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Ask Slashdot: Mobile Data In Canada For a US Citizen?
macwhizkid writes "I'm traveling to Canada for a week in July with youth group, and need a way to post blog updates on the trip and send back photos. I'll be staying on an island accessible only by boat, so a hard-wired connection is out of the question. I have a Verizon voice + data plan, and I've heard all the horror stories of multi-thousand dollar international data roaming charges. What I'd like to do is get 1-2 GB of data (5 GB would be great) to use on a Canadian provider's network for a reasonable fee (say, less than $100 total) as a wireless hotspot set-up. I have both a CDMA iPhone and a GSM iPad, so I really just need a micro-SIM or a way to register the IMIE. It appears that both Rogers and Bell offer 'pay as you go' data plans (Rogers has a particularly attractive iPad option), but there are conflicting reports as to whether a U.S. credit card can be used to buy service. I can't believe I'm the first U.S. citizen to want mobile data in Canada. So, has anyone done this successfully? Is there another option I'm not considering?"
Can't you do the same thing as Canadians can do in the U.S.? That is, in your non-native country, go to a 7-11 and purchase a VISA gift card that is preloaded. Use that card to purchase your data plan.
--jeffk++
ipv6 is my vpn
I have yet to ever find that Canadian providers will refuse U.S. credit cards.
With Bell and Rogers, you will often get to pay $35 'activation fee' for the honour of being their customer.
The lakes and rivers are still frozen here and that causes the absorption of all cellular phone frequencies. Our summer, August 13th is the one day we get Internet
..Make sure it has cell network coverage first.
A prepaid plan with Rogers sounds great.
Why do you think this would be a problem?
IIRC, Rogers has retail store locations and they do accept cash, so I can't imagine that they would refuse you if you were carrying some of that funny purple money with the queen on the front.
But then again, why would they refuse your credit card?
I doubt anyone up here in Canada will refuse a U.S. issued credit card.
Unfortunately, this is totally opposite when Canadians are trying to use "Canadian" issued credit cards for purchases in U.S., especially on-line. The fact that all credit card companies are multi-nationals and cross-border apparently makes no difference to most businesses in U.S.
Still, I'd probably would not give Bell or Rogers a dime, being the only games in town and condoned by our sold-out Government. But I guess you got no other choices really. Maybe there's still dial-up available? :)
Tim Horton's gift cards and/or Canadian Tire money should all work fine for you here.
We're full, fuck off.
Next please.
I'm a Canadian living in Cincinnati and drove home to Edmonton, AB for a few weeks. I called my local cellular provider (Cincinnati Bell) and asked them for an international data roaming feature to be added to my account. There were multiple data caps available. I went for the mid-range and paid $30 per month for, I think, about 5 GB. It was turned on over the phone immediately and I turned it off when I got home by calling them up and telling them to turn it off. I also recommend getting international voice roaming if you are going to do that. Otherwise you can get hit with serious roaming charges just for making or receiving a call Internationally. I figured not a bad expense for the convenience. Hopefully your current cellular provider offers something similar.
If they cover the place where you'll be staying, Virgin Mobile offers a very attractive iPad-only data plan. It's prepaid and costs only $25 for the SIM, and then depending on how much data you want, from $25 to $60 a month.
Canadians can't get good cell phone plans for themselves in their own country. I doubt being American will make it any easier for you.
I'm not a Telus customer, but they have an addon for their pre-paid service. It's $20 for 250MB of data an unlimited texting.
http://www.telusmobility.com/en/ON/prepaid/messaging.shtml
Buy a prepaid subscription for your trip- any prepaid, really - add data plan and get over with it. No worries on overcharging, stops dead in the water when money runs out. Recharge and works again. Can even have those dollar-per-day plans.....
I have a daughter who lives in Canada, although I live in the US. Some years ago, I used to pay for her pay-as-you-go cell phone, using a US debit card, without any troubles. That was with Rogers. I could also recharge the phone, by phone. I never could get their internet system to work properly. I hope that this helps.
I'll be staying on an island accessible only by boat.
For one damn week, kick the habit. Ditch the tech and enjoy your time with these kids.
Both Bell and Rogers offer the same iPad plans that you can subscribe directly on the device. Bell didn't allow that at first but they do now, TELUS still does not, you have to call them.
I highly doubt that they will refuse to take your money for a plan, if unsure ask at the store where you will get the micro-sim card or else you can get a prepaid credit card almost everywhere these days.
Other than that, maybe check coverage maps just in case to see if you have 3G coverage where you will be going. Rogers does not have 3G everywhere and it can fallback to EDGE, Bell and TELUS on the other have only HSPA and CDMA, but no GSM network.
You can get pre-paid 250MB for $15 or 5GB for $35. It lasts for 30 days. With either Bell or Rogers.
I think it's about $5 to $10 for the sim card. You shouldn't need a Canadian credit card.
