unlimited call forwarding.
2. Get a Canadian cell phone (personally, I hate all Canadian cell phone companies, but dislike Rogers the least).
3. Get a toll-free number that goes to your Canadian cell phone, and this toll-free number must cover Canada & the US. This will cost you around 3-5 cents/minute. Also get a toll-free number that goes to your verizon cell phone.
4. During the school year, call-forward your verizon phone to the toll-free that goes to your Rogers phone. So now your friends back home can still call you at your old number, and it doesn't cost you that much.
5. During the summer, call-forward your rogers phone to the toll-free that goes to the verizon phone.
QED.
Wow, you managed to give a solution that does not address a single requirement of the problem... Bravo.
I've been trying this but the problem is I don't end up with a reasonable data plan on the prepaid phones which turns out to be a drag. Anyone have ideas for good prepaid plans with data in the Canada? What about US?
Worst ideas I've seen in a while...
Prepaid rates are great if you use a small number (15-30) minutes a month... but anything more and you're better off buying a monthly plan.
And WiFi when you travel isn't so cool... you'll find yourself paying US$15-20 a day if your hotel doesn't include it in the price, and those that do include it tend to charge more so you can't win that game. You can't sit in a coffee shop and get WiFi for multiple hours without running up quite the food bill. Nothing's truely free.
I travel to Canada from the US often for work and have tried this as I also have a Rogers plan. Google voice will not forward the calls to international numbers, even if it's our neighbor, Canada.
Maybe what this kid needs is a iPod Touch or the upcoming WiFi-only iPad. If data plans are unreasonable with the roaming charges, maybe he can just do the smartphone-like things in WiFi zones, and keep his current phone-only device with a phone-only plan...
I hear in Canada they call Canadian Geese just geese. Also, their bacon is round.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
I tend to pick a carrier first, and the phone second. That's because I'm one of the seemingly few people left who actually care whether the phone part works. Verizon has good coverage in the US... Can't speak to Canada, but if you have no complaints about coverage, I'd tend to stay with that carrier. I am also a Verizon customer, and there is no doubt that you pay through the nose for their services, but again, there is that 'wanting my phone to work' thing that I can't seem to get past.
ATT is another obvious choice, with good coverage in the US and likely in Canada as well. You'd have to compare rates on those two carriers. After that, you get into the lesser carriers (IMHO) such as Sprint. Cheaper per month, but for me they had radically worse coverage.
Other considerations would be what the networks are of those you call most - if they are all on Verizon, all those calls are airtime free if you are on Verizon too... Same would go for the other carriers.
Another poster pointed out that you could go with a generic GSM phone and use prepaid sim cards in both countries and tie them together with Google Voice. You'll lose the free minutes thing, so it makes sense to think about how much you call people.
As for the smartphone thing, you can get good smartphones from all the carriers now. They all seem to have blackberries and ATT has the iPhone while Verizon has the Droid. I waited a LONG time for Verizon to offer me a really nice (read: trendy) phone, and now have a Droid and like it very much. I don't want to engage in the whole iPhone/Droid debate... suffice it to say that they are both cool, both very usable, and both are a pleasure to have.
But in summary, I'd say examine the network first, phones second. Then pays the money, whatever it works out to be. The frustration of a big phone bill pales in comparison to a phone/network that doesn't work for you. That is a daily frustration, and the bill only comes once a month.
Brawndo: It's what plants crave!
International roaming will always be expensive, be it for calls or data.
1- do you really need it ? I'd expect Wifi to be available most anywhere you are (though not while you're actually on the move), so VOIP, maybe with both a Canadian and a US provider, should be OK for you most of the time.
2- for when you DO need voice or data on the move or out of Wifi coverage, it's you choice between a single number w/ expensive international roaming, or 2 numbers, swapping SIMs.
I don't know what your situation is, but lotsa students have managed to survive without mobile phones, or without $100 monthly bills. Might require a little planning and temperance.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
You call that hefty? My Cell phone bill is $411 a month without overages.
I do have 2 Blackberries and 3 data lines (Verizon) but I'd still love a $80-$100 a month bill.
Get a Droid and use Google Voice.
Free calls to Canada.
https://www.google.com/voice/rates
The best way to get the plan you want is to do it the old fashioned way, and haggle over the price. Call up customer service and use your best leverage to convince them that you deserve a better plan than what they offer their first time customers. Long time customer, client retention (claim a plan offered by another telco that equals or exceeds your desired plan) and plain persistance. If they don't let you have it, call them back again. Try different times, especially after works hours to reach different customer support staff. Design your dream smartphone plan and then do not give up until you get it, as they may give you small concessions one after another until you reach your goal.
This worked very well as a long term customer of Rogers, when Telus got the iPhone.
