We are heading down into the US on an extended trip in a couple of weeks and would like to have a cell phone with us.
On a previous trip, I purchased an American phone and activated it when I crossed the border. We used it for a couple of months then let it expire. It’s a Verizon phone and I still have it.
So is it easier to reactivate this phone, and get a new number too, or buy another cheap one off the 'net like the last one?
I could buy a new one and have it delivered to a shipping/receiving place across the border for about $15.00.
You can’t really reactivate the phone as such. What you need is a functional SIM card - the little chip that you put into a slot in phone. It is this card to which your cellphone plan and number are tied; the phone is, from the perspective of the phone netwerk, just a carrier for the SIM card. So the easiest way would be to obtain a SIM card (which will have a phone number different from the one you had before) from a phone company and put it into a phone. Whether you do that with the old phone, or get a new device thrown into the deal by the company, is of secondary importance.
Verizon (CDMA) doesn’t use SIM cards.
I knew it didn’t have a SIM card simply because it’s a little flip phone, but I didn’t know that about Verizon.
When I first bought it, I had it delivered to my home in Canada, then to activate it I had to travel about 10 miles south of the border to activate it. It turned out the Canadian cell towers near the border overpowered some of the American ones.
So I still have the phone and the old number is probably no good anymore, but I would like to reactivate it for our next trip.
Can I do that and get a new number by purchasing a loaded Verizon card?
What kind of phone do you use in Canada? If it’s a GSM one (which I think most of the major Canadian networks are now) the easiest way to do it would be to get your provider to unlock your phone and then you can just buy a SIM card from a pay-as-you-go GSM provider in the US and use your Canadian phone. The only real issue there is that sometimes they won’t unlock your phone until it’s out of contract, but sometimes if you call and assure them it’s just for international travel (and you’re not jumping ship for another provider) they’ll unlock it early.
If you have a Verizon account the phone was registered to, you can reactivate the phone online via the “Activate device” option in the menu.
Or, you can dial *#06# on you phone and note your device’s IMEI number. Then, phone Verizon and tell them you want to reactivate the phone with that number. They’ll most likely ask you to provide personal information to prove that you are the rightful owner of the phone. No need to buy a new phone for just for a short trip.