I have taken many trips to Vancouver and simply called ahead of time saying I wanted to up my data plan to the $60/month unlimited international plan. When you return, simply lower the plan back to the standard $30/month one. They will prorate, so essentially you only pay an extra $1/day for Canadian coverage, and its a small hassle compared to other suggestions I am seeing here. If you are out of their service area, then this obviously wont help you very much.
Forget Rogers in Newfoundland. Their coverage is in exactly two places - Most parts of St. John's, and I believe some of Clarenville or Gander. Bell's network, on the other hand, is comprehensive here, and the other mobile providers here use Bell's towers (Fido excepted, because Rogers owns Fido).
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
When I was visiting Canada from the US, I actually called Verizon from my car on the way up. The customer service rep was very informative, and after much questioning we agreed to basically upgrade my account to "international" for exactly the time that I was in Canada. It would be prorated to the higher fee for the 4 days, then revert to its original US plan. It was something like $15US/day extra for both voice and data - nothing horrible. I checked my bill afterwards and it went seamlessly. I recommend at least investigating this option.
By “fairly reasonable,” of course, I still mean too much money, but still less than signing up for an entirely new prepaid plan with a Canadian carrier. Call them up, see how much money they want, and then make your comparisons from there.
I work for a Canadian phone company and I recommend looking for a piece of hardware called a "Tellular" because it works off of a 3G system and gives you a land line dial tone, a network data jack, and a fax line dial tone all in one.
Post the pics to a free webserver. All thephone + Canada is noise.
Your loved ones / friends download the pics at home .
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I had no problem when traveling in Spain, got a pro-rated international data and voice plan from Verizon. Ended up being the cheapest phone bill of the year.
As long as you are sensible about paying attention to when you are using data and use Wireless when you can, I don't think you'll have a problem.
People used to go to the wilderness to get away from it all. These days they go for the livejournal entries.
and need a way to post blog updates on the trip and send back photos
I have taken plenty of vacations in Canada and did not find myself with such a need. Waiting until I returned was plenty adequate for blog updates and showing off photos. You can buy a lot of storage for your camera for what wireless internet might cost you in the middle of nowhere for a week.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
As a Canadian, I have worse news than the prices of data plans. Unfortunately, I think your biggest issue will be simply availability of data service. Unless you are in one of the few more populated areas of Canada (i.e. Pretty much all of Southern Ontario, and Vancouver area; I know there are exceptions everyone, I'm generalizing for sake of brevity.) the coverage is terrible. I live in Northwestern Ontario, and we JUST got 3G in the city I live in, and I don't get any data service outside 50km (~30miles) of the city. The coverage is getting better in general, but it's a slow process. It will all depend on the area you are in for sure, and how far you are willing to travel to send your data (which will probably be just as close as a free wifi signal, or worth travelling to get to it). So I guess bottom line would be to see if you can even get coverage, and then I'd say price is secondary. As a point of reference, I pay $30/mnth for 6Gigs of data. I know this more expensive than I'm sure some people are paying, but I live in a smaller city with a small population (~100,000)
Isn't there a 'vacation' package you can get that'll give you X MB of international north american data for a one time cost that lasts one month or some other temporary 'add-on'.
Typicially even if you need more than the 'cap', the overage rate is much much lower if you have the package.
e.g. my last trip to italy I bought a 50MB package for $60 or something like that, but it lowered the roaming data rate from 3 cents per kilobyte to $1/MB (or 0.1 / kilobyte). So even though I used 67MB it cost me $17 extra for a grand total of $77... of the $2010 it would have cost without a package. (@ .03$ / kB x 67 MB)
There is this prepaid company called Simple Mobile and they have full prepaid service for $60 per month, but you have to use their SIM. Maybe you can find someone to lend you a phone a GSM phone that supports tmobiles G4 band and just tether from there. Or maybe you have GSM phone that is compatible with their system
Do like I do when visiting the U.S. - turn the damn thing off - you don't need another mortgage just to remain connected for such a short period of time. Plus coverage here doesn't include most lakes and rivers.
You could have saved all of us Canadians the hassle by actually specifying the island you are going to. We have several boat-accessible islands, and some have coverage, and some do not. I assume you are going to be in either Newfoundland -- which isn't usually referred to as "an island" even though, of course, it is -- or you are going to be in the Gulf Islands on the West Coast (or perhaps you have a special pass to visit Sable Island out east of Nova Scotia?)
Newfoundland has coverage, but not everywhere. The Gulf Islands do have coverage, but not everywhere. Sable Island does not have 3G coverage that I am aware of. Use the coverage maps found on our provider's web pages to determine if you can, in fact, have coverage before committing to a plan. And make sure you talk to locals before committing as well since they know how spotty or solid the coverage is.