If a budget is most important to you, then switch to Sprint or another company. Verizon has the best cell coverage of any other North American carrier, but it comes at a premium. Unlimited data and voice and text with Sprint and a Blackberry Tour (or similar) costs like ninety bucks for the phone, two year contract and I believe it's about 100 a month. So, check coverage maps first, obviously. Sprint phones also use GSM and the SIM chips, so they can be used internationally, so there's a plus. Verizon uses CDMA which apparently is used in Canada; the downside to CDMA is that voice and data cannot be used simultaneously while GSM can.
Also, have you called a Verizon customer service rep yet and asked what they would recommend? Being a customer with them for seven years, you might very well be considered a high-value customer and they might be more willing to cut you a deal to keep your business. So there's that then.
That was my first thought, 'Why a smartphone'. If one is living on a limited budget one should live within their means.
Clearly your idea of being a student with a "limited budget" is different from the rest of us...
One of the reasons I don't ask questions on Slashdot anymore is that instead of answering the question, a good bit of the responses are why you don't want to do what you're asking. It isn't like he's asking for something unreasonable. Having a smartphone that can check email isn't too much to ask. When I was in college in 1992 I didn't have a phone, just a pager. I was never home. Telling a college student to use vonage or magicjack is ridiculous. Telling him to just get by without one just shows your age. I really hope someone has a good answer, because it's a great question. And I hope mods will quickly mod down these naysayers so we don't have to read this garbage. Answer the question or shut up.
Contrary to the standard opinions here on Slashdot, big corporations are still run by human beings. Just call Verizon and tell them your situation. You're a student that lives in the USA but goes to school in Canada and you can't afford these massive international rates. It doesn't cost Verizon any more to provide service to your phone in Canada than it does to provide service to your phone on the other side of the country from where you live, so all these additional fees are essentially pure profit. Tell them that if you can't get a better deal on your phone service, then you will be forced to switch to GSM so that you can bring your phone across national lines and just switch providers to avoid these huge rates for international service.
It might take some time, effort, and a bit of pleading, but I'm sure you'll manage to get a lower bill out of them.
You may have to endure being a social pariah for a few years but it isn't necessary to have a smartphone.
Being a social pariah in college is a good way to graduate without a job offer.
You are currently on the best plan for North America. I am an American living in Canada and do business in both countries. The Canadian plans that will accomplish the same thing as the plan you currently have, will be 400% more, due to the lack of competition in the Canadian market. Verizon was the last US company to still offer a "North America" plan. So, even though it is more expensive than we are used to in the US, you are still getting amazing rates when you consider that you are roaming internationally.
One of the reasons I don't ask questions on Slashdot anymore is that instead of answering the question, a good bit of the responses are why you don't want to do what you're asking.
I think it has something to do with ESR's essay "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way": Describe the goal, not the step. People see a smartphone as a step and are trying to reverse-engineer what goal the smartphone solves for the OP.
Get a GSM phone, then you can remove the SIM card. Get 2 phone plans, one in Canada and one in the US. It'll be more expensive to have 2 plans, but it will also be cheaper than paying international rates.
Well, GP was close. I would get a "regular" phone plan in Canada and subsist on prepaid for four months in America. Google Voice lets you use the same number for both phones and gives you free long distance to Canada.
If you Google a bit, Tracfone will cost you around 6-8 cents a minute. This is competitive with the cheapest monthly plans you can get (in my area) at around 500 minutes talked per month. Above 500 minutes, it will still beat an ETF.
So, Google Voice lets you use whatever cheap plan you want - international calls between US and Canada don't cost any more than a local call.
DATABASE WOW WOW
As logistically goofy as it sounds, one can actually get multiple SIM cards, and just do a seasonal suspension on the account depending on where and how long they will be out of the country. You'll want to go GSM for this one, though. Also, if Verizon can suspend the service, you should be able to get the CDMA carrier up in Canada to register the ESN of the device, since you're currently running Verizon. Check up there to find out the details. Again, look forward to seasonal suspensions. Above all, TALK TO VERIZON and check your options.
This sig no verb.
Google voice will call out to Canada for free, but will not forward to Canada (for free or pay).
Excuse me, but did you know that engineers make pretty good pay right out of school?
Having an international "smart phone" plan is an expensive idea. I work for a company where my users travel internationally. We are with AT&T and everyone has a Blackberry. The bill for an unlimited data plan, plus international calling / roaming / etc. is often $200-300+ a month (depending on countries visited, amount of long distance voice used, etc.)
Asking for an international smartphone plan that fits a college budget is kind of like asking how to go out into the rain and not get wet.
did you know that engineers make pretty good pay right out of school?
Without a job offer, engineers make $0 per year. A phone is one tool used to pursue job leads.
Google voice does not forward calls.
I'm using http://didww.com/ for this exact purpose.
Because students could be dirt poor, eating cardboard and clothing themselves in towels stolen from the YMCA, and they'd still pick a damn smartphone over the loss of a limb. At least that's the impression I get at my university.
