Surprise Bell & Telus increasing roaming 🤣

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Bell&Telus is increasing roaming charges 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/telecom-roaming-fees-1.6762955

 

[Senga]

Which means I will DEFINITELY purchase an esim for our upcoming trip.

[mrgabriel]

Annoying, isn’t it? 
 

I used to pay $25 for International roaming on Verizon. That allowed me to use whatever minutes & data were on my 3 GB plan. 
 

I expect we’ll see more hikes when Rogers takes over Shaw 😡 
 

 

[JustCruzin77]

I'm pretty sure Americans that visit Canada pay less on their unlimited data roaming plans then we pay for our at home Limited Data plans!

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

9 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

I'm pretty sure Americans that visit Canada pay less on their unlimited data roaming plans then we pay for our at home Limited Data plans!

 

All the Americans I know their plan is NA wide 

[CDNPolar]

The Americans that I know and travel with have NO extra charges for their international roaming, they just have a slower speed to their data and connection.  NO extra charges.

 

We have friends that we travel with all the time - about to go to Egypt with them - and they land, turn on their phone and the bill is the same when they get home.

 

For us, with Rogers at $12 per day in USA and $15 per day elsewhere, we end up with $300-$400 on our next bill for roaming.  

 

Outrageous.

 

We want our phones ON especially in an international location because we could get separated - anything can happen.  We want to have maps and search ability.  We also want to be able to receive a phone call from a family member at home if an emergency.

 

I know that you can get ESims but that does not make you accessible from home to everyone in your contact list.

 

Canada has to get with the program and find a way to reduce these charges.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

11 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

The Americans that I know and travel with have NO extra charges for their international roaming, they just have a slower speed to their data and connection.  NO extra charges.

 

We have friends that we travel with all the time - about to go to Egypt with them - and they land, turn on their phone and the bill is the same when they get home.

 

For us, with Rogers at $12 per day in USA and $15 per day elsewhere, we end up with $300-$400 on our next bill for roaming.  

 

Outrageous.

 

We want our phones ON especially in an international location because we could get separated - anything can happen.  We want to have maps and search ability.  We also want to be able to receive a phone call from a family member at home if an emergency.

 

I know that you can get ESims but that does not make you accessible from home to everyone in your contact list.

 

Canada has to get with the program and find a way to reduce these charges.

Your little rant made me laugh this morning 

you are  expecting free international roaming when we have outrages domestic rates 🤣

[gnome12]

53 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

our little rant made me laugh this morning 

you are  expecting free international roaming when we have outrages domestic rates

Yes, but you might think that our outrageous (I like your inadvertent? typo of outrages) domestic rates should be enough to support some roaming.

[ALD18]

In the process of retiring and just went through the adventure of acquiring my own cell phone, as opposed to the company one I had.  Was really surprised about the cost, across the board, for everything cell phone related in Canada.  For the daily fee of roaming, anywhere, with Canadian cell companies I'll be going the travel sim route.  The phone package I got doesn't even have roaming capabilities.  I'll be preordering a travel sim card, if I can, and do one of the following.  If it will let me I'll call forward my normal phone # to the new travel sim and hopefully that will work.  That or as airbalancer chimed in recently maybe leave the new travel sim # as part of your phone voice mail so that anyone needing to call you can.  We don't rely on our cell phones when travelling anywhere near the way a lot of people do though.  With the $12-16 daily Canadian charges a 30 day travel sim on one phone seems pretty obvious for us. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

55 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

Yes, but you might think that our outrageous (I like your inadvertent? typo of outrages) domestic rates should be enough to support some roaming.

So it is more important for you to have cheap roaming than to have a lower monthly fee for people who can not afford to go on vacation 

OK 🤣

With a foreign SIM card you can use your contact list on your phone 😉

Edited March 3, 2023 by Ex-Airbalancer

[Cardex]

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

The Americans that I know and travel with have NO extra charges for their international roaming, they just have a slower speed to their data and connection.  NO extra charges.

