Anyone use Verizon Nationwide plus Canada?
 

We live in the US, and our kids go to university in Toronto, Canada.

We have had 2 cell phone plans - Verizon for all in the US, and Bell for the kids when in Toronto.

After too much research, it looks like we will save $80 a month consolidating by moving everyone to Verizon Nationwide plus Canada, and getting text messaging for each line.

We never have been charged for using our Verizon phones in Canada to text either Canada or the US, but Verizon says this incurs an additional charge...

Does anyone have any experience with the plan? I'm wondering whether those text charges might eventually be applied, and also whether Canadians receiving texts might incur long distance charges. Looking at Bell's site, they charge more for incoming long distance texts. Theoretically, texts made in Canada should not be long distance, but I don't trust Bell.

My kids and I are worried that their friends may be stuck with extra fees if they use Nationwide plus Canada, and that there are other disadvantages I haven't yet discovered.

This is not an answer to your query but heres' another solution;

Bell has a promotion going on now for 35$ for students; and you also get a Palm Pre for free; it does entail a 2 year contract though...

this site has much more info; http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bell-...r-15-a-895677/

(PS: BELL does not charge to receive texts, in Canada or outside of Canada; ie TXTS recd from US for example are also free)

Have you tried toktumi? It's $14.95 per month and offers unlimited u.s/Canada calling via phone, 3g and voip.
Their iphone/bb apps rock and they will soon be offering unlimited texting later this summer. Oh and they have Canadian numbers.

This is another <possible> solution.
http://www.toktumi.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/line2...319185557?mt=8

PS:via RFD

I have a close friend who has it and lives in Montreal. He has no problems, but he works in the US regularly as a consultant and isn't stuck with the situation where he has months without setting foot in the US. He works in the US close to two weeks a month and the plan has been great for him.

Remember that the plan does not include Canadian data and double check about nights, weekends, and mobile-to-mobile calling. When I had the ATT equivalent of the plan, all minutes I spent used in Canada were prime time minutes.

Also if you aren't under contrary, look at Wind Canada. They have some unlimited calling plans which include the US.

If these are you kid's only phones, also consider the inconvenience of having US numbers over there. Canadians pay more for phone service and I've had many balk about calling a US number when I place restaurant reservations, have distant colleagues call me back, etc. My wife works closely with a Canadian consultant at her firm and they talk to each other by both calling into her company's 1-800 conference number.

My point being you may wish to give your kids some virtual number in Canada. Take a look at VOIP.MS's PAYG plan. $0.99 a month and two cents a minute.

Thanks, Aly, for the info about Toktumi, that definitely seems like a viable alternative to Verizon. We are very interested in discontinuing our Bell service, for many reasons.

Dubai Stu, thank you for letting me know that it works well in Montreal. I haven't looked at Wind Canada yet, but that is next. And I was interested to hear your comment about the US number worrying Canadians. Canadian cell plans (along with many other things!) are so much more expensive than US plans.
When my husband and I use US numbers to make reservations in Toronto, we have no problems, maybe because many of their customers are from US. Or maybe because they are guessing the cell phone prefix is Canadian - it is close to the kids' Toronto cell prefix.
Several of my daughter's UT classmates use Verizon in Toronto, probably with Nationwide plus Canada, without undue difficulty in communicating with Canadian students. They are from the northeastern US, where they may be more familiar with the options. Here in California, few families have students in Canada, and there is generally less travel to Canada.
However, I do know that many of her friends (Canadian or American) have specific requirements - some she must only text, others, only call - with her Bell phone.

Under the circumstances WIND could be a viable soln IF you dont go for the VERIZON/BELL/VOIP option;
PROS
no contract,
unlimited data possible;
plans with SMS and calls to US available;

CONS
added cost since u would need to get a AWS phone (similar to tmobile tech);
extra cost if outside your home area since its a new carrier and anything outside present home zone is billed @ 0.25c/minute;

WIND has a promotion right now where they give you 150$ bonus for porting in a number (25$/month X 6 months)
PS: u can start a prepaid line on rogers/fido for 10$ sim card cost and port to WIND the following day; this loophole works for now and gives u free 25$ credit per month X 6 months

more info here;
http://www2.windmobile.ca/en/Pages/portingcredit.aspx

NB: ironically I am thinking of doing the opposite;
looking to open up a data only line with AT&T for their 65$ roaming data package; so as to use when i travel..:)

I was in Canda this afternoon with an iPhone and had great 3G coverage in the farmlands. (we hit a few Lake Erie wineries). I made a call over 3G and it was great.

