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Comments: 199 + - Ask Slashdot: Best Smartphone Plan Covering US and Canada? on Thursday March 11, @05:54PM
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j00bhaka writes "I am a US citizen attending university in Nova Scotia, Canada. I currently have the Verizon America and Canada plan (also known as the North American plan). My bill is currently around $80-$100 per month. I chose this for a couple reasons. One, I have had my number for about 7 years. Two, I do not permanently live in Canada. I live in Canada for 8 months out of the year at school, then travel home for the summer months. Either way, I would be dealing with international roaming without having both countries in my plan. Currently, I obviously don't have a smartphone. Through Verizon, I could purchase one, and add their international unlimited data plan on top of my (already) hefty phone bill. I have looked into Telus and Rogers here in Canada and cannot find anything better. As a student, my budget is obviously limited. Is there any way to reasonably have (and utilize) a smartphone while I am living in both countries? If so, what do you suggest I do?"
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Why a smartphone? Google voice + prepaid is best (Score:2, Interesting)
For your internet on the go, you would rely on wifi and your notebook/netbook.
Re:Why a smartphone? Google voice + prepaid is bes (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, you managed to give a solution that does not address a single requirement of the problem... Bravo.
Parent
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Well, GP was close. I would get a "regular" phone plan in Canada and subsist on prepaid for four months in America. Google Voice lets you use the same number for both phones and gives you free long distance to Canada.
If you Google a bit, Tracfone will cost you around 6-8 cents a minute. This is competitive with the cheapest monthly plans you can get (in my area) at around 500 minutes talked per month. Above 500 minutes, it will still beat an ETF.
So, Google Voice lets you use whatever cheap plan you want
Re:Why a smartphone? Google voice + prepaid is bes (Score:2)
I've been trying this but the problem is I don't end up with a reasonable data plan on the prepaid phones which turns out to be a drag. Anyone have ideas for good prepaid plans with data in the Canada? What about US?
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Worst ideas I've seen in a while...
Prepaid rates are great if you use a small number (15-30) minutes a month... but anything more and you're better off buying a monthly plan.
And WiFi when you travel isn't so cool... you'll find yourself paying US$15-20 a day if your hotel doesn't include it in the price, and those that do include it tend to charge more so you can't win that game. You can't sit in a coffee shop and get WiFi for multiple hours without running up quite the food bill. Nothing's truely free.
Re:Why a smartphone? Google voice + prepaid is bes (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
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That was my first thought, 'Why a smartphone'. If one is living on a limited budget one should live within their means.
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Because students could be dirt poor, eating cardboard and clothing themselves in towels stolen from the YMCA, and they'd still pick a damn smartphone over the loss of a limb. At least that's the impression I get at my university.
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Google voice does not forward calls.
I'm using http://didww.com/ [didww.com] for this exact purpose.
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* GPS navigation only works if you have a gps enabled device and a constant data connection. Wi-Fi is useless for this.
So you mean those GPSes cars that just plug into lighter sockets are magic? Or the ones on ships hundreds of miles out out to sea have a constant data connection?
Pulling out a laptop to check twitter to see where your friends are while walking down the street does not make sense.
Just text your friends - "Hey dude, where are you?"
How badly do you need a smartphone? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess the biggest question would be - why a smartphone specifically?
Assuming you have some sort of decent Internet access at school, at something available at home, why not just get a VoIP line (a' la Vonage, MagicJack, etc)? You'd have a single number that would cross borders with you easily, and it would be one heck of a lot cheaper.
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I was living in Germany a few years back, and used Skype, first as just a way to call people back home, and later as my primary phone. It was pretty terrible back when I started using it (~2005?) but has became much more reliable towards the end(I came back to America in 2009). I still use it to call friends in other countries without incident.
I can't imagine vonage being much different of a story.
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I agree. Why would anyone pay $15-$30/mo for phone service when you can mate something like Vitelity or Les.net with an unlocked PAP2 for less than $10/mo. :p
But, no.. if your voice quality was poor it's either because you have a bad internet connection, you don't have quality of service properly setup, or your router can't actually handle quality of service at the bandwidth you use. Try using your router as a simple access point (eg, disable DHCP) and install ZeroShell or another router distribution on a s
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Upgrading to a Linksys with HyperWRT/Thibor and eventually Tomato is what made my Vonage work really well.
