Teacher
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23 Messages
Roaming in Canada?
I will be going to Canada shortly for an extended weekend and was wondering about roaming. Do I just take my licks with the phone on roam or is there something I can do with AT&T for the duration? I understand that if I just leave my phone on it will be roaming constantly, meaning that 24/7 I will be paying charges even though I'm technically not using the phone. The actual time frame is only 3-4 days so I don't know what my potential costs could wind up being. I'm not a big phone user although I do like the data side. If it's going to be cost prohibitive, I'll leave the phone off most of the time and only power it up to check for messages.
Paul
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
stufried
Guru
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1.1K Messages
13 years ago
There is bleed over US coverage in Niagara Falls, ON. If you don't need 24/7 perfect coverage, go into your network settings and manual lock your phone on the ATT signal. You should be fine. You may need to walk closer to the Falls for a signal. Remember if your phone says "Roger, Bell, or Telus" you are locked on a Canadian tower. The problem on this forum is you don't know whether you are talking to someone who wants to call two or three times or whether you've got a 5,000 minute a month salesperson who will be talking a blue streak and will freak out if they lose coverage for two minutes. There are people who cross this border every day and others who may never be back.
ATT's "rack rate" to make a call on a Canadian tower is $0.79 a minute; incoming texts coming out of your pool of text, outbound are $0.50 a text; $0.015/KB for data (about $15 a meg). Try this link:
http://www.wireless.att.com/travelguide/coverage/coverage_details.jsp?CIDL=124&MNC=CING
Stu
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stufried
Guru
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1.1K Messages
13 years ago
Where in Canada and what kind of phone do you have? This may sound like a dumb question, but Toronto (for example) has a wifi net covering downtown. $85 gets you unlimited wifi. If you have an iPhone or a Droid, sign up for a free Google Voice Account and use SipDroid (Android) or Talkatone (iPhone) and you can talk to you drop. Call forward your US phone number to the Google Voice number and you can both receive calls and have visual voicemail.
http://onezone.ca/index.html
ATT has a Canadian plan that drops the price a bit (from 79 cents a minute to 59 cents a minute) for $5 a month. Nation plus Canada cost an extra $20 and gives you included coverage in Canada, but you may have to give up your rollover minutes to get it. If your phone is unlocked, consider buying a Canadian prepaid SIM off Ebay. They can be had for about US$6 with $20 in calling credit.
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patchelect
Teacher
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23 Messages
13 years ago
I'm only going to be in Niagara Falls and am only looking for some phone coverage. I'm not a big data user, especially when I'm on vacation.
Phone is a Samsung Galaxy S
And the other end of the question is what are my likely charges going to be if I don't bother to make any arrangements. I know that keeping the phone off will not cost me, but what about leaving it on? I will be travelling with another couple and there will be times we might not be together, but will be wishing to communicate with each other.
And the other part of this I neglected to mention is that i'm driving from NY, not travelling from Europe. Sometimes I forget that these forums are worldwide!
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patchelect
Teacher
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23 Messages
13 years ago
Thsanks for the information. It gives me what I wanted to know.
Paul
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screwed_by_at_t
Contributor
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1 Message
6 years ago
Be careful with roaming charges !!! If you do not have a pre-arranged with AT&T particular plan - PLEASE TURN OFF CELLULAR DATA !!!
Your bill can reach thousands of dollars !!!
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