CANADIAN cell access/Verizon ph and aircard - RV-Dreams Community Forum

charles · RV-Dreams Family Member

CANADIAN cell access/Verizon ph and aircard

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Don't use the aircard or you will pay way too much for service, you can rack up hundreds of dollars of usage quickly. If you need an aircard get a Virgin Mobile Canada one and pay as you go. You can get Canadian voice service from Verizon for about $20 extra each month you turn it on. Talk to Verizon about it if interested.

Edit: Here is Virgin Mobile Canada's data plan http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/plans/data-plans-summary.html. It looks like they give you the first month free when you buy the aircard or MiFi.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Thursday 21st of October 2010 03:51:17 PM

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

We just returned from a 3 month trip which included a lot of time in Canada and Alaska. Bill’s comments above are on track.

You can get a $20 add on package for Canada from Verizon. There is service around the major cities and along the more southern parts of the trip through Canada to Alaska as far a cell phone service is required.

The cost for “air-card” service is so high in Canada that even the Verizon reps told us, “forget it!” We did and found enough Wifi at the campgrounds to get by. Not the best, but enough to do what on-line business was required.

Alaska service was OK. Just remember there are a lot of miles between “people” there and so the service is not like having it on I-95, etc.

The Verizon Alaska and Canadian service maps were pretty darn close to reality.

Bill

charles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for the info., viisted the Verizon store this week. We will probably pur a ph that uses both the standard Verizon technology and the one used in Canada.
Correct on the $20 additional per mo., as I understand can be charged for only the time in Canada.
CCC

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

charles wrote:

. . . as I understand can be charged for only the time in Canada.
CCC

That’s correct. You can start the Canadian “$20” service on a specific date and stop it on a specific date and the time used will be a monthly prorated amount. (That’s how it worked for us this summer.)

I suggest you give yourself a couple of days of overlap. If you make a call and it hits a Canadian tower, the cost is pretty steep as I think you are aware. Just a little insurance thought.

Safe travels and enjoy the “North Country.”

Bill

Sandra · RV-Dreams Family Member

We spent six months in Canada and six months in the U.S. when we were on the road fulltime. We had verizon cell phones on the North American plan. It cost us $90 for 2 phones. We had little problem with Verizon cell service in Canada. Bear in mind that you won't have the Verizon services like in-calling and won't be able to update your roaming etc while on the Extended network up here.

We've been off the road now for a year, still have our Verizon cell phones but the contract is up in November so we'll be switching to something here in Canada.

Since we had internet satellite, internet wasn't a problem.

Good luck and happy traveling!

3Gstore_Matt · RV-Dreams Family Member

As other members have already stated, be careful in Alaska as Verizon is all roaming up there! Look at the local providers in the region and see if they have a prepaid option available while you're up there an put a hold on your Verizon account.

Thankfully there has been speculation that when Verizon releases their VZ4G LTE network they'll finally be offering native coverage in Alaska!

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

3Gstore_Matt wrote:

As other members have already stated, be careful in Alaska as Verizon is all roaming up there! Look at the local providers in the region and see if they have a prepaid option available while you're up there an put a hold on your Verizon account.

Thankfully there has been speculation that when Verizon releases their VZ4G LTE network they'll finally be offering native coverage in Alaska!
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Matt:

I don’t quite understand your comments or concerns regarding Verizon and Alaska.

We spent over a month in Alaska using Verizon without any additional costs for “cell service” as well as our air-card. We didn’t do anything before we left the lower 48 as specifically pertained to Alaska. We just used the phone and the air-card and had no additional bills beyond our normal service charges which were flat rate for us within our minutes plan. Alaska was just “transparent” to us as far as Verizon was concerned. Yes, we had roaming, but no additional roaming charges.

Now, if your referring to getting cell service in some really out of the way places, like Anaktuvuk Pass which is way above the Arctic Circle and accessible only by airplane, then yes, we had no service there from Verizon. {Grin} They had a “local only” cell provider. But for us, on the main roads (Alaska redefines the term “main roads”) the Verizon map was very accurate as to available service albeit no 3G for the air-card. But it did work.

(As I commented before, we activated he $20 per month service from Verizon for Canada and that worked fine; but no air-card. The air-card works, but it is just way too expensive in Canada.)

For what our recent experience is worth . . .

Bill

Sandra · RV-Dreams Family Member

I think Verizon has an air card that can be used in Canada but it's about $130/mo. We asked about it at one time. Can't remember how much bandwidth you got for that amount but it seems to me it was pretty low.