Cell phone for Canada

[Cuttyhunk]

Visiting by car twice in 2016, once Montreal and then into the Gaspe peninsula. We had Virgin Mobile with no Canada option. For the first trip, I bought an ATT Go phone with a pricey prepaid plan that worked in Canada. It did work ok and I only paid for one pricey month. Then I researched a longer term solution and switched from Virgin Mobile to T-Mobile, which also worked ok...no signal in some places on the Gaspe, but we expected that.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Ardbeg]

If you buy a new cell phone you can find ones like the Nokia 1520 ( Windows phone) where you can have dual sim cards. So you could keep your Verizen number and have a cheapy card when in Canada. You can also buy a cell phone booster for under $1000. That apparently will give you up to 100 miles offshore or to the nearest tower. I am researching the options of that for my boat now. Will be cheaper than SAT phone.

[zjames]

Have you looked at internet phone. Google Voice will offer you a number then where ever you are, you can call where ever you want to call. You can get a cheep phone and a cheap service there with just a data plan and then make calls using Hangouts on Google using your Google Voice Number. You can use a Canadian Number or just keep a USA number. US Calls are free if you have a US Number and Canadian Calls are free if you use a Canadian Number.
This works where ever you travel in the world. Bahamas, Carribean, the Med, etc.

Blessings
ZMJ

[hamburking]

Electronics (and phone) stores in Canada now sell UNLOCKED phones. You can put any sim you want into an unlocked phone. I just bought an unlocked S5 at Canada Computers for a very good price. This separates the phone from the service provider. This only became possible due to new canadian laws which came into affect about one year ago.

Its better value to buy a new/unlocked phone than to pay to have your old phone unlocked. They always advertise $10 to unlock, but it usually costs more like $100. Its a scam.

For cheap phone service in canada, I use petro-can mobile. The sim is $10. Then $25 gets you 4 months service with calls costing 20 cents/minute, coming out of your $25. So for a guy like me, who talks little, I get good coverage and over 6 hours talk time for $75/year. Most people pay more than that for just one month. You can use data on that plan too...but its $100/gb...ouch. If you want data, you'll have to go with some other plan. Personally, I'm happy to use wifi hotspots and pocket the difference.

[Lancerbye]

Having used cell phones up and down the west coast of Canada since the 80s I have found that coverage varies a lot from service to service. There are only really two service providers (the people who own the towers) up here. Their coverage map differs. Everybody else buys tower usage off the two giants Bell and Telus which do a very good job of price fixing. Which is why we get screwed up here. As for coverage Bell based service is better north of Campbell River.

[kdaley]

T-Mobile is the way to go. Used it all summer while sailing on the East Coast of Canada. Get the data plan and you are good to go. Used my iPhone with Navionics and had no problems.

[nitpik]

Originally Posted by Goingbuddha

Might be most cost-effective to just buy a cheap, used phone and activate it with some cheap minutes.
Eugene

Good luck finding "cheap" minutes in Canada! 😂

[Sailor647]

Originally Posted by kdaley

T-Mobile is the way to go. Used it all summer while sailing on the East Coast of Canada. Get the data plan and you are good to go. Used my iPhone with Navionics and had no problems.

We canceled our Verizon plan and went with T-Mobile. T-Mobile offers the "North America Plan" which covers all of Canada, the United States, and Mexico for one price. No roaming, plenty of data with unused data storage.

We had Droid phones but put T-Mobile chips in them. Works great. Both phones for us coast about $108 USD monthly.

[SVTwilight]

T Mobile seems to be the best for low cost, but if you have Verizon and want to keep it they have a $2 a day adder that lets you use the minutes and data from your USA acct in Canada.

Check yourself as their plans seem to change a lot, but I use it in July for two weeks with good results

[northwestsailor]

We just did this and past Hot Springs Cove there is very little service. We just used Verizon's $2 per day plan where we had service. Other times we just had the phone in airplane mode so no charges. Was very reasonable in review.

[dmksails]

I'll check into that Verizon deal. Thanks!!

[Captain Puget]

Try looking at T-Mobile ... they now have an unlimited plan that covers US, Canada & Mexico. They roam on the same Canadian carriers and have greatly improved coverage