Connectivity in USA for Canadians

We have our first trip planned - we're going to take 2 weeks to get to Memphis and Nashville and back, in early July.  I have two questions:

1) Data / Phone rates.  Any Canuck knows that the second you cross the border, the roaming charges are horrendous.  I have a Samsung Android phone, and an iPad that does NOT have 3G service, only wireless.  I have used the phone as a hotspot, but I'm reluctant to do that while travelling.  I anticipate being able to connect to wireless service at most rest stops and some campgrounds, but I also know that I'll want to be looking stuff up while travelling.  I also would like to be able to keep my phone on all the time, in case of any emergencies at home - I have a 91 year old dad, and I would not like to find out when making camp that we should have turned around 4 hours earlier. Any suggestions?

2) Television.  We are customers of Bell Satellite at home.  Does anyone know of a way to extend this service to travel with us?  I don't want to have to call Bell unless someone can tell me definitively that it's possible.  Otherwise - what are the options for satellite TV if any?  NOTE: We do not have a satellite dish on our rig, I'm just exploring options right now.  Unless it can be done relatively cheap, DH will have to live with the antenna and cable where it's available.

The bigger question is definitely how to stay connected while on the road.

2) Television.  We are customers of Bell Satellite at home.  Does anyone know of a way to extend this service to travel with us?  I don't want to have to call Bell unless someone can tell me definitively that it's possible.  Otherwise - what are the options for satellite TV if any?  NOTE: We do not have a satellite dish on our rig, I'm just exploring options right now.  Unless it can be done relatively cheap, DH will have to live with the antenna and cable where it's available.

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For Bell service, there is no way to currently 'extend' your service and use it across the border.  BELL does not permit you to use their service below the border and this is clearly stated in the service agreement with them.  I know you said you do not have  a setup currently but as an FYI, those that do have a working dish setup in a trailer/motor home  may be able to take their receiver from home and they may be able to pick it up for about 200 miles below the border. It used to work much better but since the last new satellite at 91?W was put in service last year, things have changed. The satellite at 82? W never worked for more that the stated distance. Definitely do NOT call them, I speak from experience...

Most of the snowbirds I know have now switched to Shaw.... and it is the only Canadian option. But it is not really an option for a couple of weeks only, unless you are prepared to change services completely.

For Data via Cell, yes $$$. For your 2 week sojourn, WIFI, where you can find, it is really the only cheap option. As a snowbird, I subscribe to high speed internet from the cable company for the time I am there and suspend the service while home. Just for pure telephone use you can get "pay as you go cell" phones from many different companies like TracPhone at reasonable prices, unlike here!! They do have phones that connect to the internet but I do not use that part of their service.

Your phone and data rates are the exact same problem US folks have when we go north. The rates are downright punitive. In fact for the first time in over 30 years I will not be travelling to Canada this summer, in part due to the telephone rates. I don't mind paying a little extra, but the rates are over 10 times higher.

There is a possibility that you could get a prepaid phone from someplace like WalMart that will suit your needs while in the US. It might even give you some internet access for a better price than letting your Canadian provider gouge you as our American providers gouge us. Maybe take a look on the WalMart website for more information.

Ken

After you cross the border head into any mall and find a cell phone booth and buy a pay as you go service compatible with your existing phone. You can then swap sim cards whenever you cross the border. Pay as you go prices are way cheaper than any roaming charges you would incur.  The downside is you will get a new phone number.

Most Canadian cell phone providers have a one time US long distance package that you can purchase.  I did with Rogers.  It doesn't give you alot of time but certainly enough to make emergency calls back home and vice versa.  I'm now with Koodo and they offer the same kind of package.  I think it was around $50 or so and I can't remember how many minutes that gave you but it was ample.  Now we have a Tracfone in the US but then we are down there for months. 

deal said:

After you cross the border head into any mall and find a cell phone booth and buy a pay as you go service compatible with your existing phone. You can then swap sim cards whenever you cross the border. Pay as you go prices are way cheaper than any roaming charges you would incur.  The downside is you will get a new phone number.

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1: That phone has to be unlocked and

2: compatible means a CDMA phone OR a GSM phone
Rogers/Fido is the only GSM provider in Canada; AT&T and T- Mobile the only ones in USA. All the others are CDMA... AFIK There may be some other 'piggy-backers' I am unaware of.

