simm card for Canada this summer?

[Snoking]

Verizon no longer will allow me to add Canadian roaming for the summer without loosing my unlimited data plan.

So what are my options for allowing US phones to reach me in Canada this summer? Phone is stock Rezound with latest global firmware.

What about a prepaid Tracfone or singing similar? Chris

 

[acejavelin]

Rogers Wireless has a pre-paid GSM SIMs with data for $40-$65 per month... IN THEORY, they should work fine in the Rezound, just pop it in the Rez, switch to Global or GSM mode and enter Rogers APN information and you should be good to go, but I don't know of anyone who has done it specifically with this scenario, if you were ROM'd I would feel much more confident about it. Note that this will give you a different phone number, so it might not be ideal.

I don't know your situation exactly, but you might be able to do some trickery with Google Voice, calls between the US and Canada are free... If you are not familiar with GV, it is essentially a Call Forward service for incoming calls, you have a GV number and tell it where to ring like a cell phone, home phone, etc. You get a cheap burn phone in Canada, Call Forward your regular number to your Google Voice number, then set the GV number to ring to your Canadian cell phone.

 

[Snoking]

The question with Rogers is what happens when some one in the states wants to call me? I need a number that I can forward the Rezound to without toll chargers.

I am really pi@@ed with Verizon. Anything to get one off of unlimited data. Not that I use that much, it is the principle.

What I need is a cheap US burner phone that has Canada roaming that I can forward my cell phone to.

Does the same *72 and *73 work for forwarding. Or put International calling on my wife's dumb phone and forward my phone to hers?

 

[acejavelin]

The question with Rogers is what happens when some one in the states wants to call me? I need a number that I can forward the Rezound to without toll chargers.

They would need to call your Canadian cell phone number, so unless you used Google Voice or something, the toll charges would be incurred by someone.

I am really pi@@ed with Verizon. Anything to get one off of unlimited data. Not that I use that much, it is the principle.

Yeah, this sucks... I lost my unlimited data unknowingly some time ago by changing something in my plan, pissed me off as well. Unfortunately I see all carriers going to this, or the T-mobile way of throttling data after a certain threshold is reached, like it or not, this will go away somehow/someway in the future.

What I need is a cheap US burner phone that has Canada roaming that I can forward my cell phone to.

I don't know of any phone that allows free ROAMING into Canada, but I think some allow free calling into Canada.

Does the same *72 and *73 work for forwarding. Or put International calling on my wife's dumb phone and forward my phone to hers?

This would work, although YOU would incur the toll charges unless Canadian calling is included in your plan.

I still think your best bet here is get a Canadian burn phone and a local (to you) Google Voice number, then call forward your Rezound number to your GV number, and set the GV number to ring your Canadian cell phone... No toll charges anywhere, just the monthly reload card on the Canadian phone and a phone (dhgate.com has some nice unlocked GSM Chinese knock-offs for ~$100, just make sure they support GSM 850/1900 for voice & 1700/2100 for 3G, ie. Quad-band, frequency ranges). The only other drawback is using GV can sometimes give a little delay in talking which can sometimes lead to talking over the other person until you get used to it.

 

[Snoking]

I ended up activating an old phone we had on a new sub-contract and putting Canada and Mexico calling/roaming on it. This is a no contract plan. 39.99 less my 20% discount plus 15.00 for the roaming. I turned off my 30.00 hot spot feature for the summer. May root the Rez in the fall for tethering.

We can forward both cell phones and the home phone to this new phone and have 1000 minutes per month. It was not easy, took several hours on the phone.

 

[acejavelin]

I still think the Google Voice path and a Canadian burn phone would have been simpler and cheaper, but I am glad you got to a point you can accomplish what you need.

I would still look into Google Voice for the future, mine has come in very handy at times, replacing Verizon's voicemail with Google Voices VM and their app alone is worth it, and it's free (or nearly free, I don't remember exactly since I was one of the original beta testers on the project).

 

[Snoking]

I needed somethink that worked out of the box before leaving the US, as we are on our boat. If I get in a port that had a Rogers store front I will talk to them about a sim data plan for the Resound. Thanks

 

[Snoking]

Well that did work out very well. Went online and looked at what we setup this morning and it did match up! So they are cancelling the new phone/subcontract.

I threw in the towel went to share everything with Canadian roaming. I have never used more than 3 g per month anyway.

I am about at the end of my contract and thinking about getting rid of the smart phone and getting a MiFi.

Cell companies are very similar to cable and satilite companies!