Must be real slow day...
I don't really know what kind of deal you might be able to get with T-Mobile, but I'd check with them. They are in both the US and Canada, so you might be able to get a decent deal with them. Since you are in Canada more months of the year, if you have to choose a 'home country' for the phone, it might make more sense to make Canada the 'home', and the US the 'roaming' option.
What you need is an N900, skype, google talk/voice integration, wifi/3G, open smartphone running (debian) maemo5
AT&T offers a US/Canada plan, but not for the iPhone (what gives?). The plan includes calls to and from Canada, but excludes data -- data is pay-per-use and is priced at $2/MB. It also includes the A-List (5 numbers you can call for free), but those numbers can't be international -- so it's useful for calling the US only.
Be careful. With the data coverage on Verizon, you can't OTA (dial *228) while in Canada as it's not Verizon towers. This means that if you have an issue with your data connection, and it can't be fixed by manually inputting values into the phone (some things need that *228 to finalize) then you won't have cellular data until the phone re-enters the U.S. to perform that OTA.
Defective Logic
Cell phones back then were big, bulky, and expensive; I don't think I ever seriously considered getting one (although at one point my dad got one for business). I only wish I could have had what today's students have access to.
Write Only Memory: Another pointless blog.
I live in Canada and work in the states, but you should be able to do the same thing:
I have a canadian cell (25$/month), a voip service (voip.ms: 3$/month for a local number) and a prepaid american cell.
To get a canadian call in the states:
I call transfer my canadian number to the voip service (free as it's a local number).
My voip number tries to ring my american cell (transfer cost of 0.01$/min) as well as my voip software on my laptop.
If I don't answer, I get an email with my voice mail.
To call canada from the states:
voip call from a laptop or a smartphone (or even ipod touch) OR get a voip service with callback feature. It'll cost you a couple cents/min.
This sucks. Examples of why:
* GPS navigation only works if you have a gps enabled device and a constant data connection. Wi-Fi is useless for this.
* Netbooks suck. Period.
* Pulling out a laptop to check twitter to see where your friends are while walking down the street does not make sense.
* Prepaid SIM service sucks. Calls are deprioritized relative to other traffic and call quality is terrible.
Do I need to keep going? Start counting the apps in the iTunes store that *DONT* work on the iPod Touch and you should start to get the idea.
Well, then the answer is obvious....WWJD
There is no cheap way of doing what you ask. What you're asking is the holy grail of every international traveler. But, international roaming rates are too lucrative for tellco's to give up. Anyway, get an unlocked GSM phone (or unlock your GSM phone) and switch SIM cards when you cross the border. Another option is to get a monthly plan wherever you live...
Frankly, you're going to get screwed over by all mobile carriers currently operating in Nova Scotia. Bell, Telus and Rogers all charge an arm and a leg. Combining a skype unlimited US/Canada plan (make sure you pick a local number as your skype-on-the-go number) with a local DID that can forward to skype (virtufon or les.net or others) can save you a boatload on voice costs, but there is no way to get cheap data. Ditch the data plan and stick with wifi when you can get it.
Buy $200 desktop, install Linux, then install Asterisk. Then setup a SIP inbound to it using Gizmo. Then redirect Google Voice to this SIP inbound. Get a second Google voice account ($2 on eBay). Use this to dail out to your cell phone. Then setup a HTTP server with PHP website that would redirect the number input into it to your Asterisk box which would then use the two Google voice lines in the previous steps to dial out to the number you're calling and your cell and then bridge them together. Now register your server to DDNS so that it has a URL. Input this URL into your smartphone. Dial using this website - and get the cheapest data plan + unlimited incoming you can.
Presto - unlimited cell phone calls anywhere in US and Canada for a fixed price.
This is what I did ... yes, I'm a super geek, but hey, now who's the one with low cell phone bills? :)
* GPS navigation only works if you have a gps enabled device and a constant data connection. Wi-Fi is useless for this.
So you mean those GPSes cars that just plug into lighter sockets are magic? Or the ones on ships hundreds of miles out out to sea have a constant data connection?
Pulling out a laptop to check twitter to see where your friends are while walking down the street does not make sense.
Just text your friends - "Hey dude, where are you?"
I only have experience with the canadian cell companies, so I don't know if this is true more generally. Pretty much every cell company here has secret hidden plans only available if you phone customer service and say the magic words 'cancel service'. Some of the bonuses available might include roaming plans. You don't get to know the real pricing unless you do the song and dance. Also, you could look for group discount plans... maybe your student union, or school has some deals available. Those should be somewhat comparable to the types of discounts you can get from a retention department.