Your mileage may vary, but I was paranoid about using my cell phone or data plan when in Mexico. After I missed my flight, and having massive difficulty using the pay phones to call the airlines, I ended up just making a few calls on my cell. After that I decided to check my email while waiting for the next flight. It wasn't crazy - maybe $60 extra for a few minutes of phone/data time, if even that much. Sure, it was expensive, but I was smart about it, got done quickly, and it wasn't as painful as I thought
Heaven forbid that the Americans visit and spend money in your economy.
They don't need us. While we're destroying our economy, being dicks to the rest of the World, treating anyone and everyone coming into the US as criminals, blustering around the World like some big fat, well, American, the Canadians have been creating political and economic ties with the rest of the World and they're doing just fine.
In not too many years, we're going to be to them what Mexico is to us - mark my words.
I need to get in touch with some distant Canadian relatives and see if I can emigrate up there. Ya know, rats - ships ....
Just ask this on Reddit. You'll get a hundred replies in one hour and won't have to wait two days for the Slashdot mods to get around to posting your question.
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
Best of luck getting wireless coverage on an "Island accessible only by water" up here.
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless_network
That's about everywhere that's covered. beyond that, data is going to cost you more then the arm and the leg it already does!
If you contact your provider in advance, its sometimes possible to arrange for a data plan in the country you're visiting through them, and avoid the roaming charges.
Also I know its possible to get the pay-as-you-go data plans with cash ONLY if you already own the equipment necessary (ie they only need to give you a SIM). They will not hand over a data stick without a credit card or your willingness to buy it outright.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Both Wind Mobile and Mobilicity offers $10 unlimited data add-ons. If you don't want any voice plans then their data-only plans would cost $30 and $40 respectively.
No credit card is needed for either of these providers. Cash and carry. So it doesn't matter if you're Canadian, American, or Pastafarian.
Virgin Mobile Canada offers pay as you go plans, problem is all plans from all companies require a Canadian credit card and/or address.
http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/home/index.html
You may be better off buying a international plan from your provider. I have friends who prepay for roaming data from ATT in 500mb chunks.
Before getting too carried away, keep in mind that your island may have poor or no cel coverage anyhow.
For that matter there are locations on the Vancouver North Shore where my Telus/Moto phone is useless.
OK, I'll admit that as long you're travelling along the bottom half of the country service is pretty reliable, but the three mega corps that own the cellular business in Canada really don't give a damn about service.
PS - Telus and Bell operate on the same network.
Three Squirrels
The options are not pretty, Canada having some of the most monopolistic mobile carriers in the G20.
Having said that, you should consider the following:
- CDMA is out, since I don't think it would work with another carrier. CDMA works only with Bell and Telus. So Rogers, Fido and the rest are out.
- Is the area you are in within mobile range of certain carriers? It may not be. So check with locals there. There used to be a map of all Canada with all the cell towers and all carriers somewhere. I forgot the URL though. Google may help.
- Is your iPad locked to a certain carrier or not? If it is locked, you need to unlock it before a SIM from a different provider
- Rogers Pay As You Go gives you 7 day access for $7, and 125MB. You will need a SIM, which is I think, $35, then you need to put some money in the account, say $25 or so.Since 125MB will not be enough, you will need several of these $7. The way it works is that you set the APN in your phone/device to Rogers', and then try to browse. A text message will be sent to you with a URL. You click that, and it will give you a choice of $2 for 1 day and 10MB, or $7 for a week, and 125MB. You click on the link, the money is deducted from your balance, and you are done. Check here for more info: Rogers Pay As You Go.
I have an article on my site for using Android Smartphones with Rogers Pay As You Go. The APN info may help with your iOS setup.
By the way, Rogers is my regular users, and Pay As You Go is my regular plan. I am using Rogers Pay As You Go this week in a not so remote place. That $7 has lasted me from Friday to Monday, but I have not uploaded photos on it. There is WiFi walking distance from here, and I use that for photo uploads.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
This is better than most Canadians get.
I know some Americans think Canada's basically Communist, but dude, there's still a difference between us and China.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
... call the service provider and ask them is they take a US credit card instead of posting your question on Slashdot. If that fails, I'm sure there are plenty of other more suitable forums for this discussion elsewhere on the web. (A simple google search found plenty of discussions on internet service in Canada... suprise!)
I'm not sure why Slashdot continues to pander to a US-centric audience, and waste space on personal interest stories instead of "news for nerds" and other "stuff that matters".
What's next? A story on how "My Grandmother can't get on facebook and I think it's a problem with this box of flashing lights plugged into the wall, can someone help me?"
~A~
Had a similar issue. This was my solution:
http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/
I picked-up the $40 phone with a $25 pre-paid card and activated the texting/data addons. The back bone it runs off is Rogers, so you get decent coverage but the service is limited to 2G - which isn't all the bad for the price. You can throw the SIM card into any unlocked phone or Rogers branded phone.
