If it's unlocked which it doesn't sound like, there is a new Canadian company called Roam mobility that specializes in US roaming only. The rates seem pretty reasonable to me http://www.roammobility.com
If it's unlocked which it doesn't sound like, there is a new Canadian company called Roam mobility that specializes in US roaming only. The rates seem pretty reasonable to me http://www.roammobility.com
Heh, those are pretty good. Bookmarking that site. Thanks for the tip.
I just did this with my canadian iphone 4 in the US for a few weeks. Believe it or not but there is only one company that can do this at the moment in the USA ( both us phone number and us data plan ) but you need a legally unlocked iPhone to do it. I got my iPhone 4 at an apple store ( sick of the Rogers bull crap) and i willing paid full amount just to be able do this. T-mobile is the only place that does both day and number but if you just want a number then any us company ( version, AT&T , T-Mobile, etc ) can do this. With T-Mobile you just go to the store and buy a pre paid sim with data, they sell the sims by day, week, month etc. Just put it in and reboot and you have us phone number and working data! The other phone companies can only do a us phone number as they have no temporary data plans.
Pretty weird that in today's world only one company can actually do this!
Little story to show how backwards cell phone data plans are here in North America.
Last year I traveled to England for a month with my camera and a new iPad 2, 3G/wifi version. I popped into an Orange store (cell phone provider) in York and asked if they had a pre paid, no contract sim card for my iPad. I was shown a sim card with 500 mb of renewable data and the cost was a paltry 5 pounds (about $7.50 Cdn). I bought two sims and used the other on my iPhone 4 for voice calls. Both worked flawlessly. In fact, the iPad sim still had data remaining on it when we got back to Canada and I successfully used it for two hours in Jasper National Park to connect to the Internet while in our motorhome.
Bottom line.....the technology for cheap pre paid, no contract data plans is available everywhere except Canada and the USA where the consumer must instead pay exorbitant rates.
Did you speak with any of the locals in England about how much their landlines cost (per call, etc.)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phaeton Place
Little story to show how backwards cell phone data plans are here in North America.
Last year I traveled to England for a month with my camera and a new iPad 2, 3G/wifi version. I popped into an Orange store (cell phone provider) in York and asked if they had a pre paid, no contract sim card for my iPad. I was shown a sim card with 500 mb of renewable data and the cost was a paltry 5 pounds (about $7.50 Cdn). I bought two sims and used the other on my iPhone 4 for voice calls. Both worked flawlessly. In fact, the iPad sim still had data remaining on it when we got back to Canada and I successfully used it for two hours in Jasper National Park to connect to the Internet while in our motorhome.
Bottom line.....the technology for cheap pre paid, no contract data plans is available everywhere except Canada and the USA where the consumer must instead pay exorbitant rates.
No I didn't, but we have friends from the UK spending the winter in Spain who call back to the UK several times a week on their UKcell phones and the cost is apparently very reasonable compared to what we see in North America. There is no need to swap out their UK sim for a Spanish one either. Now admittedly larger geographics may play into things here in North America and add to costs as well but you'd think with present technology that more cost effective data plans would be available. I'm thinking the big three (Rogers, Bell & Telus) can pretty well charge what they like, within CRTC guidelines of course.
We traveled across Canada in our motorhome last summer mostly on the Trans Canada Highway, and with our Telus plans never had cell phone service from about Moosamin, SK all the way to Sault Ste Marie, ON with the exception of some spotty service around Winnipeg. We find it unbelievable that a major Canadian cell phone provider can not guarantee cell phone coverage at least along the entire length of TCH. We travel south in the USA over the winter and anyone would be hard pressed to not receive a good cell phone signal on any of the interstate highways.
We don't use our iPhones in the USA at all because of the huge roaming rates, although the T Mobile option I read about on this thread does sound quite good, so we might check that out.
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