Uhhh, no they're not! (Cannot find a link to disprove this, it's hard to prove a negative: please provide me with one that says otherwise)
In fact, we're only now just getting our first carrier (Wind Mobile) that runs on the same GSM 3G frequencies as T-Mobile, and Wind is only in a few centres (they only launched a few months ago). Rogers & Fido (the main GSM carriers) and now Bell and Telus with their new network run on the same frequencies as AT&T. So if you brought a T-Mobile smartphone up to Nova Scotia, you would have no 3G coverage at all, and massive roaming charges to boot.
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
Adding data on top of the verizon plan is probably your best shot -- that'll give you unlimited calling to and from anywhere in Canada and the US for $60 (plan) + $30 (data) + $35 (global email) = $125. Their website says that the global email plan is only available for gsm + cdma phones, but it's also available for any of the CDMA smartphones, just not listed. Look into getting a cell phone that supports skype mobile, and for not too much you can have a Skype canadian number forwarded if anyone in Canada wants to call you. AT&T has new calling plans that support Canada, but you can't get unlimited (or even 5/6 gig) data for a decent price. Assuming you're sticking with the verizon plan anyways, the cheapest smartphone contract you can find in Canada will be about ~$75 once you add taxes and the system access fee, and you don't want to know their fees for data in the US.
If skype forwarding doesn't work or you'd like Canadians to be able to text message you, you might want to look into a cheap pay as you go phone. Canadian cell phones still charge you extra for long distance, so you'll probably find yourself calling most people on your US phone anyways.
Also, I'm not sure how long you'll be in school, but be aware that Rogers, at least, tries heavily to lock you in to a 3-year contract for most smartphones, and it's $500 to quit early that you're not going to be able to get out of even if you graduate beforehand.
It's expensive any way you hash it for data plans when out-of-country. You could ask providers, but in my experience they see it as a license to print money.
Were it me, I'd have a data plan in the nation I spent the most time in, and pick up a pay-as-you-go phone for when I'm out-of-country, using a laptop for data via WiFi, etc. The Wall-Mart phone is cheap, in either Canada or the US, for example.
You might have to keep the data smartphone powered off when out-of-country, or turn off data functions (be sure they're off, though). You can use your vocemail message to list the number for the pay-as-you-go phone. You might be able to use call forwarding, if you can be sure it won't cost you money to have it forwarded to the other phone. But data? There's no cheap option I'm aware of.
Another option would involve you piggybacking on someone else's plan, as a second phone on the account, when on your shortest stint out-of-country (in your case, when in the USA). Parents, friends, etc might be willing to go along with it. You get the advantage of a reasonably cheap data plan based on the contract rate, which is usually lowest.
There's really no good solution for short-term data plans, as far as I know. But, since cellular plans are about as unique as opinions (everyone's is different) it's really tough to give an answer without specifics, such as exactly where you will be while in the US and what provider options exist in that particular location.
All your smartphone features and more. No data plan and you probably have wifi everywhere at college.
Yippee! Now I can get telemarketers too!
It's a lot cheaper there.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Get a toll-free number -- they're like DNS for the phone system. Rather than giving out your fixed numeric address you can add a layer of indirection to give you much more control and to hide backend changes from users.
With a toll-free number you can route and/or port wherever you want in short order. Port it to a VoIP provider and have that service forward calls to your actual phone(s). Keep it with a standard long distance provider and have them set the ring-to to your cell phone. Move it between CA and US LD providers willy-nilly (that one probably takes a couple of weeks, but it's easy enough if you're moving at planned times).
The only downside is you have to pay for incoming calls. But you get a number that can be moved anywhere in North America, to any phone service provider, and can ring any phone (or with the right service phones plural) that you like, without anyone having to know that you moved/changed phones/etc.
Prepaid rates are great if you use a small number (15-30) minutes a month...
You can do way more than 30 min/month and still do better with prepaid.
I've had AT&T the last few years, and started with them back when they were still Cingular, and have only had prepaid. (There was a couple year break when I didn't have a cell phone.) For a while I was using their pay-as-you go thing, and paying like $20/month; for the last couple years I've had pick-your-plan for $30/month. That costs 10 or 15 cents a minute which comes out of the $30, which gives you no less than 200 minutes a month for $30. At least last time I checked, I'm pretty sure the cheapest post-paid plan from either AT&T or Verizon was $40/month.
T-mobile is comparable at higher times: $10 + 10 cents/minute, which again would give you 200 minutes for $30 month.
Android phone + SIP account + Prepaid data.
I don't know if you northern savages have prepaid data but here in Australia it's quite common, a bit more expensive then regular calls for the moment but the price is going down. This would be your best choice for maintaining a single number in Canada and the US.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I forward Google Voice regularly to two different 403 numbers. Not going to help you in NS, but just saying that Google indeed does forward to *some* canadian numbers.
I chalk it up to the increasing narcissism in our society, a large part of which is the sense of entitlement and the 'I want what I want when I want it' attitude that's become so prevalent.