When I was living in the US I went to Vancouver for the weekend and ordered an international data plan from AT&T before I went. I only used a bit of Google maps on the iPhone to see what was around me. When I got my next bill from AT&T they had hundreds of dollars in charges for using the Rogers network. I was charged at 5 cents a kilobyte. People should be put in jail for fraud by charging 5 cents for a single kilobyte. After ringing and asking why the data plan was never applied to my account I was refunded the charges so I got if for free but I was ready to throw rocks through the window of the local AT&T store when I first got the bill.
I recommend the "FFS It can wait until you get back" plan.
1 week? Get a notebook, a pencil, and an extra memory card for your camera. Spend as much time as possible enjoying your short trip, and worry about the things you "need" when you get back.
Like several other commenters here, I have Verizon and simply called them up and asked what the options were. They offered to add Canada to my plan, but I only had to pay for the week I was to go there, then they'd revert back to the US-only plan and refund the portion of the month I had not used. They did exactly that, and it all went smoothly.
Now, the important thing to keep in mind is that if you get say a 400MB per month plan for Canada, and you only use it for a week, you can only use 100MB. So if you end up going over that, say 150 MB, what they will do is leave the plan turned on long enough so that it will accomodate what you ended up using, rather than charge the overage at $2/MB or whatever the crazy roaming rate is (it's close to that.)
I checked my usage periodically via the account center on their website, and despite using it heavily for GPS navigation and traffic mapping via google maps and also doing email and web surfing with it, I only used about 60MB total, which was under the 100MB limit I had set for the Canada portion of the plan.
I have to say that I have not had a single bad experience with Verizon customer service so far, in about three years of usage. Compared to AT&T where EVERY phone call to customer service was a horrid ordeal.
All of this is moot if your Island does not have Verizon coverage.
And as someone who works for a bank - your credit card will work, no issues. Wouldn't it have been easier, (and faster) to just call your credit card company? LOL!
try windmobile.ca
they have a free USB 3G modem with SIM card for $58
prepaid for two months- unlimited use.
In the hinterland of N BC I used to use a satellite package, since there was no cell coverage at all.
I know nothing about data caps, or transmission speeds, but it is totally independent of any cell network.
assuming they still exist, of course
Haha. Reminds me of this: http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/can-you-read
Starts with 'C', ends in 'a', oh yeah I know that place - China :)
check to be sure that there is coverage for the area before you even bother. some places simply are too remote to have anything at all. i would guess that you are going to be in the gulf islands off the bc coast, which should have coverage for most of the area. up north island, it gets sketchy. further north and you have less of a chance of coverage.
so, find out which canadian carrier covers the area best, and see if they have a roaming agreement with your carrier. then get a data/voice roaming package from your carrier as others have said. and when you get to the island, don't expect it to work. there are even places in the greater vancouver area that are cellular dead zones,
But come on... Call the freaking carriers. Someone manages the island or the boat to it. Call them. You had conflicting reports and you decided to post to Slashdot to get straightened out? I seriously question your decision making skills and hope that if you are one of the organizers or leaders of the youth group that there are others to keep everyone safe. I get the feeling you are a "GPS led me off a cliff" sort of s/he.
I'll be staying on an island accessible only by boat, so a hard-wired connection is out of the question.
From what connection do you recommend that the OP "[p]ost the pics to a free webserver"?
Your best bet is probably to pay a local (assuming there are some) for internet access. Unless the market has changed, your only real option is going to be your cellular service provider. Either that or some "business/international" travel phone data service.
Canada only has a few major players in the telecom market and it's not very open, prices are some of the highest in the world. Locating a data plan as a short term tourist is going to be hard and pricey. I honestly don't even know if it's possible.
I can't wait for the telecom markets to change.
My Blackberry has $5/month global roaming capabilities for data, I don't think it's anything special that you can't get.
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
Do you have enough to post one on every peak between the camp and the nearest internet cafe ?
Nullius in verba
With Verizon I have the unlimited text messaging (and MMS is included with that). This coverage is included internationally (at least it was on a recent trip of mine to Toronto).
Go with the flow. Enjoy everything a remote wilderness island in Canada has to offer. Do you think the rest of the world will wilt in despair just because you miss a post or two? Be here (there) now! Enjoy the scenery. Soak in the views! You are in a high latitude during the longest days of the year. How often do you think you will get to have an experience like this? Stop to smell the wild roses. Catch a fish. Cook it in a pan with just butter and maybe some s&p. The "wired" world will still be there when you emerge, but you may never have this experience again. Unplug. Live. Enjoy. Experience. Take some pictures ...or make some sketches (yes, we're talking pencil and paper, maybe even the brown paper your groceries came wrapped in). Upload them when you get back to wherever you currently live. Maybe next year you will go to Africa.
All the best
T1girl
buy a prepaid card at one of a billion different stores in canada we use cash sometimes
This seems like what you are after
www_rogers_com/web/content/ipad-dataplans
Just remember to cancel before the end of the 30 day term. If US credit card doesn't work just buy a prepaid Visa at any Canada Post or most grocery and drug stores.
