So looks like I’ll be taking a job in Vancouver BC for next year. Now, I’m a cell phone rookie-- I have one through T-mobile with free long distance and roaming in the US. I assume this as it is will cost a lot to use in Canada? It makes me grumpy to be so close to the border and have international charges in the 40 cent range. Does anyone do frequent Canada-US travel or commute and know of any options, like free roaming in Canada on some network? Or, Canadians, what providers do you use? Are there any Canadian networks with US roaming? I don’t know how all this works very well so use small words.
When I traveled in Europe about 4 years ago, I worked with some Americans that travelled throughout Europe on a regular basis. The phones they had used a SIM card that held the phone number and other account information. They would just swap the SIM card out for the one they had for each country. Apparantly it was cheaper to maintain 6-7 basic accounts than pay the international roaming fees.
The phone I have now here in Maryland has a SIM card, but I do not know you you could get a different SIM card from a Canadian provider and have it work there, in your current phone. It may be worth checking into though.
I have PowerNet Global Communications for my long distance carrier. Very cheap to call Europe and New Zealand…as well as Canada and the rest of the world as far as that goes.
Once you have registered with them, they give you an 800 number linked to your cell phone, so you can call anywhere in the world on your cell phone for the same, very low rates as from your home phone. I am not sure of the rates for Canada…but I can assure you it is nowhere near 40 cents! My calls to Germany are about 8 cents a minute and calls to New Zealand are 11 cents per minute.
I have the North America plan with Cingular. I believe it was 69.99 a month for Canada, USA and Mexico. I think you get 450 daytime minutes, free evenings and weekends a month.