Back when I was doing my master's in Spain, there was an MVNO tailoring students:
http://studentsphone.com/spanishIndex.php3
(the page is in english)
These guys offered cheap calls among their network (as usual) as well as reduced rates in intl' calls and Intl' Roaming.
Find out if there is some similar MVNO either in the US or Canada and enjoy
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Prepaid data is almost like highway robbery in Canada. $2.99 CAD (~2.93USD) for 20MB I don't have data on Google Voice, but Skype is roughly 30kbps, so 20MB would only last 11 minutes.
I can't find data regarding Fido's prepaid data costs but I suspect it's similar to Rogers' since they're basically the same company.
Reasonable pre-paid data plan in Canada...? Surely you jest. With our perverse telecom/wireless telecom situation most third world countries have better speeds and dollar/byte rates than up here.
And I though we Australians had it bad. With Vodafone I can at least get 500 MB for A$20. This expires in 30 days (great for visitors/temporary internet access I suppose) but if you get the 12 GB package for A$150 you get 12 months.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
big corporations are still run by human beings
As anyone who has gone to college in the last 10 years knows, big corporations are run by ReThuglican Jews.
Telling this kid anything else is just filling his head with lies, you demagogue.
We had 300 baud and we WORSHIPED the acoustic coupler that provided it. 1200 baud dialup lines were "admin only". There was no 2400 baud dialup.
But 300 kept you off the TTY 43s (which were always out of paper) and out of the peanut oil stench in the dorm "computer lab" and BEAT THE LIVING SHIT out of hauling ass across the frozen tundra to the "main computer lab" and the fascists lab admins who reserved the "good" VT100s for their buddies, forcing you onto Z19s or the same TTY 43s you ran from at the dorms.
Anyway, quit bitching about your 2400 baud modems, and GET OFF MY LAWN.
SERO plans from Sprint have been around for years, and though they have been discontinued, they are still transferable. They have roaming and data included, so you can go anywhere that has cell services and be alright.
The trouble is getting one. Go to one of the forums where people offer them, and try to get one. In the long run, they are really worth it.
Rogers' US&Canada data plans start at C$35 for 500MB (across both countries).
For the 8 months you are in Canada, stick with Canada-only data. For the 4 months you are in the US, get a US&Canada plan.
However, your existing US cell number cannot be ported to Rogers. You could probably port your number to VoIP and then use cheap call forwarding the Rogers cell, on the order of 1c/minute.
You might try getting a smartphone (like the Nexus One) that takes a SIM card. Use it with 3G in Canada and just on WiFi with a prepaid plan talk plan America (or see if you can find a pre-paid data plan).
So you mean those GPSes cars that just plug into lighter sockets are magic?
The parent probably meant "A-GPS" which supposedly gets a lock much faster than non-assisted GPS.
Also, a smartphone with AGPS is more convenient than hauling two devices around (and the dedicated GPS may have lousy battery life) when you're walking or taking public transit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS
For what it's worth, I have an HTC Dream (an Android-based smartphone) with Rogers, and a North American Long Distance plan (500 anytime minutes from anywhere in Canada to anywhere in the +1 country code, with the rate at $0.05/min if I go over the 500 minutes). It comes to about $70/month with my bundling discount (I also have Rogers for cable TV and Internet)....
Rogers does have international roaming plans, and US roaming plans. The problem, however, is that when you're roaming, you're basically at the mercy of whoever's picking up your call. The rates very widely from provider to provider, and because of this, they'll screw you over by charging a high roaming fee per minute to cover the costs if you're being picked up by a carrier with a high price. While you *could* add roaming minutes to your Rogers plan, you'd be looking at $75/month for 240 minutes, as an example. That puts it way out of the price range of most students. ($150/month for your cell phone bill? ish. Even if you just add the package for the 4 months you're in the US and take it off when you're back in Canada, that's still a lot to be paying for cellular coverage). And that's not even approaching the international roaming rates for data, which hover between $5-10/MB depending on your existing plan.
A better suggestion would be what a lot of other people are suggesting here: get an unlocked GSM phone, and change the SIM card when you're in the US. You can get a cheap pay-as-you-go SIM and use that for the 4 months you're in the states, and then switch it back when you return to Canada. Having an unlocked phone is an extra advantage, too: you wouldn't be stuck with Rogers. As of November 2009, Bell has been quietly switching their network over to GSM as well (they used to use CDMA), meaning that you have a lot of choice in which provider you buy services from here without having to buy a new phone or take a contract. You're also not limited to just Canada/US: my own phone is unlocked, and I have used it last January when I was in Curacao, as well as in France, Germany, and the UK. And forget about data rates when you're travelling: prepaid data is just too expensive right now.
Wind Mobile Canada has a roaming agreement with T-Mobile USA.