 

We have friends that we travel with all the time - about to go to Egypt with them - and they land, turn on their phone and the bill is the same when they get home.

 

For us, with Rogers at $12 per day in USA and $15 per day elsewhere, we end up with $300-$400 on our next bill for roaming.  

 

Outrageous.

 

We want our phones ON especially in an international location because we could get separated - anything can happen.  We want to have maps and search ability.  We also want to be able to receive a phone call from a family member at home if an emergency.

 

I know that you can get ESims but that does not make you accessible from home to everyone in your contact list.

 

Canada has to get with the program and find a way to reduce these charges.

 

We use a European Sim card in an older phone. We use this phone as a wifi hotspot which gives us the internet, maps and video calls home on our own phones. We both leave our own phones on with roaming turned off. This way we can receive calls in an emergency. Much cheaper than paying Rogers/Bell for roaming.

[CDNPolar]

2 hours ago, ALD18 said:

We don't rely on our cell phones when travelling anywhere near the way a lot of people do though.  

 

We travel extensively and we are not always on a cruise or a group tour.  We want and need Google or Apple maps to navigate a city.  We were recently in Buenos Aires and we walked for four days and every landmark that we went to, we found with Google/Apple Maps.

 

You also never know when an emergency will pop up - medical or otherwise and the phone will be handy.

 

Our biggest use is the translation apps now.  Apple has one built in, but I also have others.  When you find yourself in a situation where the person at the subway fare counter does not speak enough English to help you, you speak into the translation all, and it speaks back in the local language.  They answer in the local language and it translates back to English.  (Both text and speech)  To us this is a must have.  It has saved us before.

 

It is not that we "rely" on them, but we see them as an essential travel tool - for the way that we travel.

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

So it is more important for you to have cheap roaming than to have a lower monthly fee for people who can not afford to go on vacation 

OK 🤣

No, I don't really. That was kind of tongue in cheek. As an aside, I'm with Public Mobile and currently pay a total (including tax) of $44.07 every 30 days for unlimited North American calling, unlimited international text, and 500 MB of LTE data. I am off to the US shortly; their US roaming package is for 15 days (the only choice unfortunately but I am going to be away for 12 days so fine with me) for $30 plus tax for unlimited talk and text plus 3 GB data.

In the past I have always used a foreign sim for travel; I now have a phone that will allow for eSim so I will try that for my next international trip, but nothing I have seen beats what my US roaming package will be.

 

[mrgabriel]

On 3/2/2023 at 10:43 AM, JustCruzin77 said:

I'm pretty sure Americans that visit Canada pay less on their unlimited data roaming plans then we pay for our at home Limited Data plans!

 

 

We lived in the U.S. until summer of 2021 and I kept my Verizon mobile until early 2022. Here's what I spent. I have my own phone - I do not pay by the month for the device. 

 

Verizon - US

I paid $39 per month for my Verizon mobile account which included 3 gb of data and unlimited calls and texts within the U.S. and data rolled over from month-to-month. I also paid an additional $5 per month for a Canada calling package. 

 

When we travelled, I paid $5 per day to use my data, talk and text in Canada.

The same package was $10 per pay day for the U.K. and Europe.

So when we travelled to Europe for 10 days I would pay my regular $39 per month plan charge PLUS $100 for 10 days of International roaming and I paid overages if I used more than my 3 GB plan & any rollover in the account. 

 

Shaw - Canada

I now am on Shaw and pay $45 per month for my plan which includes 25 GB of data. Roaming packages are: 2 GB Int'l Roaming is $45 for US or $75 for International (30 day package), or 1 GB Int'l Roaming is $25 for US or $45 for International.

 

The main downside of  my Canadian package is that I can't use all of my data - and when travelling, I tend to use maps a lot and that just sucks data up. 