Rogers will let you register your iPad using the on-device provisioning with a US credit card so long as you give it a valid Canadian address. It doesn't seem to do any authentication of your address during that transaction. I haven't had much luck doing the same via a store or their website. The iPad is likely your best choice for this. If you have an unlocked phone, you can get a pre-paid Rogers SIM for about $10 at a FutureShop and pay $7-10 for a week of data or $2 for a day of data for your smart phone. If you have a "dumb" phone, data plans are about $10 a month for their pre-paid options.
You'll have to go into a 7-11 and use your credit card to purchase some credit for the Rogers pay-go plans, but that's relatively simple. Don't load more than you are going to use each month, as it doesn't roll into the next month unless you spend over $100.
They don't need us. While we're destroying our economy, being dicks to the rest of the World, treating anyone and everyone coming into the US as criminals, blustering around the World like some big fat, well, American, the Canadians have been creating political and economic ties with the rest of the World and they're doing just fine.
In not too many years, we're going to be to them what Mexico is to us - mark my words.
I need to get in touch with some distant Canadian relatives and see if I can emigrate up there. Ya know, rats - ships ....
Yes. They are. In many ways. But they do "need us," despite the great American antipathy Canadians show, sometimes justifiably. Just as much of America looks down on them, sometimes justifiably. Although many American stereotypes about Canada are wrong, just as many Canadian stereotypes about Americans are wrong.
Even if there were no other reason, and no international interdependence, or economic benefit, to being neighborly, Canada would need the US because they sit on vast resources (large Uranium deposits, for example), they have a very low population density, and their military is not a sufficient deterrent to world powers.
They have the 13th largest military budget, but only the 74th largest military force. They would be respectable, given their alliances, absent the United States, but their alliance partners are thousands of miles away. Having the most powerful military in the world belong to your closest neighbor really discourages anyone from attacking you across long supply lines.
They are good at international action. Their news actually discusses international issues, at least somewhat. They take the UN seriously, which most Americans do not. Their healthcare system is much better than the US at preventative care and comparatively abysmal at care after you are ill. They have had massive immigrant population growth. Their minority rights are insane by American standards. Their government is bloated and often ineffectual beyond belief; Ottawa's population has grown ridiculously because of it, and taxes are high and absurdly specific, more so than in the US. Yes, we're different. But we're neighbors. We don't *need* to know our neighbors--but it can be very helpful if something unexpected comes along and tries to burn down our house.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
We do this dance each year with a Rogers stick. They used to have an all you can eat plan for 2 months then it reverts to meters so you can get used to the amount of data use, but to sign up you had to be able to pass a Canadian credit check which requires a residence. My wife who holds a Canadian passport couldn't get the job done it seems the Canadian driver's license is the document their looking for.
They do not appear to have adopted the prepaid plans like we have here. However, we have Canadian relatives who helped us get the account established (we were there for a month). Absent that, I would bring some form of a US device to work with unless you have the friends option. The plan cost us about $100 USD after all the fees, activation etc. Plus $80 for a stick on Ebay. In our case, the costs were worth it due to the lack of other entertainment where we were. At least as of last year, I did not see any prepaid data. However, Rogers will do a no commitment if your bringing your own device, but you either have to post a large deposit or have the credit check done.
Hope this helps!
My employer paid for precisely this feature when I was traveling in the UK earlier this year.
It did . not . work . at . all . At least in the London, roaming connections got the lowest priority on the network. 30-40 call attempts, fruitless attempts to use data for two days, and finally I went to a local T-Mobile shop, bought a local pay-as-you-go MicroSIM for £10, got an unlimited data plan attached to it for a £5 annual fee (!!!!!) and popped it into my jailbroken iPhone, upon which I proceeded to tether and use Skype for everything on a £15 T-Mobile setup for the next several weeks, while AT&T were getting paid $100/mo. for data features plus some astronomical amount for voice roaming, neither of which worked or were being used.
I haven't had trouble with AT&T here in the US, but their roaming agreements (at least in the UK) are crap. With Canada YMMV, but based on that experience I would never pony up $100/mo. for data roaming.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Lots of good info here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/canada/1155046-prepaid-sim-data-smartphone.html
Almost all McDonalds restaurants in Canada now have free Wi-Fi and many other coffee shops, etc. do as well. http://www.mcdonalds.ca/en/news/releases/release_May-18-2011.aspx Before you buy a SIM/sign up for a plan, check out the big three's web sites for their coverage maps (just search for coverage map or give them a call). I have a feeling your remote island may have extremely limited access. Our cell telcos state they cover 90+% of the population but that's because most Canadians live in lage urban areas or near the USA border. http://www.telusmobility.com/ http://www.bellmobility.com/home/ http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=WRLS_HOME
pros: cheap!