I work with a large entertainment company (french speaking clowns...rhymes with puree) based in Canada and all of their people traveling and working in Canada+US have two phones and two numbers...one US and one Canadian. Standard operating procedure. With the corporate sponsorship that they have (Delta, American Express, etc) they don't have a unified mobile phone solution, so I doubt that one exists for an individual.
When I'm working up there I'm issued a Canadian mobile for business and for personal stuff use Google Voice to retrieve voicemails and Skype to call people back stateside.
As an aside...two friends/coworkers have used the Verizon North America plan that you currently have and it is no longer available and they were actively sold new US-only contracts with XYZ perks for changing contracts so hold onto it for as long as you can.
None of this answers your question directly but if you find a solution please let me know because I know a number of people I work with would benefit.
There simply is no "data plan" that covers both the US and Canada in existence.
The voice plans, are simply that. AT&T used to have a "Digital one rate" plan that you could get a Canada-add-on which made it roughly 100$/mo minimum. There was no such data bolt-on.
The original poster is stuck with two options:
a) Get a post-paid device from Rogers with data, and then call them to put it on vacation when you leave the country, resume when you come back. Likewise for the US phone (only good for 6 months.)
b) Get pre-paid sims that allow data usage. I don't think any exist, this isn't europe.
Neither of those are good.
So your next option is to get a unlocked device like a N95 and use the WiFi when you need data, this fails for different reasons:
a) Not many free wifi spots exist (Both Toronto and Vancouver, good luck finding one.)
b) Those that are free to use are congested and slow. So much for using skype or something over it.
A compromise would be to get a device for voice and then get an ipod with WiFi (basically an iphone with no "phone") to use open WiFi spots where available instead of trying to get something from the phone company. They are more than happy to sell you services that you won't utilize.
Rogers/Bell has this:
http://www.rogers.com/web/link/wirelessBuyFlow?forwardTo=PhoneThenPlan&productType=normal&productId_Detailed=MF636REDR
This is a USB data device that uses the cell phone network
and this
http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=INTER_PORTABLE&_nfls=true&hideAllRightPortlets=hide
which is a "portable internet"
Both of these require a computer
OR
you can piggyback the latter with a 802.11b/g/n device and get your stable WiFi for your smartphone.
Maybe not over the loss of a limb, but certainly over health insurance.
I had an acquaintance online who had an upset stomach once, and while tossing and turning managed to twist a particularly sensitive part of his anatomy and, ah, lost one of the pair. Ouch. Also, $10,000+ isn't a pretty bill. Get catastrophic health insurance. Don't wait for Obama+company.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Stick to your Verizon plan. Rogers, Telus, or Bell they all are scammers and none of them have unlimited data plans. Way over priced compared to american rate plans. They are almost all long term contracts as well. I think us Canadians have the shittiest cellphone services anywhere in the world, and the highest prices to. Its probably cheaper for you to pay the Verizon data package and use it here than it is to have an account here. good luck with whatever you decide to do.
I was as "social pariah" as the next guy at my school, and I graduated with 3 years ago with a ~$74,000 job offer. I won't tell you what I'm making now; you'd gawk.
Now, I'm not saying that you should go out of your way to be "a social pariah" or anything, but I don't think that entry-level software-engineering jobs are particularly related to your professional networking efforts inside college itself. I'd recommend seeking internships at tech companies like IBM as a more effective early-career boost.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Tracfone is known for how awesome their smart phones are. *rolls eyes*
I was in a very similar situation to OP, I come from Germany and study in the UK, instead of getting 2 phones my solution is simply to not get a phone at all. I am always either at university or at home, in both these areas there is quick and easy access to computers 24/7, so there is absolutely no reason to have a phone at all when you can just use VOIP, I can't think of one situation where my not having a mobile phone was a disadvantage. Okay there's a 15 minute bus-ride on my way to university where I'm not connected, it's scary at first but I got used to having a bit of "time out" from the internet. Besides, I never leave the house without my laptop, so in a way I could always just connect to the nearest access point.
Some smartphones don't store the maps on the phone, they pull the map data from the internet as they go. You should always at least have the option of caching the maps, but it isn't always default. So in some cases the phone may know the GPS location but not what's around it.
Lots of people have a regular phone and an iPod touch. A typical desk has a phone and a PC. If you carry a cell phone and iPod touch it is very similar. You can easily talk over an email or Web page, or take notes as you talk. Skype on the iPod should save you some money. I have an iPhone myself, but a lot of friends have dumb phone plus iPod touch and love it.
Or an iPad may be more suitable. You can go month to month on the 3G, buy from Telus in Canada and then shut it off and buy from AT&T in US and swap the SIM when you change over. Maybe you can do that with an iPhone also, if you can shut the plans down when you're gone from each country. It seems like SIM's would work to your advantage.
