aly

Good Luck, and hope it all works out..

tingalex

I travel constantly between the US and Canada. I was about to go with Verizon's plan, until I decided to go with At&T at the same price since it is GSM (better phones, etc.). I use a BB Bold 9700. At&t runs the equivalent plans to Verizon's, and I believe it shares the same name.

I love having it. Essentially, if you look at the pricing, they are charging you an extra $20 per month to have the "North American" access, rather than just domestic. But the feeling of being able to be ANYWHERE in the US or Canada and call ANYWHERE in the US or Canada is awesome. No worry about hidden fees, etc. I have yet to encounter any with At&t.

However, when you mention texting, I take a second glance. My data plans on my BB covers US data, and I'm charged $2/MB in Canada (Verizon has an international data plan for unlimited int'l data that can be prorated whenever you are out of the US). For texting, however, I believe that you would still be charged for int't messaging rates will in Canada, even on the Nation with Canada plan. At least with At&t, I know that the "Canada" portion is referring to the minutes, rather than any texts. Check into that.

Finally, most of my talking is in the US, so it's not a problem for me. However, if your child is doing most of his/her talking in Canada, make sure you read the fine print of the plan. With At&t, I remember reading somewhere that only up to around 50% of the minutes included in your monthly rate could actually be used in Canada. Might be worth confirming...

Hope this helps! Good luck!

P.S. I would go with At&t partially because of their roaming agreements with all of the major Canadian carriers (my BB will roam on Rogers, Telus, and Bell in order to get the best service available at any given time). See if Verizon does the same -- I'm not sure.

aly

My Sprint SERO plan allows texting from Canada to US at the same rate as a US 2 US text; and the old TELUS CDMA lines also include texting to and from US to Canada at the same rates;

BELL and TELUS still have their CDMA network running; and when i compared both roaming lists from the respective carriers it would seem that Verizon has the upperhand..

YMMV of course depending on what countries u are most likely to visit..

Dubai Stu

It looks like voice roaming is generally cheaper on the CDMA side than the GSM side. Unlimited data v. unlimited e-mail on my grandfathered iPhone international plan is the deal breaker for me. I accidentally downloaded 1.5 gigs in Canada this weekend (Tomtom Navigator). Imagine what that would have cost me!

aly

^luckily u have THE plan; i am trying to find someone to buy this plan;

but no luck as yet...

njmcgreg

I travel to Canada very frequently and use the Nationwide plus Canada plan.

It includes 1000 mobile to mobile while in Canada (unlimited domestic), 1000 night and weekend (compared to unlimited domestic with a standard plan), and the number of minutes includes calling to anywhere in Canada and the US. Texting is also included as if it were in the US.

This plan has several advantages, including the fact that most Canadian plans do not include free domestic long distance, so with this plan, your children will be able to phone any Canadian friends, so matter where their numbers are, without long distance. They will also be able to phone their friends back at home without long distance charges. The worry that their Canadian friends will be charged more isn't significant either. The Canadians will be able to text your kids for free (from most carriers), and will always receive texts from a verizon phone based on the rate of their plan (not charged as international). The only potential for additional cost to a friend would be long distance calling a US number, but your kids could phone them after getting a text or so on.

Cloud Lounger

The mobile phone companies will be all over campus starting in the next few weeks offering all kinds of deals, promos with giveaways for new sign-ups so maybe hold off until then to see what kind of extras you can score. Im sure with all of the international students in Toronto, there will be international calling plans offered on top of the unlimited text, calling, tethering etc...

carolinelb

njmcgreg, do you have Verizon or AT&T Nationwide Plus Canada? Verizon doesn't include texting in the plan, and I've been told if we add texting for each phone, the plan only applies to texts made while in the US, and we will pay a premium for each text we make in Canada. Although that didn't happen last spring, when my daughter drowned her Canadian phone, and used her US phone to text both countries, the Verizon rep told me that had to have been a billing error.

I don't want to wait for phone reps on campus, I'm not leaving this decision to the kids! They need to have their phones and plans lined up and ready to use, and I am the lucky one who has to find the right solution, and pay the bills!

aly

Some very competitive plans starting to trickle out for the back to school crowd;

this one from rogers also includes free internet local calling, similar to the UMA being offerred by TMobile in the states;

here is the link;

https://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.po...tedstudentplan

Another Rogers exclusive: all BlackBerry student plans on devices that support WiFi or UMA come with unlimited WiFi calling. Calls made from a WiFi access point do not count towards your monthly bucket of minutes – perfect for students on WiFi enabled campuses.

weekilter

Another thing to note: The nasty feature of Canadian plans including Rogers is the mandatory 3 year contract with substantial ETF penalties for not completing a term. Three years is an eternity to be boxed in for the wireless world these days.

njmcgreg

carolinelb,

I have the Verizon Nationwide + Canada Plan. They do include texts in Canada, not only the US. They also include texts sent in Canada on any Nationwide plan, not only the Nationwide plus Canada plan. I'm in Canada right now, and just checked on MyVerizon to see if they had charged me for any of the texts I had sent in the last few days - they have not.

Here is the statement off the Verizon Wireless website:

"While traveling in the U.S.,Canada, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico text messages sent to non-U.S. phone numbers of participating carriers will not be applied against any monthly text messaging allowance and are charged the following:
$0.25/address sent
$0.20/message received
Text messages sent to phone numbers in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico are charged domestic rates per your plan."

http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Tex...ing/index.html

aly

fyi

FIDO just started offering a great plan,

unlim calls to anywhere in usa and canada from anywhere in canada;
unlimited SMS to USA/Canada;
all this for 50$/month and per second billing.

This is a retentions offer but where theres a will theres a way!!