[Q] Canada - General Questions and Answers

Am of to Canada for holiday in July and want to use my phone over there.
I have HTC Desire on Orange
Orange do not have a package to allow me to use my phone whilst away (I can use it but it will cost a fortune)
If I unlock my Desire can I get a SIM card in Canada that will work in my phone whilst I am away? & allow me internet access without costing a fortune.
I will be visiting the Rockies, Vancouver, Toronto
Cheers
Steve

I have Bell Canada, and they have some good prepaid data plans, as long as you don't use too much data. Look up prepaid on their website, which is Bell dot ca. You SHOULD be able to get a simcard no problem, but I would contact them.

Related

PAYG - Canada

I'm visiting Toronto on Friday for a week.
I want to get a PAYG SIM for either Rodgers or Fido etc. I'll be using it to phone home to the UK, It should also include some kind of data allowance as I will be using GooleMaps/Windows Live to help me get arround.
Can anyone suggest:
1) What PAYG SIM should I get
2) Where in downtown Toronto I can purchase one. I'm staying at the corner of Queen & Yonge.
Thanks
Mike
mike_m said:
I'm visiting Toronto on Friday for a week.
I want to get a PAYG SIM for either Rodgers or Fido etc. I'll be using it to phone home to the UK, It should also include some kind of data allowance as I will be using GooleMaps/Windows Live to help me get arround.
Can anyone suggest:
1) What PAYG SIM should I get
2) Where in downtown Toronto I can purchase one. I'm staying at the corner of Queen & Yonge.
Thanks
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
If your phone is network unlocked you can use either a FIDO or a Rogers prepaid SIM. They are available in 10, 20, 30 and 50 dollar refills. Data rates are 0,05 per KB. You can will need to buy a sim at any retail FIDO or Rogers store but refill cards are sold everywhere ( drug stores for example )
Check the following sites for details:
FIDO:
http://www.fido.ca/portal/en/packages/prepaid_airtime.shtml
ROGERS:
http://www.shoprogers.com/store/wir...sp?shopperID=H4836NBBN3759HMF046UK8UDPPFQ3QM2
One thing the reps will try to do is charge you for the sim card, and also an activation fee for setting up the PAYG line. To get around this state that you are an existing customer and you lost your phone, or your sim card got worn out and they will give you a sim for free. Then just sign up the sim card yourself on the websites above for PAYG and you should be good to go.

help! prepay sim for htc desire in New york, which to buy for DATA???

i have a uk vodafone desire, its custom with aosp roms and us unlocked.
I am going to new York for a week and i need to get a pre pay sim, mainly just for data, i don't care about calls and texts as i just want access to email and Skype to call home.
I have looked at some of the sites, but i dont know which one to get, can anyone recommend one?
I have a truphone simcard here.
which i need to pay£10 to get the membership this will give me local rates in uk or usa no matter where i am then i can buy a USA number for £5 and then buy some credit maybe £10 may do.... so that's £25 about $50, so i guess thats the bench mark. The desire is quad band so should work over there.
Did you take your trip already?
Your UK Desire doesn't have any 3G bands for the USA, so you'll be stuck with 2G/EDGE. T-Mobile USA has a $1.49/day data pass that is "unlimited". They throttle after 30 MB daily usage, but the speed reduction only shows up in 3G mode. You won't get 3G so you won't notice. It'll just be slow all the time...
If you want faster than EDGE you'll need a separate device.
Missed it. As been already. Bought a samsung fakeberry while I was there. Expensed the topups. Was just for email, for 5days.
But thanks I will look at t. Mobile next time. I bought at&t..... they suck. With the new job I will be going NYC regularly.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
iamdarren said:
Missed it. As been already. Bought a samsung fakeberry while I was there. Expensed the topups. Was just for email, for 5days.
But thanks I will look at t. Mobile next time. I bought at&t..... they suck. With the new job I will be going NYC regularly.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, well if you will be visiting the USA regularly, you may want to consider buying in the US a phone with T-Mobile US compatible 3G frequencies. Most of the T-Mo US phones also have UMTS 2100 for the UK, so you'll get 3G back home.
Be warned, T-Mo US is pretty choppy too, but you get a better deal for data than AT&T.
Another option as long as we're talking new hardware - you could buy a prepaid MiFi device from Virgin Mobile USA (CDMA carrier, runs on Sprint's network) and purchase data for that. Use the wifi on your phone to tap into that instead of data roaming; and you can also run your laptop/tablet/etc on it. It won't do you much good anywhere outside the USA, but for some this is a viable option.