Well it beats roaming with AT&T, who charges about $16 per MB. I was in Canada recently and had to make dang sure data roaming was turned off every second.
I recently visited MT and various places in CA.. While in MT i was using the "in network roaming" on AT&T, i got several calls/emails/txts where they threatened to shut off service because i was using too much roaming data. I was lucky to get 2 bars of 1x signal. As soon as I crossed into CA, i had full bars of 1x and 3g nearly every single place i went, however if i used it, i was going to pay 80c/min and some other ungodly rate for data. I eventually found a free wifi spot in Calgary and downloaded a sip program so i could actually use my phone.
I'm just ashamed that my phone seems to have better coverage in several provences in CA than it does in a lot of the states i've used it in.
few cell phones have true GPS (which uses satellites), most use triangulation by bouncing off multiple cell towers to identify your location. i do believe most 'new' phones have true GPS built on the multi-radio chip, but then i hear a lot of US companies block their use on their firmware... but then i don't really fallow it anymore, i have a phone i like and i only do research on the subject while shopping for phones.
I am living in Europe, so YMMV. Plenty people I know who have two numbers. Especially those who are commuting in two countries.
I personally use a VoIP service to call international. http://www.backsla.sh/betamax to find out which one might be interested for you.
I just add the number I need to call in front of the 'real' phonenumber and I can call anywhere. Not only from a PC.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
IF he really wants a smart phone, just use Skype for international calling if you can. If you get an iPhone it can't run in the background so your parents can't bug you whenever they want. Skype over 3G is allowed and although it's not the best, it's cheap and may get you by.
Vonage is supposed to cover all of the U.S. and Canada. You can go online and set up call forwarding or simultaneous ringing.
When someone call my Vonage number it rings my cell phone, work phone and the Vonage box I have at home.
If you use a Vonage box at home you need an internet connection to phone there.
I think if you never plug in the box you can still use the simul-ring and call forwarding online.
Verizon's international unlimted data plan works well in Canada; I travel frequently in both countries and have that plan for my Verizon BB Tour.
For Voice, Verizion used to offer a plan whereby your US roaming minutes were extended to include Canada; that may be the plan you've already got. I purchased mine 5 or 6 years ago, and it includes Mexico too (although I never travel there).
I'm quite satisfied with my Verizon setup and recommend it.
I would use skype, get a skype number, get a wifi skype phone for the road and a skype software for your pc and give the finger to the greedy cell monopolies of Canada... In my opinion, they have fleeced us for long enough. Think of the third world, they had the ability to text and all other advanced features for practically less than half we pay here and no gougin... Welcome to the developed world of extreme exploitation!
I've got a Canadian co-worker here in the States that has the same Verizon Canada plan you have for when he travels to Toronto for his medical work, and he loves it. He compared them all and there really isn't a better solution from any US or Canadian carrier. He has a Blackberry Tour which also has a SIM card slot for roaming.
Really, I know you want "cheap," good coverage, and good phones, but pick any 2. Best of luck.
I couldn't find the price on the official website, but this guy claims that Rogers roaming on AT&T is only $1 per MB. 16 times difference is just ridiculous.
One phone that is a smartphone but is considered a featurephone and should allow you to retain your current plan (just get them to switch the phone over) is the HTC Touch (also known as the "Vogue"). It runs windows mobile 6.1 out of the box but there is a huge community still developing for it over at XDA developers. You can get the latest windows (6.5.X) or do what I do and put Android on the phone. They go for about $100 on ebay so you won't break the bank making this switch, nor have to sign up for a new plan to get it.
Well, Rogers has One Rate Data plans that are awesome for frequent travelers to the US from Canada. A flat rate data bucket of 500mb would cost 35$ monthly and cover the US and Canada.
Easiest solution I can think of is use 2 GSM carriers and avoid the data plan. Want internet capabilities? Make sure the phone can use WLAN. Want to use things like GPS? Then don't get a Blackberry or iPhone (Nokia's smartphones store map data on the phones, so there's no need for constant data connections or even any connection other than sat. links)
Last I checked, Tracfone was a reseller of either AT&T or T-Mobile's network. i.e. they were GSM-based. Get a SIM and stick it in an unlocked smartphone. Just use wifi for the data stuff.
If you want unlimited data in two countries, you're going to pay. If you choose a primary country, you can get unlimited data there and prepaid-with-voice-only in the other country.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Nearly every smartphone on the planet works as follows, as far as GPS:
1) Included app requires data at all times and (frequently) costs EXTRA on top of the data plan
2) For nearly every smartphone platform, someone sells a standalone package that allows for storage of maps on an SD/MicroSD card or (in the case of TomTom on the iPhone) internal memory.
Every recent smartphone I know of with GPS capability is capable of full standalone GPS reception with the phone portion of the device completely disabled.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The majority of current smartphones don't have firmware-locking of the "true GPS" hardware.