Oh, almost forgot the obligatory meme. ... you insensitive clod! :)
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As someone who used Vonage as a primary phone for over four years (over five Internet companies in three states), I disagree. I found it about as clear as the cell phones I had used for years prior, and their business model less objectionable than the land line company that wanted $100 for setup plus my SSN or $200 in additional escrow. And $18 a month including taxes and 400 minutes of calling beats $45 with no long distance included.
You do have to have a decent router, though, and the ones they provide
Re:How badly do you need a smartphone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Secondly, what is the need for keeping the same phone number? I had a new number every year when I was in school back when we used two Dixie cups and a string, and modems melted the lines at a blazing 2400 baud.
Figure out what you really need, then go from there. That should help you decide what it is worth rather than looking to get the cheapest generic plan for something you may not need to begin with.
Parent
Re:How badly do you need a smartphone? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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More so, how badly do you need a phone at all? You are a student. Is there some higher obligation that requires you to have mobile accessibility
Girls.
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His question wasn't do I need a smartphone, it was I want a smartphone is there any way to do it. Obviously he realizes he doesn't need one, he doesn't even have one now! I love my smartphone and sure, I could live without one, but I like technology, and smartphones are the latest and greatest, and they are really convenient, useful, and just plain cool (and no I don't mean cool as in I look sweet with my iphone and all the cool kids have one, I mean cool in the same way a nice computer is cool, I like te
Save your money (Score:3, Insightful)
You're a student? Here's some advice that you did not solicit: Consider whether this is an opportunity to save yourself some longterm pain by keeping your expenses low. Consider the actual cost of the plan...as it affects the level of debt you'll carry (if any) as a result of tuition loans.
Maybe a smartphone and data plan is a must have....for a student... ...don't think it is though. I know, it'd be a tough living, wouldn't it?
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Nobody's Home... (Score:2)
Here's the thing... there is no network that can legally operate in both countries. American interests own the American networks, and Canadian networks are owned by Canadian companies. You're going to be on somebody's roaming network when you're in the other country.
AT&T warns iPhone users that they won't want to take their heavy-data-using phones into Canada, Mexico, or anywhere because they'll be charged high roaming data rates.
I think Verizon might be your best selection because they've at least won'
Don't bother (Score:4, Insightful)
Get this. Up until 15-20 years ago (practically) no college students had cell phones. They all managed to survive and get through school despite that handicap. You may have to endure being a social pariah for a few years but it isn't necessary to have a smartphone.
I don't know if it's still available but you can use the Verizon WirelessWeb feature on a smartphone without getting a data plane. Whether they'll let you upgrade to a smartphone without upgrading to data is another thing. They allowed this for the first time with the Centro.
Re:Don't bother (Score:5, Funny)
Get this. Up until 15-20 years ago (practically) no college students had cell phones.
And we walked to school barefoot in the snow and uphill both ways!
Parent
Re:Don't bother (Score:5, Funny)
Now get off my lawn you damn kids!
Parent
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Luxury! Why, when I was a lad my father made me go into the back shed and pound nails into the soles of my feet for traction. We only dreamed of dentures!
Re:Don't bother (Score:5, Insightful)
Times change. The fact that everybody now has a cellphone makes it much harder to get by without one. Payphones aren't widely available any more. Things aren't pre-planned as much; if you're not reachable, you simply miss out. Your friends' tolerance for telephone tag is different now.
Yes, you can still survive without one. But the fact remains, not having one now is quite different than not having one 15 years ago. A better analogy to not having a cellphone now would be not having your own PC 15 years ago - a few students didn't, but most did, so you were at a disadvantage if you didn't.
Parent
Social pariah may become unemployed social pariah (Score:3, Insightful)
You may have to endure being a social pariah for a few years but it isn't necessary to have a smartphone.
Being a social pariah in college is a good way to graduate without a job offer.
Re:Social pariah may become unemployed social pari (Score:3, Funny)
Excuse me, but did you know that engineers make pretty good pay right out of school?