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, mrgabriel said:

The main downside of  my Canadian package is that I can't use all of my data - and when travelling, I tend to use maps a lot and that just sucks data up. 

You do know that you can download maps in advance, at least on Google Maps. You still get directions available, although obviously current traffic reports won't be there.

[mrgabriel]

19 hours ago, gnome12 said:

You do know that you can download maps in advance, at least on Google Maps. You still get directions available, although obviously current traffic reports won't be there.

Yes, well aware. 
 

We are not, ‘plan every minute’ travellers. We meander. Which means we look things up while out and about. 

[Magicat]

On 3/3/2023 at 8:28 AM, Cardex said:

 

We use a European Sim card in an older phone. We use this phone as a wifi hotspot which gives us the internet, maps and video calls home on our own phones. We both leave our own phones on with roaming turned off. This way we can receive calls in an emergency. Much cheaper than paying Rogers/Bell for roaming.

Good idea however, I am finding with my current phone (BB Key2) is becoming outdated.  I cannot make phone calls in many US cities because they are upgrading to 5G and older LTE phones don't work.  I still have data but I am afraid that will go the way of the dinosaur.  

Edited March 4, 2023 by Magicat

[DirtyDawg]

On 3/3/2023 at 5:44 AM, CDNPolar said:

The Americans that I know and travel with have NO extra charges for their international roaming, they just have a slower speed to their data and connection.  NO extra charges.

 

We have friends that we travel with all the time - about to go to Egypt with them - and they land, turn on their phone and the bill is the same when they get home.

 

For us, with Rogers at $12 per day in USA and $15 per day elsewhere, we end up with $300-$400 on our next bill for roaming.  

 

Outrageous.

 

We want our phones ON especially in an international location because we could get separated - anything can happen.  We want to have maps and search ability.  We also want to be able to receive a phone call from a family member at home if an emergency.

 

I know that you can get ESims but that does not make you accessible from home to everyone in your contact list.

 

Canada has to get with the program and find a way to reduce these charges.

Canada? Why don't you cash in your RRSP and TSFA and start another cell phone company to compete with Bell, Telus, and Rogers and charge us lower roaming rates. I'll sign up as your first customer! 😉

[CDNPolar]

23 hours ago, mrgabriel said:

Yes, well aware. 
 

We are not, ‘plan every minute’ travellers. We meander. Which means we look things up while out and about. 

Likewise... we never know where we will end up.  We go where the wind takes us and often very unplanned.  We often need maps to get back to our starting point.

[CDNPolar]

22 hours ago, DirtyDawg said:

Canada? Why don't you cash in your RRSP and TSFA and start another cell phone company to compete with Bell, Telus, and Rogers and charge us lower roaming rates. I'll sign up as your first customer! 😉

 

Wish I could... but when I win Lotto Max, I will let you know..... then we can start the telecom company.

[DirtyDawg]

27 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Wish I could... but when I win Lotto Max, I will let you know..... then we can start the telecom company.

Great. I'll kick in some bucks to be your minority investor. I'd love to kick the teeth in of Bell, Rogers and the lot.  🦷 🦷

[Brian V]

On 3/5/2023 at 7:01 AM, CDNPolar said:

Likewise... we never know where we will end up.  We go where the wind takes us and often very unplanned.  We often need maps to get back to our starting point.

 

When you download offline maps, you are downloading a map of an area...not directions to a specific place.

Download the area you want and when you get to your destination, just leave your mobile data off...google maps will use your stored map (along with always available GPS signal) for any navigation you want - no data required.

We were in the Caribbean in January, I downloaded the islands we were visiting and used them with no problem. A detailed map of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao only used 87 mb of storage.

 

Search "offline maps" from your settings page, pretty easy to set up 🙂

 

Not sure how any of this works for apple products...

[torontocruiser67]

We just purchased an eSim (while at home) for South Africa last month. $15 USD for 5Gb for 30 days. So much better then the Roam like Home from Rogers! Worked great!