Some Crackberries might still do it, no Windows Mobile devices do, I am fairly certain no Android devices do.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Google Voice, Gizmo5 account (if you already have one; they're not accepting new requests) or a SkypeIn US number. Get a GSM smartphone with a simcard from a Canadian provider (since you're there most of the time). When in the states, get a pre-paid sim card with voice/data or just data. If you need the SkypeIn, it will set you back $30 for the year.
You now set up GV to forward calls to your US number to your VoIP account (Gizmo/Skype) while in Canada. Calls will be delivered via data. When in the states, you can continue with the same method, but with a prepaid simcard OR you can just forward via voice.
Note that while data plans for Canada or pre-paid US may be capped/metered you only need to use the GSM data when you are out-and-about. Any decent smartphone these days will happily shuffle data through wifi instead.
My Nokia N900 might be a bit too pricey, but will do everything here seamlessly with the built-in Skype and SIP integration.
The only thing this doesn't cover is porting your existing number to GoogleVoice...
I have a similar problem traveling between the U.S. & Canada. I prefer using a pre-paid for my calls and an iPod Touch (soon to be replaced with an iPad) or other wifi-enabled device for portable net access. I can usually find free wifi throughout the U.S. & Canada and I limit my calls and texting. This allows me to spend roughly $100-200/year on phone calls and texting.
Be aware that many companies such as AT&T require you pay an additional fee per month just for foreign access. T-Mobile doesn't charge me an additional monthly fee, however, you will be charged a higher rate depending upon which country is "foreign." If most of your time is spent in Canada, then I would recommend making Canada your home country for now.
And since I live near a retirement community, I can tell you that the senior citizens on limited budgets LOVE using cellphones and the net to keep up with family & friends. They are big fans of Skype and various v.o.ip solutions. The Windows-limited (retired corporate-types) tend to go for Verizon for their smartphone solutions; the low-tech & the upper-techs tend to go with iPhones. All of them kill their landlines; dump their ISPs & more and more our killing their cable/satellite dish providers.
The trick becomes what are you willing to give up for the phone service. I haven't had TV reception since 2000, but I've had DSL+. I hope this helps.
Elaboration:
* GPS navigation only works if you have a gps enabled device and a constant data connection, or if you have mapdroyd or something similar.
Most GPS nav programs for cellphones require you to pull map data through the wireless connection, as needed; they cache very little (storage space is at a premium). Dedicated GPS units store all the map data locally (on the device; some of them will let you sync to a computer to update the data, or load new data). MapDroyd will store a significant amount of map data on your local storage, so you DON'T have to hit the wireless connection.
Just a couple problems with storing the data: many of us like to use the "traffic" layer, which shows what streets we need to avoid because of traffic slowdowns. If you absolutely have to be somewhere at a particular time, that is extremely handy. That, obviously, uses data; you can't cache it. Also, it depends on how recently your data was updated. If the stored map was created a year ago, and they've opened or closed roads due to construction, your data no longer reflects reality.
I'd like to see a version of Google Maps for my Android phone which will cache a significant amount of data. Then, when I go somewhere, if I enable data usage, it will check to see if my stored data is current, updating only what isn't. If I don't enable data usage (international roaming), it will run entirely from the cached data.
I went to Vancouver and Victoria, BC on vacation last year. My Sprint smartphone managed to rack up over $12 in data roaming charges just from reading one article on Linux Magazine and a couple minutes of Google Maps (trying to find the hotel). We were in Canada for 3 days, and I was going through serious withdrawal by the time we crossed back over (me? addicted to the Internet? nah, what ever gave you that idea? ;-)
So, yeah, you can use GPS without incurring data charges, but there are always trade-offs. Oh, and you need the right software. The default program usually ISN'T the right one.
Wow, people should chill. He wants internet and email on his phone. Great. So did I while I lived in my car in grad school. Its a priority choice. What is wrong with you people posting not to be helpful, but to tell this kid that his priorities are messed up.
I suggest buying a phone unlocked and using pay-as-you-go or contract-less plans.
T-Mobile has inexpensive plans. With a Nokia 5530 that is being released as the "Nuron" next week, you can get
500 Min + Unlimited Texts + Unlimited Data for $50 per month. Boosting the talk time up to 1000 and unlimited is 60 and 70 per month.
So, while in the States use T-Mobile, as you can end the plan at any time (they didn't buy you the phone). I don't know what your upstairs neighbors have for contract-less GSM plans. Anyone have a suggestion?
They have international data roaming plans that cost considerably less, and you can enable them for just the few days that you're out of the country. Before a trip to Edmonton last year, I signed up for the cheapest plan, which was somewhere around $20-$25 for 20 MB...not a huge amount, but it was enough to check email and get around town with Google Maps.
(That international-data-roaming plan was for the iPhone...don't know if it applies to other phones.)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.