antipaucity
Macwhizkid: Your options are as follows:
a) Look up the island and it's location on coverage maps on Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Note that Bell and Telus do share the same network (Bell is eastern Canada, Telus Western Canada, and they share each others towers to give coverage in all areas of the country). But you do need to look at the coverage map. If it shows little to no coverage in your area, you will probably be out of luck. There are large portions of Canada without any network coverage or only in certain populated areas.
b) If you are looking at WIND mobile or Mobilicity, or any other upstart/new provider in Canada, you may as well forget it. Their coverage is really, at the time of this writing, in major metropolitan areas. Outside of these areas you pay for roaming with Rogers, Bell, or Telus. So forget them unless your in Toronto, Vancouver, and within the city limits.
c) If you do have coverage -- your best bet is to call your mobile carrier. US carriers have fantastic agreements by our (Canadian) standards. For example, it costs us $.01/KB for data in the US (that's $10 per megabyte) but since there are so many americans compared to us, you guys get excellent rates. I have heard of roaming rates into Canada from the US that make my head spin it's so cheap.
d) Then compare to the price of a data plan with Rogers, Bell, or Telus. Look at pay as you go options, but keep in mind they tend NOT to allow tethering as this may be charged as extra (and so high that you will probably balk at it). Any non pay as you go option would require you to have a Canadian address to register the account to and may require you to sign a contract. Since this is highly unlikely, pay as you go is your best choice, IF and only if your US carrier cannot give you a plan that is cost effective.
e) Consider the following hardware problems: To use your Phone (CDMA) or Ipad (GSM) you will probably require deactivation of the CDMA phone on your existing carrier, and for GSM, you need a Rogers sim card, which cost approx $25 (for reguar sims, they may charge more for ipad micro sims). If your ipad is LOCKED to your carrier, this will not be an option. Again, if you want to use your verizon sim, you have to have a verizon account and appropriate roaming, no other way around this.
f) Another tip: Bell/Telus are CDMA and 3G+ GSM, they do not support any 2g devices. Rogers has had GSM since 2002 and supports both 2G and 3G+ devices.
Good luck
And suggested that you simply use dial-up instead since are only going to be making periodic blog updates.
if you get a quote, make sure you verify whether you're being billed in cents or dollars!
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
You can get free WiFi at most coffee shops, including the US icons. What more do you want?
Check out Xcom Global - http://www.xcomglobal.com/ They offer a MiFi mobile hotspot for just about any country at $15/day. Unlimited data. I use it every time I travel outside the US. Canada has excellent data coverage.
Depends where you are. North of Madoc, between the highway and Algonquin park, for examples, there's zero coverage.
But, if you're in Toronto, every coffee shop has free wireless. In the 2 mile stretch of Yonge st between Bloor and Lawrence, there are 11 Starbucks; 3 on one block (at Eglington).
Need Mercedes parts ?
I did this a couple weekends so far with Rogers. I bought the SIM card off of eBay for about $5 shipped. The guy activated it for me for an extra $5, which gave it an initial credit of $10. I used the $7 week pass for data. It's limits are lower than what you were hoping for, but was sufficient for my couple of days in Toronto. I tried to add airtime with a US credit card and it didn't work, but buying a prepaid airtime card at a convenience store in Canada worked just fine. But, as others have pointed out, make sure there is coverage where you are going before you commit to a carrier. And let the seller know you need a micro SIM for the iPhone/iPad. The eBay listing I bought it from did not list microSIM, but the seller was happy to send the microSIM I needed for my iPhone.
Except that all of Canada's cellphone providers suck.
Either their coverage sucks or their prices suck.
I was spoiled on a recent trip to Europe. With an unlocked iPhone: 5 pounds for a micro-sim in England. I loaded it with 40 pounds' worth of time for a 2ish week stay in Europe (UK + France) ... and still had 20 pounds' worth of time left. And I wasn't exactly stingy with e-mail + file attachments.
Bonus: Vodaphone (UK provider) sent a text when I started to use data in France, informed me of the price, and sent a further text when I approached my data limit for the day (IME, a reasonably fair 2 pounds / 25 megs).
It was completely civilized.
In Canada?
Ugh. Not cvilized at all.
My advice is not to travel at all and stay in your in a room with a wall outlet at all times. You obviously don't deserve to explore the world.
Leave it, and just enjoy the youth group retreat!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
You're pretty much screwed. I know Virgin Mobile offers $30/mo plans for 500MB, prices go up from there.
Out of curiosity, I'm about to make the reverse trip. What's my best option for a wifi cellular hub in the US if I don't already have hardware?
Better get the offer in writing, if you're going to use your US subscription...
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
Honestly, I think you really need to put off Google maps.. I know there is a route from LA to Beijing, with a step mentioning kayaking across the Pacific, and seeing that you can't still see that some country starting with C and ending with A, you really are some thing exceptional, my friend!!
Please notice, it is CANADA not China..
