Pay as you go sim cards?

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are coming to North America for a month-long holiday this summer and are planning on getting some kind of pay as you go sim card to put in our phones while we're over there (our roaming charges on our UK phones will be a staggering £1.37 to make a call and £1.20 to receive a call!!!!

).

We don't want to spend too much of our holiday looking around for a phone so I thought I'd try and research it before we go.

We'll be covering quite a large area (Seattle, Vancouver, Jasper, Calgary, Glacier & Yellowstone national parks, Salt Lake City, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Diego, LA and San Francisco) and I've no idea what networks are like in different areas.

So basically, can you lot reccomend a good pay as you go provider which does roaming to Canada without being too expensive? One which will also cover all of the areas we're going to.

And finally what's the best shop to buy it from? (we'll be doing that in Seattle so any local knowledge appreciated, anyone from Seattle?)

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,

Rob

as far as I know a prepaid service cant roam in another country so the simple answer is get one in each make minimal payments (easily done over the phone with a major credit card)

as long as your phone is unlocked you should have no problem...

the Canadian carrier would be rogers....

www.rogers.ca

from there you can find a store

while in the USA

Cingular or Tmobile would be the least complicated

www.cingular.com
www.tmobile.com

there are store locators at either site

I can't find any reference on either site about whether the pay as you go packages allow roaming in Canada. Anyone know?

Thank-you.

Rob

I checked both web sites...

the coverage area foir *any* call to be made is

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/maps/pop_coveragem ap.jsp?zip=98052&mapt=prepaidMap

Canada is not included in that area

over at Tmobile I see no reference to international roaming with a tmobile sim at all... I would draw from that that you cant

I found references to roaming on the Cingular web site ($0.79 per minute to make or receive calls) but it didn't say if this applied to pay as you go as well as contract phones. I couldn't find an email address to contact them on either.

Cheers,

Rob

the .79 roaming rate is for post paid (contract )services ... I do Cingular customer care ...

usually if there is a feature or capability you will see it somewhere at the site... when you go to the site you have to select gophone as a rate plan... the rules are different for post paid and prepaid plans... most notably international roaming

OK, thanks for all the help.

I guess I'm gonna have to go cold-turkey and make do without my mobile for 8 days while we're in Canada

I'm not sure I've ever been out of touch for that long since I first bought a mobile in 1998!! (it's a sad world isn't it?

)

Cheers,

Rob

if you cant stand the urge... just get a 20.00 prepaid card at rogers wireless... there are stores in Vancouver, Jasper, Calgary

click on find a store in those cities...Calgary and Jasper are in Alberta and Vancouver is in British Columbia (just in case your geography is lacking ;-} )

Well, after the amount of time we've spent planning this trip I think my geography for the areas we're visiting is actually better than my geography for some parts of England!!

As mobile reception looks like it's patchy at best in the Rockies around there I think we may do without in Canada.

Thanks for all the help.

Rob

I am working in a cellphone store right in dowtown vancouver. We are situated down of the pacific center mall and the name of our store is WirelessWave. My name is Annie Cote, you can ask for me. We carry both of the only two gsm carrier in canada. Things to be sure before you leave. Your phone is gsm ( which means 3 band or 4 band ( having the 1900 or the 850 frequency is a must for canada) You phone must also be unlock ( which means sim free) you can try this by putting a different carrier sim card and that the phone work. The sim card do not come with any credit and you must buy a minimum of $10 with the simcard. Some carrier charge to activate the sim card, but i don't.

The sim card is usually between $30 ( fido) and $45 dollars ( rogers) . The difference is that if you stay in vancouver or in whistler without travelling around the city you don't need really Rogers and you can stay with Fido. If you are going to travel you should go with Rogers, the coverage is bigger and better. Fido prepaid will not work in between the city.

You have to know fews things, if you stay for fews months, go with a monthly package, it is way cheaper and no commitment. The sim card is only $35 and give you more minutes for the same amount of money that prepaid would and also international text is way cheaper that way.

Prepaid varie between $0.33 a minutes for local calls, INCOMING AND OUTGOING , and if you buy more money you can get a rate up to $0.20 a minute INOCMING AND OUTGOING. To get you started with the cheapest possible way would cost you $79.50 ( taxe included) in store and you ll get 200 minutes good for 1 months.

In the other way, the monthly would cost you nothing in the store and a initial paiement on your credit card of $70.56 ( taxe included) for 200 minutes. There after you can get 200 minutes a month for $31 taxe included instead of 44$ taxe included.

My email is -edited- , email me for more question .
Everyone feel free to email for a any resquest .

Pay as you go sim cards?

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