wifi and cell service

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lenbeal

lenbeal

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Driving from Vancover BC to Dawson Creek BC to Tok AK then to Anchorage Ak. The up to Fairbanks AK on to Dawson City down to Banff AB back to states. I did not know how to ask the question. I am concerned about Cell and Wifi to pay bills etc on the road. Two month trip. Thanks
 
You need to give us more information.  For example, what are your concerns?  Are you concerned there will not be any service?  What are other concerns?  What cell provider do you have?  Have you checked with them to verify they have coverage in Fairbanks and Anchorage?
 
As JudyJB indicates, more information is needed to better answer your question.  In general and it will depend on many factors, products such as https://www.weboost.com/ can boost cell signals and products such as https://wifiranger.com/ can boost Wifi signals.  Without knowing the specifics of your situation it is hard to say whether these products will work for you.  The big determining factor is what carrier do you have and what is their coverage area?  A visit to the carriers website should show a coverage map.  I have heard some couples each have a different carrier to help maximize the coverage.
 
Dpending on what roads you travel, cellular coverage can be spotty or non-existent in parts of western Canada and Alaska. And wifi is chancy too. It's been years sionce we traveled that way, so I'll leave it to more recent visitors to give current status. 

We would need to know what network you need for cell service, e.g. Verizon, AT&T, US Cellular, etc. A better idea of your route would also be helpful.
 
We just returned from all of those places. We have Verizon and use our JetPak for WIFI when not provided by campground. If it was provided very few were good enough to use to even look at Facebook or read this Forum. So therefore we mostly relied on Verizon. Our plan limited our "unlimited"plan in Canada, so be sure to check your provider. There were lots of places in Canada where we didn't have any service. So no texts, calls and you could forget about using any data. But not to scare you, maybe it would be a day or two without service and we would move on and the next place was good. Plenty of service in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Tok and all towns on the Kenai Peninsula.

Enjoy your trip. We had a blast!
 
In 2016 we had good cell service & internet using our Verizon Jetpack in the towns along the way from Sumas, WA (western WA) to AK. 

Now if you want cell service more than about 5 miles outside of the towns you are out of luck.

If you have Verizon, you need to check on the costs.  If you have a large enough data plan you get free, but somewhat limited data amount and free voice in Canada.  Otherwise you have to pay (I think) $5 for 24 hour service on each device.  Just put the phone in airplane mode if you don't to pay the 24 hour fee.

I don't know about other cell providers.
 
For paying regular bills that you expect like home electric, telephone etc. you are far better off having them paid automatically by deduction from your bank account. No worries about missing due dates or internet connections that way.
 
you are far better off having them paid automatically by deduction from your bank account.
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Right!  Or have them auto-billed to a credit card or Ebill to a bill payer service (most banks offer an online bill pay service these days). You can verify the charges and amount paid whenever you have a good internet connection, but in the meantime the bill is paid.
 
Quite a few campgrounds will advertise WIFI, but the chance of actually accessing the internet is low.

Ken
 
missnmountains said:
Quite a few campgrounds will advertise WIFI, but the chance of actually accessing the internet is low.

Ken
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I agree. I learned this the hard way on our first RV trip. I'm in grad school and had to submit a paper, plus my weekly discussion posts. One camp site had wifi but even if you were connected, it didn't work. Another site had wifi, but you had to pay to use it. I ended up missing a discussion post deadline because of being unable to use wifi on our trip. We ended up having to drive in to town so I could get a cell phone signal to make my phone a wifi hotspot, to connect with my laptop to submit the assignment.

We will definitely look in to other options for connectivity before our next trip!
 
Been out of touch for awhile and then Hurricane clean up. We have Verizon and also use a Jet Pak. All bills are paid auto except credit card. I will go to verizon to check charges and options for Canada. You all were great with answers and thought starters. Thanks
 
You will not have cell phone service in all of Canada if you have American service. RV park Wifi at Canadian and some Alaskan locations is spotty to nil. Remember that you will be in some desolate places.
 
thomasamski said:
You will not have cell phone service in all of Canada if you have American service. RV park Wifi at Canadian and some Alaskan locations is spotty to nil. Remember that you will be in some desolate places.
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I can't speak for "all of Canada", but in the summer of 2016, going from the Washington border through British Columbia and then up the Alaska Hwy to Alaska we had good cell service with our Verizon cell phones.  The actual companies providing the cell signal were Canadian.

The main limitation was you had to be in or near the cities or towns to get the cell signal.  In some places we lost the signal less than 10 miles outside of the town.  I really didn't expect to have wide area coverage in the remote towns in BC and the Yukon. 

Additionally in Alaska we had good cell service in or near the cities and towns.  The coverage generally extended quite a ways out side of the towns. 
 
Contact your carrier and arrange to have coverage added while you are in Canada.  If you don't contact them and buy one of their packages up front, you could pay dearly for any usage while in Canada.  We learned the hard way.  We were in Canada for 2 weeks and received an additional charge of more than $500.00 for phone and Internet service.  The next time we were in Canada, we paid a nominal amount amount that was negotiated before entering Canada.  Even if you're near the border, any calls or net use that go over a Canadian tower will be charged to your account.  Important that you have the Canadian coverage sorted out before leaving.  We have Verizon. 
 
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