Other than that, easy to do!! I used AT&T and kept the same phone I use here with PetroCanada Mobile (pay as you go) who piggyback off Rogers, a GSM service provider.  Petro supply an unlocked cell phone which means I need only to purchase the service from an AT&T store and they give me the SIM card which I then swap out.  (AT&T SIM cards can be purchased on ebay very cheaply so you can set up the service from home and  over the internet ahead of time!!)

AFIK... Petro Canada and 7-11 store services are the only two that distribute unlocked Cell phones. Others can be unlocked but require a 'secret' process.... And yes, a new Telephone number is supplied each time, no big deal for us....

With Tracphone if you let the service lapse, you have to call and get a new SIM card from them (free) but they will NOT ship a SIM card to Canada.

For short trips, that long distance package sounds like the best way to go!!!

Good point about needing to unlock the phone. An easy way to do that is to buy an unlock code from a reputable ebay seller. That costs about $5 and is sent to you by email along with instructions on how to activate the admin screen on your particular phone immediately upon purchase.  Note that unlocking the phone does not affect your service from your original provider, that SIM card will continue to work so no worries there. All unlocking does is allow the phone to be active on any network instead of being locked into connecting to the one.

I hesitated a bit in mentioning the unlocking as the OP mentioned having an Apple I-Pad and an Android based phone. I was not sure the how unlocking worked and whether or not it does on these fancy smart phones!!!

TracPhone warn specifically against unlocking their phones but....

They are cheap and can be bought at Walmart. I think I paid 25$ for a camera Phone (+ time) several years ago (special sale??) Phone guaranteed for life and I have since replaced the phone itself, no cost to me.

Check out https://www.pagepluscellular.com/.  It is a prepaid cellular service that uses the Verizon network down here.  You can buy a phone from them, or supply your own phone.  They will set you up with a phone number.  You buy your time by the month as you need it.

As  mentioned, using your Canadian supplier will drive you to the poor-house. Verizon is not compatible with Canadian cell phones(even unlocked) so prepare to buy one of theirs.

For most Canadians used to Telus or Sasktel, American cellular service will be trying. For example, T-mobile voice has decent coverage(California, major interstates) but forget it for data once you get outside of 22nd street. AT&T has good voice coverage but their snowbird data plans don't exist.

After two yrs fighting lack of coverage or useable plans we intend to buy an I-phone from Verizon for use while we are down below the 49th. Lets see if it will give us service in the Big Bend or outback Montana.

To think that a province with only a million people in an area the size of Texas has the best cell phone provider in North America is mindblowing. And for our southern friends it is even a govt corporation-didn't think that was possible did you?

What I intended to say in my previous post is that libraries even in "wide place in the road" small towns in the US have good internet connections and services are generally free. When T-mobile or Cricket failed me, they are what I depended on for much of my US travels.

Even stopped at the Millard Fillmore library to catch up!

Redman said:

To think that a province with only a million people in an area the size of Texas has the best cell phone provider in North America is mindblowing. And for our southern friends it is even a govt corporation-didn't think that was possible did you?

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Not even a cell phone service in Texas can offer that!

And this is one southern friend who knows it is possible, but nobody down here wants to listen to me!!!  And to my Canadian friends north of the border, a very big thank you for what your government has done for our country that so many down here fail to recognize!!!  And for providing me a covert cover while I serving my government in West Berlin!!!  I was told to look like a Canadian student, so I did.  Never quite could get the Ahh thing right, but I did manage to look like a long haired Canadian student for 4 years, and they made me cut off all my hair when I got transfered back stateside.

My motorhome was bought in Buffalo, NY but I live in Mississauga.

I have a Nexus 4 $309 CAD Android no contract phone (comes unlocked) that I can put a T-Mobile SIM into.  Last time it was only $60 USD for unlimited called, long distance back to Canada, and unlimited data.  I used it for 2 weeks while in the Florida Keys also.  By using the prepaid plans there's nothing to cancel.  It just expires after 90 days if you don't top it up.

Most Samsung Android phones can be unlocked.  Sometimes for free if you find the right instructions online.  I unlocked a Samsung Galaxy S3 succesfully using online instructions.

A previous poster mentioned CDMA but that's not been true since about 2009 in Canada.  HSPA+, LTE, and 3G are supported by all the major carriers.  A phone bought in the last year or two will typically work on any carrier in Canada.

A previous poster mentioned CDMA but that's not been true since about 2009 in Canada.  HSPA+, LTE, and 3G are supported by all the major carriers.  A phone bought in the last year or two will typically work on any carrier in Canada.