And you can ask your ophthalmologist for some prescription to get you some nice spectacles. You really seem to need those!!!
Nothing here... So... SHOOO!!!
You might find these offline maps for iPhone and iPad useful.
50MB for $60?
If you travel to a country more than once it's probably worth buying a local SIM card when you're there. I bought a SIM from a small supermarket in Germany for €9.90, which included €10 of credit. €3.90 paid for 100MB of data, or €9.90 would have paid for 1GB. Phone calls /texts within Germany were also cheap.
(This was for a music festival, so I then got drunk, and when it finished at 9:30 (in the morning) played some YouTube videos, and used up all the 100MB + all the remaining credit. Oops.)
I put my normal SIM in my old phone, in case people tried to contact me on it.
You cannot go one week without updating a fucking blog? Does that seem normal to you? Jesus Christ. I guarantee you that you are not so important that the online community cannot abide not hearing from you for one week.
Odd's are you won't have cell reception anyway. Bring some paper, write journal's, draw pics, unplug.
I spent two weeks last summer almost cell phone free it was the best experience ever.
Look, I am one of those people myself who think they have to constantly update their status. Went to Disney World last year, and killed my iphone battery in 2 hours uploading pictures (and even at 3G, took a while, and kind of missed out on a few things that day). You are gone a week! Take a camera with a large memory card, and a laptop. Use a text editor to "blog" or "journal" or whatever. Upload when you get back.
if you were going to be gone for like 2 weeks or more, then I would look into this, but seriously, its a week. Make a phone call to the church when you get there, and have them update parents that you made it safely. Shoot video, take pictures, do video interviews with people, and use your laptop to edit the video. When you get back, you have a nice montage to show the church and put on your church website.
Being unplugged for a week is not going to kill you, and if you NEED to contact people in the US for something, make a phone call. It shouldn't be that much to make a landline call from Canada to the US for an emergancy.
The first question to ask is if this island gets any cell service at all, and if so, on what network(s). The second question to ask is whether it gets good enough cell service for a data plan to even be useful. Many such places will not have coverage, at all, or will have weak service on one network but not others when the stars align and you are standing in the right spot. Coverage maps won't really help unless you have a detailed one for the specific area as the resolution is usually pretty poor, you have to ask people who know about the specific area (e.g. whoever owns the island).
Wind and Mobilicity have been mentioned; they are new to the market; I think one uses an established network and another is setting up their own network and only works in certain urban centers without roaming.
We live in Igloos, travel with sled dogs and communicate with smoke. Bring your skis. Ten months of winter and 2 months of bad skiing.
I have a different question I'd love to see answers to. I'm a Canadian heading to London, England for two weeks and really want to have a data plan. I have an unlocked Nexus One phone ((GSM 3G 900/AWS/2100MHz) , which I use on WIND Mobile within Canada.
Thoughts?
Digital Copyright Canada forum
Cananda and Mexico are usually treated differently than the rest of the world when it comes to US cellular carriers. Many times, service there is included with your plan, or if it's not, it can be added on rather inexpensively. AT&T and Verizon have Mexico and Canada plans which allow you to roam in those countries at a much lower rate than, say, roaming in France or Japan.
Also, keep in mind that if you add the plan for only the time you're roaming, the data caps are prorated too. So if you add a 5GB international data plan for 7 days, you only get about 1.2GB of data. 5 * 1024 = 5120 MB in 5 GB. 5120 MB / 30 days in a month = 171 MB per day. 7 days = 171 * 7, or 1195 MB.
Why not just capture the photos, videos, and whatever digital memories you want, and then post them when you return?
The anticipation of a deferred posting just might actually heighten the interest of parents and friends.
Why does everything have to be immediate?
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
well i've been facing the problem while traveling to china , a easy way out i found was to get a pay as i go local sim card, and t1girl has a point .....
At least with Roger and Fido pre-paid, which I both sold, they don't check a credit card. They only need a Canadian address and that was only used for account verification if you called in. Many times I had foreign customers just pull a random address out of the phone book. Payment was taken through our store credit card machine. You might have a problem buying refills over the phone, but buying top-ups from a kiosk or store is not a problem at all.
It's a bit cheaper to go with a monthly plan, but that needs valid Canadian ID
Sorry im not adding much, but when I read the post, the carriers and the destination sound a lot like Grand Manan Island, my old home town :)
To get an accurate answer you really should say where you are going.
"I'll be staying on an island accessible only by boat" does not mean a lot.
Gulf Islands?
Thousand Islands?
Location is everything..
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
If you're in rural Canada (as I'm gathering from the statement "island only accessible from boat") then good luck with getting a signal period, let alone figuring out the phone bill logistics. I was in a town just 3 weeks ago that still didn't have cell signal. I think that's going to be your biggest worry.