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did you know that engineers make pretty good pay right out of school?
Without a job offer, engineers make $0 per year. A phone is one tool used to pursue job leads.
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I was as "social pariah" as the next guy at my school, and I graduated with 3 years ago with a ~$74,000 job offer. I won't tell you what I'm making now; you'd gawk.
Now, I'm not saying that you should go out of your way to be "a social pariah" or anything, but I don't think that entry-level software-engineering jobs are particularly related to your professional networking efforts inside college itself. I'd recommend seeking internships at tech companies like IBM as a more effective early-career boost.
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Get this, most geeks don't have a lot of friends, so the "phone" part is pretty useless, but the "smart" part means you can play tower-defense games on the shitter, and tweet to famous people who don't even tweet their own tweets, to fill in the time you're not on the shitter or in class (since you don't have lots of friends, dig?).
So anyone in college who reads /. naturally needs a smartphone.
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Smartphone killed the PDA? (Score:2)
Maybe what this kid needs is a iPod Touch or the upcoming WiFi-only iPad. If data plans are unreasonable with the roaming charges, maybe he can just do the smartphone-like things in WiFi zones, and keep his current phone-only device with a phone-only plan...
Verizon and ATT (Score:2)
ATT is anothe
I'm not sure what you want to achieve: (Score:3, Interesting)
International roaming will always be expensive, be it for calls or data.
1- do you really need it ? I'd expect Wifi to be available most anywhere you are (though not while you're actually on the move), so VOIP, maybe with both a Canadian and a US provider, should be OK for you most of the time.
2- for when you DO need voice or data on the move or out of Wifi coverage, it's you choice between a single number w/ expensive international roaming, or 2 numbers, swapping SIMs.
I don't know what your situation is, but lotsa students have managed to survive without mobile phones, or without $100 monthly bills. Might require a little planning and temperance.
Call Them (Score:2)
Contrary to the standard opinions here on Slashdot, big corporations are still run by human beings. Just call Verizon and tell them your situation. You're a student that lives in the USA but goes to school in Canada and you can't afford these massive international rates. It doesn't cost Verizon any more to provide service to your phone in Canada than it does to provide service to your phone on the other side of the country from where you live, so all these additional fees are essentially pure profit. Tell t
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Except it does cost them more... a lot more. They don't have a network in canada so they have to pay rogers or whoever the CDMA carrier is in canada to let them use their network
GSM FTW (Score:3, Informative)
Get multiple sim cards or.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just deal with the reality (Score:2)
Having an international "smart phone" plan is an expensive idea. I work for a company where my users travel internationally. We are with AT&T and everyone has a Blackberry. The bill for an unlimited data plan, plus international calling / roaming / etc. is often $200-300+ a month (depending on countries visited, amount of long distance voice used, etc.)
Asking for an international smartphone plan that fits a college budget is kind of like asking how to go out into the rain and not get wet.
Canada Data Coverage (Score:2)
Be careful. With the data coverage on Verizon, you can't OTA (dial *228) while in Canada as it's not Verizon towers. This means that if you have an issue with your data connection, and it can't be fixed by manually inputting values into the phone (some things need that *228 to finalize) then you won't have cellular data until the phone re-enters the U.S. to perform that OTA.
Retention Department... other discount plans (Score:3, Informative)
Describe the goal, not the step (Score:2)
One of the reasons I don't ask questions on Slashdot anymore is that instead of answering the question, a good bit of the responses are why you don't want to do what you're asking.
I think it has something to do with ESR's essay "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way": Describe the goal, not the step [catb.org]. People see a smartphone as a step and are trying to reverse-engineer what goal the smartphone solves for the OP.
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Actually, what he is asking is unreasonable. Well, unreasonably expensive.
It seems that having a U.S. phone in Canada is almost the most expensive thing you can do. It's worth pointing out that the expense has to be worth it. To him.
I took a look at the T-Mobile options. A discounted International plan gets you Canadian minutes at $.04/min. Not bad, but add that to everything else and it sucks. A Rogers plan in the U.S. is painfully expensive.
Dual SIMs, use Google Voice to consolidate your calls, and