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Not sure this is true at all. CDMA and GSM are the base radio technologies of cell phone systems. GSM is a system that started as the  mandated system in Europe but is now used world wide with the exception of North America where CDMA is king. It would be very expensive for a carrier to change from one to the other, almost like starting new,  but there has been some talk south of the border...

There are/were phones available called multi-mode phones, (used mostly by frequent travellers to GSM parts of the world) that can handle both systems but they were expensive (don't know currently). Many of the newer phones seem to use SIM or Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (UICC) cards but that does not change the basics. Blackberry, for example,  makes phones that appear to work on both systems but they are likely different models (different radio systems internally), Nexus 4 appears to be similar with both systems being available. Tracphone in USA has many different phones available, some are  GSM and others are CDMA  but they use a variety of actual providers so their phones will work everywhere. As a Canadian example, try using an unlocked phone from Bell Mobility on the Rogers Network or visa versa and I think you will find they will NOT function.

I believe the terms HSPA+, LTE, and 3G  refer to data speeds and not the base function of CDMA and GSM radio systems. It is all very confusing (to me at least but... FWIW) and I am very willing to be convinced otherwise!!!!! An interesting article here on the subject of what appears to be 'cross-over ' phones:
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-difference-between-gsm-and-cdma.htm
I have yet to be able to absorb all of it!!

(I have been using a PetroCanada Mobile (Rogers Network)  no contract unlocked phone with an AT&T SIM  card (both are GSM systems) for the last 7 years and switching back and forth as we cross the border for our winter sojourns in FL.) I should note also that neither GSM,nor CDMA  phones from the Tracphone, Net10 family can be unlocked and used with another provider. They use a different locking scheme it seems.

Hi Alfa38User,

I have a brother that works for Telus.  Both Bell and Telus had to spend massive millions to move away from CDMA.  It was hurting their market share since the latest phones always came out for GSM first then CDMA much later.

BCinTor

Interesting!!! I too am a retired Bell employee (land line side) but was unaware of this. If, in fact, they did change over, it was never published as such and most "experts" (not me) are unaware of it as Rogers/Fido is still regarded in most published information as the only GSM provider in Canada. 

The world market is bound to be in the GSM arena and North America, although very big,  is only a part of it.

BCinTOR said:

A previous poster mentioned CDMA but that's not been true since about 2009 in Canada.  HSPA+, LTE, and 3G are supported by all the major carriers.  A phone bought in the last year or two will typically work on any carrier in Canada.

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BCinTOR:

After a lot of digging, it seems that you were absolutely correct. Thanks for pushing me to dig further

I came across this statement first published in Oct 2011 and revised in Jan 2012:

http://www.tintedgreen.net/guide-will-my-cell-phone-work-insert-canadian-carrier-here/

"When developing their 3G networks, Bell/Telus decided to switch their protocol to GSM. So, Bell/Telus and Rogers have technically compatible 3G networks. Therefore, if you by a phone on Bell/Telus and want to use it on Rogers (or vice versa), the 3G connectivity should technically work fine. I say technically, because there is another issue you may run into?Is your phone unlocked??" 

The rest of the article can be found at the above noted URL... Interesting, to say the least.

But which phones can be unlocked and used  and what radio frequencies do they use etc. are still questions that need answers before we can say "Yes, it will work!!" The article mentioned above along with these tables will help:

http://www.gsmarena.com/



I believe older (dumb) phones like mine, 2G (or second generation), will not,  even if unlocked.

Alfa38-we have Iphone 4s and it switches back and forth between Rogers and other carriers perfectly. Other than for crossing the great arc north of the lakes in Ontario, Rogers is pretty well useless unless you live in the shadow of the CN Tower (I know, I'm exagerating.

But I do know that they are also incompatible with Verizon which was still CDMA as of last December as I was told at the Verizon store in Flint Michigan.

But maybe one doesn't want to be on Verizon after all!

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/06/05/us_government_agency_collecting_millions_of_citizens_phone_records_report.html

If you do have an unlocked SIM phone... you can get daily, weekly or monthly pre-paid service from T-Mob for pretty low rates with data, text and voice.  You can order a T-Mob SIM card via the net and then activate on-line.

I have an iPhone 4 which I'm not using.  It was originally from Bell.  I've read through this entire thread, and am still not sure what I could or should do with it....  :-[