Note that Wind's Home Zone means on their network and in the same province for most plans. With Rogers, you ere out of your coverage area in 50 miles. For ten dollars more a month, your home zone is nationwide on Wind. Also note the twenty-five cents a minute roaming rate includes US roaming on TMobile.

I use Verizon Nationwide plus Canada and never noticed charges for texts as I am under my monthly limit. I don't ever use any web/data features as I was told those aren't under my $9.99 monthly data charge.

I think you would do much better to get local prepaid accounts. You get a local number so people there won't have to make an international call to the US (which sometimes can be expensive depending on what they have for calling plans.) Either local prepaid where you buy a prepaid phone on one of the major services Rogers [and Fido], Bell or Telus. There's also Virgin Mobile Canada. If you get an unlocked phone you can simply go into a Rogers or Fido store and get a SIM to insert in your unlocked phone and you'll be in business. They even have different prepaid now that will give you free incoming, or free nights and weekends for $1/day or you can do the traditional pay as you go and pay ~30¢/minute.

If you wish to do a contract it will require them to do a Canadian credit history look up.

We are all looking forward to dropping Bell, and the kids don't need to have data plans or smartphones at this time. They have more than enough internet access as it is! My son says the Palm Pre is not a good product. Our contract will end on Aug 31, the kids hate the cheap phones and are eager to ditch them. I wanted sturdy flip phones for them, like we have from Verizon, but the Bell phone is noticeably lower quality. Even the predictive text software is poor quality. I hate the cost - it's annoying that they charge for call display and voice mail.

Because of their strong desire for a quality phone, I explored getting a 7-11 Speakout phone with sim card, the Verizon Escapade (which is dual CDMA and a sim card, marketed for travel) unlocking it, and putting the sim card in it. But reviews of the Escapade are not great.

I see some real potential with toktumi, although my son doesn't like it that he would have to speed dial to connect to toktumi, and then place the call. I think that's relatively simple, and when they add texting, it will be just what we need, if it is reliable enough. I'm going to try it out starting on the 30th, so I'll have it on my phone when I visit my son in August, and we can both give it a try.

As I mentioned before, I am concerned about long distance charges for their friends, but it seems that a number of my daughter's friends are using Verizon in Toronto without causing extra cost for others.

Oh, and it was a bit difficult to get those Bell phones with a US credit card, so our daughter got a Canadian credit card. Which I am considering commandeering every time I go up there, just to avoid fees. I don't want to give up the AA mileage, so I will have to do some math to figure out the best option.

agreed; no contract soln is prepaid and alos WIND since it is essentially a Month to Month plan (MTM);


The good thing with BELL pre promo is once you get the pre you can convert your CDMA (pre phone) plan into a HSPA (sim card) plan online for free and maintain the 35$ price point; this is moot considering you want to leave BELL;

Keep in mind as well that most of the student price plans will be coming out really soon, within the next 2-3 weeks i would think;
TOKTUMI is primarily a 2nd line option if u need a mobile option; it can be used as a landline replacement if u wish..

Depending on your needs for mobility; NA access; SMS, LD, etc another option is a pure data line combined with a VOIP (SKYPE, TOKTUMI, GOOGLE VOICE) and some of the SMS via data options out there..

The options are limitless in terms of costing; data, SMS, etc but this link can give you a some info on WIND; http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...-FAQ-%E2%98%85
and this link is specifically geared towards CELL phones and plans, its a well known blog called HOWARDFORUMS; http://www.howardforums.com/forum.php

Good luck and let us know if u need any more info;

a.

At the risk of jumbling my thoughts; just wanted to add that ROGERS & BELL both have a MTM ipad DATA only plan for 35$ for 5GB of data;

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/ip...ns_0510-_-iPad

http://www.bell.ca/shopping/PrsShpWls_iPadPlans.page

(this can be combined with the various VOIP options suggested earlier)

Thanks, Aly!

I appreciate all the thought and effort you and everyone else has put into my query!

If I don't forget, - which I sometimes do, once a problem is resolved - I'll post about our choice and the results.

I'm leaning toward toktumi, but we may not even need that with Verizon's Nationwide plus Canada and texting.

It will be strange to be able to call the kids directly when they are at school, we have been texting and using Skype for conversations.