[Q] Taking my captivate overseas

Hello all,
This fall I will be travelling overseas to Sweden for a semester of study. I'd like to be able to take my captivate with me and just buy a pay-as-you-go or contractless phone/data plan from a provider in europe when I get there.
However I have no experience with european providers or what the cheapest and most effective way to communicate internationally and locally(in Sweden and across Europe) would be. Even less where to start looking, so:
Can anyone point in the right direction for some resources to find out what my easiest options would be?
Do I have to unlock my phone(at&t) in order to use another provider?
Does the Captivate support the bands needed for 3G/calling in Europe?
Could I potentially buy a data-only plan and use skype over 3G for calling?
Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!
I would also like to know, hope this goes somewhere
You may want to ask in the i9000 forum. But to my knowledge you can add a overseas plan to your att plan and you get charged a lesser amt for your minutes.
You should be able to buy a pay as you go sim when you get over there as well.
I'm not sure about Sweden, but I recently went to the U.K. for work and I took my unlocked captivate with me. I got a local SIM card when I got there and had absolutely no problems at all and it was a lot cheaper than any plan AT&T had.
I went to Mexico once for a week and used one of those plans from AT&T and my bill was $150 higher that month.
When I visited France I hadn't yet unlocked my phone (which would be my first recommendation, then buy just data once there) and I used GVoice Callback (GV Dialer does the same) in conjunction with Sipdroid (of Fring) and a SIP phone number from SipGate to make free calls from France to US landlines via hotel wifi.
Here are some links with info to configure what I describe:
http://goo.gl/M1vj1 (this is a summary of my configuration)
http://goo.gl/sZhVw
http://goo.gl/63yD
http://goo.gl/gUIHF
Staying w/ AT&T when overseas will be expensive.
socrated13 said:
Hello all,
This fall I will be travelling overseas to Sweden for a semester of study. I'd like to be able to take my captivate with me and just buy a pay-as-you-go or contractless phone/data plan from a provider in europe when I get there.
However I have no experience with european providers or what the cheapest and most effective way to communicate internationally and locally(in Sweden and across Europe) would be. Even less where to start looking, so:
Can anyone point in the right direction for some resources to find out what my easiest options would be?
Do I have to unlock my phone(at&t) in order to use another provider?
Does the Captivate support the bands needed for 3G/calling in Europe?
Could I potentially buy a data-only plan and use skype over 3G for calling?
Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this link will answer your question:
http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html
They use the 2100Mhz UMTS band, (which we also use over here in Malaysia)
And it will work.
( got mine unlocked by default though, get superoneclick to unlock your cappy)
Call ATT and ask them to give you an unlock code. Otherwise it won't accept a non-ATT simcard
I used my unlocked Captivate in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Czech Republic. No problems in any of the countries roaming on an AT&T SIM or a local pre-paid card. I used an O2 MVNO in Germany and Vodafone in Prague.
Some of the common carriers in Europe are T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, and Orange. I'd check carriers local to where you are. Vodafone was much more expensive in Germany than it was in Czech Republic. T-Mobile tended to be on the expensive side anywhere.
Vodafone in Czech Republic was $30 for unlimited data. Most carriers will charge you 5 or 10 euros (of the equivalent in local currency) to buy the SIM, and there will be about 10 euros of credit on there.
I'd get Google Voice and use that to call back to the US. That way you only pay for data and avoid text/voice charges.
Good luck!
DarkDvr said:
Call ATT and ask them to give you an unlock code. Otherwise it won't accept a non-ATT simcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or just use SGS unlock tool and you can unlock it in less than 5 minutes.

[Q] PAYG Data options for visitor to USA and Canada

I'll soon be taking a three week trip equally split between the USA and Canada. Like most people on this forum, I'm going to want data access from my GSM smartphone for the duration, especially Google Navigation. Of course using my Orange UK contract SIM is out of the question because I don't intend to remortgage my house. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good SIM which will allow reasonable data changes across both countries?
In the past I've used T-Mobile for USA-only trips, but it appears the charge $10 a Mb in Canada which is out of the question. AT&T appear to be similar. The best deal from the Canadian networks in the USA appears to be $1 a Mb which is also too much. Is the only solution really to get two SIM cards?
I know their are many specialist roaming SIMs available, but I haven't come across any which cover this combination well. Any insights would be welcome.

[Q] Bell Canada Galaxy S II has International Restriction on new customers

Hello everyone,
I'm currently in Canada and I would like to bring my Galaxy S II (in 3-year contract with Bell Canada) with me to China. I had an online chat with a sales rep about what I need to do to have it working in China without paying for roaming. She told me that I need to unlock my phone for $75 in order to get rid of the International restrictions that comes with any new customer's plan. I thought a phone has to be unlocked in order to take foreign sim cards. However, from my understanding of the sales rep's explanation, I CAN use my phone with a foreign SIM card with no problem, but I need to pay roaming afterwards. So what do I have to actually unlock in order to have my phone working in China (with local a sim card) without having to pay roaming?
Thanks.

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