plan options while travelling to Canada

[mrknowitall526]

My sister will possibly be spending several weeks in Canada and asked me about phone options.  Sprint's website says about 4 different things in regards to that!    She is mostly concerned about texting and calling.  She has an iPhone 6.

 

It looks like Sprint has a Canada roaming option for $2.99 a month, then calls are 20 cents a minute.  But, I found this: http://shop2.sprint.com/assets/pdfs/en/support/guides/services/worldwide/Worldwide_eflyer.pdf which leads me to believe only receiving calls costs 20 cents a minute?  

 

And texting - the International Texting plan I found says it only applies to people texting international numbers.  What's the charge if she texts people while she's in Canada?  I'm assuming the person sending the text won't get a charge, but she will whether sending or receiving.

 

The Canada-Mexico Data pack Add-On is pretty straightforward (and expensive!)

 

Any held would be great!

[MacinJosh]

Want a really good deal? Ting! My friend uses Ting when she goes to Canada. $.15/min, texts are included in plan. Data is $.50/MB though. I will say that WiFi is your friend when you are up there

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

[gnoj]

Want a really good deal? Ting! My friend uses Ting when she goes to Canada. $.15/min, texts are included in plan. Data is $.50/MB though. I will say that WiFi is your friend when you are up there

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

Sprint's 1-yr BYOD embargo prevents activation of the iPhone 6(+) on Ting, with the possible exception of the unlocked model now sold by Apple.

 

Sometime next month, if she's managed to get the full unlock policy applied to her Sprint iPhone, she could activate it on Ting's new "GSM" service, but keep in mind that the international GSM rates may differ from the current international CDMA rates.

[MacinJosh]

Sprint's 1-yr BYOD embargo prevents activation of the iPhone 6(+) on Ting, with the possible exception of the unlocked model now sold by Apple.

 

Sometime next month, if she's managed to get the full unlock policy applied to her Sprint iPhone, she could activate it on Ting's new "GSM" service, but keep in mind that the international GSM rates may differ from the current international CDMA rates.

 

I have an extra phone that is a dedicated Ting phone, my old HTC EVO Shift 4G. However, Ting's new GSM service could be an option as long as roaming rates for Canada are still the same as the CDMA rates, and also another thing to consider is Telus' impending shutdown of their CDMA Network this year: TELUS aims to shut down its CDMA network in 2015. Bell stated that January 1, 2017 will be their CDMA Shutdown date, as stated here.

[swintec]

i thought texting in canada was included in plans?  That just older plans?

[MacinJosh]

i thought texting in canada was included in plans?  That just older plans?

 

I'm thinking it's included in Framily, but I don't really know for sure.

[MacinJosh]

i thought texting in canada was included in plans?  That just older plans?

 

 

I'm thinking it's included in Framily, but I don't really know for sure.

 

Update: According to Sprint's International roaming page, all text messages are plan, with no messaging charges when traveling in Canada.

[MacinJosh]

2nd update: Based on what I am reading on Sprint's International Roaming page for Canada, CDMA roaming is no longer available. The only roaming networks that are listed now are:

 

[ufergus]

When I was in Ottawa a while back I picked up a Petro-Canada mobile sim card for my nexus 5.  Worked well for my purposes...

 

http://mobility.petro-canada.ca/default.aspx

[Rawvega]

2nd update: Based on what I am reading on Sprint's International Roaming page for Canada, CDMA roaming is no longer available. The only roaming networks that are listed now are:

 

I think it's location specific. In Vancouver, for example, it appears that CDMA roaming is still available from Telus.

[Conan Kudo]

I think it's location specific. In Vancouver, for example, it appears that CDMA roaming is still available from Telus.

Not for very long. Telus aims to turn off the CDMA network by the end of the first half of this year. As it is, there's only a sliver of CDMA2000 1X service live in Telus' footprint now.

 

But, as far as I knew, Telus also started severing roaming contracts last year with everyone who partnered with them for CDMA roaming anyway. Verizon switched to UMTS roaming from Telus at the beginning of last year, for instance.

[lordsutch]

When I was in Montreal last August, texts were free in the plan and voice was 59¢/minute without the Canada plan. For a long trip I might go with a PetroCanada or 7/11 Speakout SIM, but it wasn't worth the hassle for 4 days.

[joshnys8913]

gsm is better in canada 

[mrknowitall526]

We do have the Framily plan. She will have a work phone for calls, but is mostly concerned about personal texting. Thanks for the info so far!

