Cell service for Canadians in US

I have been using wind mobile for the last number of years and it's been quite satisfactory. Their coverage here in Ontario is a little spotty when you get away from the cities. And now it's called freedom Mobile. Originally my reason for going with them was that for $15 a month on top of my Canadian plan at$35 I had unlimited calls and Data all over the US with AT&T. with that plan I had the same phone number on my cell whether I was was in USA or Canada. We did not go south this winter because of a health problem so I don't know how how it's working now but I certainly was very happy with it before that. I've also experienced that their coverage here locally has been better since they've been bought out and I think they're putting up more antennas.

Lenny K wrote:
So when you get back to Canada can you switch back to the plan you had before changing it to pay as you go.

That depends on wether the plan is still available. I ended up getting a better plan than I had for less money.

So when you get back to Canada can you switch back to the plan you had before changing it to pay as you go.

Here are some important points.

1. Buy an unlocked phone or have yours unlocked.
2. If you are with Rogers you can switch to "Pay as you go" when you leave Canada If you don't have a contract. It costs $10 to switch and thats not monthly that's a one time fee. No more charges from Rogers while you are in the US if you don't use the phone and you keep your phone number.
3. When you get to the US go to AT&T and get a "pre paid" plan. The sim card is free. They will take out your Rogers sim (save it for the return home) and put in the AT&T. Watch now they do it so you can put your Rogers sim card in when you get back to Canada.
4. AT&T has a great plan for $60 with 8gb of data that rolls your unused data over to the next month. It's actually unlimited data that slows down after your 8 gb are used up. That's a lot of data in a month. You can use your phone as a "hot spot" with your computer. Other plans are available too.

The beauty here is your Rogers charges stop while you are in the US and the plans are cheaper in the US. This works well but you have to be away for a few months to make this worthwhile.

We have used Tracfone for years and overall
find the cost very cheap. Yes, it can be a bit
of a hassle to call back to Canada but you do not need to
worry about mistakes on your bill each month, trying
to get service as it bounces from one provider to
another.

When we cross the border we take our Iphones to the nearest AT&T dealer, get new sims and do go phones with data for around 60 bucks per month. Similar plan to our Telus plan and similar price...just in US dollars so more expensive overall. We are in our last few years of going to the States as snowbirds before we switch to Europe so we have been checking out carriers over there. Again. comparable plans, just switch the sims.

I'm not sure, I would spend the money to have it checked and if necessary unlocked, unless someone else here knows how to check it.

almcc wrote:
Looks like your phone supports LTE so it should be good with AT&T. If you do a search and ask will my phone work with AT&T you will find an AT&T page where you can put your phone's imea number to confirm.

In entered the IMEA number (except the ' / 23' after the long number because the input wouldn't accept it). The response was: "Your device is compatible, but we are unable to find the correct SIM card."

I assume this means that the phone is compatible but it didn't find an AT&T SIM??? Does it also mean my phone is unlocked?

Thanks again.

K

Looks like your phone supports LTE so it should be good with AT&T. If you do a search and ask will my phone work with AT&T you will find an AT&T page where you can put your phone's imea number to confirm.

almcc wrote:
KrowNB, if you bought your phone from Koodo with a plan it's probably locked to Koodo or Telus. There are services in malls that will unlock it for some small $$, it's a software change on the phone.

If you have a recent smart phone it's probably the newer standard so it should be compatible with AT&T. If you can find the phone specs it will give you a definitive answer.

A truly unlocked phone (where you don't buy it as part of a phone plan) will set you back $200+ or so.

Thanks again, almcc. Great info here! I have a Samsung S5 Neo. Apparently Koodo charges $15/mo to suspend your service and retain your phone number, etc.