I went to Canada in March 2010 and I had an option with AT&T to pay for roaming data. I forget how much but AT&T had the option where I paid them ahead of time for X amount of data to be used from my US AT&T phone while I was in other countries and I would therefor not be billed roaming data rates while I was out of the AT&T network. I went to Canada and used data on my iPhone the whole time and when I got my cell phone bill, I was not charged a dime for roaming aside from the pre-paid cost I agreed to. See if Verizon offers the same thing. I will have to do this as well since I am now on Android with Spring and planning to go back to Canada soon but I have to admit that the AT&T roaming pre-pay was great. I will have to look into this again soon since I am now using Android on Sprint and planning to head up to Canada for a visit. Oh, and of coarse, use an Android or iPhone as a WiFi hotspot (iPhone supports that. right? I think). If you have a custom rom on your android then you don't even need to pay the fee the cell provider charges you to setup a hotspot on your phone.
new legislative changes had carriers forced to offer contract less plans and change what they can charge when one wishes to cancel a contract... Perhaps you would be better off getting a plan for one month (or whatever your trip is) and cancel it. Careful with the fine print but it is feasible and MUUUCH cheaper !!
I am a Canadian by birth but move to China few years ago. I have an unlocked (the only way to go if you ask me !!) phone (nexus one) and am often spending time in Montreal and Toronto for work and-or Vacation. Being addicted to my smart phone and all the goodies that come with being always on the net I have to get some amount of data service while here.
Thus far both Rogers and Bell refused to just sell me a SIM card so I was never able to get their services. I did try Fido and worked fine however it has quite limited coverage, good in cities but useless anywhere else... My best service was with Videotron though I am not certain about their coverage outside the province of Quebec. If your trip involves spending a lot of time in Monteal (jazz festival) then this is the way I would go.
Another thing... cell service and, especially data service is uber expensive in Canada, I am pretty certain it is THE most expensive place on this planet to have a cell phone (except perhaps areas that require you to have a satellite phone). Fido's pay as you go seems a good deal but it gets quite expensive, I gather you will find yourself spending upwards 100CAD for your trip using their service.
Videotron you'd be better simply getting a plan and cancelling it when you leave, you will get better pricing that you would with a pay as you go. Choose the right plan you will get no cancellation fees and they will cancel your service within the day (Fido can do the same but they have a one month delay cancellation... go figure !).
In all cases, there is a new law in Canada that limits the ripping off carriers can do with their plan so that customers can change carriers more freely. do your math carefully but I would bet that getting a plan and cancelling it after a month would most likely be less expensive than getting a pay-as-you-go. Personally, for equal service I get to spend around 40-60$ per month for a plan and pay as you go brings me upwards 200$ for a single month. To make things the same price I have to forego data access altogether ... sight....
Makes me miss China... for 40$ I get basic GSM with data for 6-8 month !!! All dressed 3G fetches a whopping 30$ and that includes all the extra bandwidth bacon you could stuff your smartphone with ! that said... no you tube does tend to limit bandwidth usage !!! hehehe
Just dealt with this for a client. Get a Canadian Mifi using a Canadian cash. You can do this by phoning a friend up north (what I did), or get a canadian bank account with HSBC. Client has been using on a sailboat in canadian waters, no problem. No friends up north? Go to the next BSDCAN and make some! :-)
http://www.virginmobile.ca/
http://www.bsdcan.org/
thepodger
I put my normal SIM in my old phone, in case people tried to contact me on it.
Which is pretty much the only reason I need a phone when travelling abroad. And the data is for things like gps/maps, restaurant reviews, directions, translation...
For a week of light usage? I just want to get off the plane and have something that works. I don't want 2 devices, I don't want to swap sims. I don't want to potentially locate and purchase and/or troubleshoot a phone problem in another language, while not having a working solution because I didn't do anything with my "home" phone because i figured I'd just get a sim card there...
If I were going to be there a long time, and wanted to make a lot of calls... I think you're suggestion is the way to go. Parents got a local sim for the month they went to Thailand, for example, and it worked well for them.
What I'm about to say only really applies to major metropolitan areas---yes yes, Canada has those, stop laughing. I entirely agree with other posts that if you're going off to a remote island, just enjoy it! The world'll still be around when you get back
;)
That being said, for people who are going to a more average place in Canada, don't require a micro-SIM (or at least feel comfortable with a pair of scissors) and aren't restricted to the frequencies that Apple favours, there's a number of new smaller carriers here that are far better for data. At very least, I'm with WIND Mobile and it's kindof insanely good compared to the "Big Three" here (really two, since Bell and Telus are two not-anticompetative-we-sear names for the same network), for $35 per month my plan includes unlimited data, and to be clear that isn't a contract so I could walk away at any time. Similarly, any random tourist could stop by a WIND or similar small carrier and get a SIM (although annoyingly with WIND it costs $25, so far more useful if you're planning repeat visits I guess), I'm pretty sure any credit or debit card will work but failing that they accept cash. Just make sure it isn't any of that indistinguishable and childish-looking green stuff
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!