[Thomas L.]

If she is going to be in Canada for several weeks, she might want to just pick up a local SIM, depending on where she will be. 

[Steven800]

Texting shouldnt be an issue and can't you just use google voice when there's wifi if she wants to use her personal phone #? If not then she might just wanna get a cheap prepaid phone from over there.

[deep]

I've been to Toronto and Vancouver.  If you have unlimited texting plan, then texting is free within/to/from U.S. and Canada.  Data will cost you extra and so will voice roaming.  Once you get there, you will get a text from sprint saying that it'll cost you the following:

 

Without add-on, Txt sent: $0.20, recvd:$0.20,

Calls:$0.59/min,

Data:$0.002/KB unless on plan.

 

When I was there, all I did to communicate back home was texting and there was no charges.  The last time I went to Canada was this past August.  Hopes this help somewhat.

[Dfarley]

We do have the Framily plan. She will have a work phone for calls, but is mostly concerned about personal texting. Thanks for the info so far!

This is probably stating the obvious, but don't forget that iMessage will use data so she'll need to either turn off iMessaging or ensure that data roaming is turned off on her iPhone. Unless of course she picks up a local Sim card. In that case, she will then get a new cell number which can add a bit of confusion. Personally when I travel I like the local Sim card so I can use my phone as is and I just warn people to look out for my new number when I'm texting them and / or use my email address as my iMessage caller ID. If she plans to get a local SIM, she needs to have Sprint unlock the phone for international use ahead of time.

 

When I travelled to Canada a couple of years ago I bought a Rogers SIM on eBay and then purchased a top-up card after arrival to activate it (unfortunately I wasn't able to activate it until arrival - at least at that time). You can get top up cards in pretty much any convenient store. Rogers had good coverage everywhere and a decent prepaid plan - not as cheap as some of the others previously mentioned, but data coverage was excellent wherever I went and prepaid worked well and was easy to maintain.

[mrknowitall526]

Well, so far she is able to text and nothing is showing up on My Sprint as being an additional charge.  I did tell her to turn off iMessage and not make phone calls.

 

I chatted with Sprint and of course they were nearly useless.  Said that texts would cost 20 cents per text regardless...but clearly, they are wrong!

 

EDIT: What about sending pictures?  Will that cost anything?

[MacinJosh]

Well, so far she is able to text and nothing is showing up on My Sprint as being an additional charge.  I did tell her to turn off iMessage and not make phone calls.

 

I chatted with Sprint and of course they were nearly useless.  Said that texts would cost 20 cents per text regardless...but clearly, they are wrong!

 

EDIT: What about sending pictures?  Will that cost anything?

 

Yes, because MMS uses data. As long as she is on WiFi she can have iMessage on and send pictures.

[Dfarley]

Well, so far she is able to text and nothing is showing up on My Sprint as being an additional charge. I did tell her to turn off iMessage and not make phone calls.

 

I chatted with Sprint and of course they were nearly useless. Said that texts would cost 20 cents per text regardless...but clearly, they are wrong!

 

EDIT: What about sending pictures? Will that cost anything?

MMS messages use data, so if she's not going to get a local SIM and she doesn't want to pay the crazy data roaming rates, she can just go to Settings - Cellular - Roaming - and turn off data roaming. That way she can leave iMessage running but it will only send / receive iMessages when there's a valid data connection (if she's connected to wifi), everything else should be sent through SMS. She'll need to go in Settings - Messages - and turn on Send as SMS for that to work though.

[mrknowitall526]

I feel like MMS messages are weird, they use data but Sprint doesn't count them as data. But I have a friend on ting with data blocked and they can't send picture messages.

 

Does the iPhone 6 have WiFi calling?

[MacinJosh]

I feel like MMS messages are weird, they use data but Sprint doesn't count them as data. But I have a friend on ting with data blocked and they can't send picture messages.

 

Does the iPhone 6 have WiFi calling?

iPhone 6 does not have WiFi calling yet on Sprint. We've been hearing we should get it by this spring.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

[Steve Dean]

iPhone 6 does not have WiFi calling yet on Sprint. We've been hearing we should get it by this spring.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

 

Would facetime be included with data as well?  Or will it go over WiFi if you are connected?

[MacinJosh]

Would facetime be included with data as well?  Or will it go over WiFi if you are connected?

 

Facetime uses data. You can use it on WiFi, which of course is the better option when data roaming could kill you.