Prepaid SIM - Canada
Nov 13, 2013, 10:24 pm
#16
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SYR
Programs: US/AA-Platinum, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Gold, AVIS-Presidents Club, National-Executive Elite
Posts: 2,755
Posted this elsewhere already, but got tired of paying VZW roaming and constantly getting 1xRTT on my iPhone.
So - found a Virgin Mobile in a nearby mall.
Got a nano sim for $5.00
Signed up for a prepaid "by-the-minute" plan... something like 35c/min.
$30 for 1GB of data.
Top-up online.
I put $40 on my account, in case I made any phone calls.
Works like a champ. Getting 9Mbps on the Virgin 3G network. Its an LTE sim card, but Canada must have a different LTE band than the US, so my iPhone is only getting HSPA (3G). The iPhone says, "3G".
So - found a Virgin Mobile in a nearby mall.
Got a nano sim for $5.00
Signed up for a prepaid "by-the-minute" plan... something like 35c/min.
$30 for 1GB of data.
Top-up online.
I put $40 on my account, in case I made any phone calls.
Works like a champ. Getting 9Mbps on the Virgin 3G network. Its an LTE sim card, but Canada must have a different LTE band than the US, so my iPhone is only getting HSPA (3G). The iPhone says, "3G".
Nov 14, 2013, 6:00 am
#17
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Detroit; Formerly Dubai
Posts: 3,652
The iPhone 5 uses different LTE frequencies than the US, but the 5s uses both handles everyone but Sprint. Many Canadian networks support dual HSPA which is virtually LTE.
The iPhone 5s used by Verizon is the A1533. Here is Apple's chart:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
Virgin Canada uses the Bell LTE network. (Virgin US uses Sprint). Take a look at the Bell Canada entry in the list and you'll see Virgin Canada in parenthesis right next to it.
The iPhone 5s used by Verizon is the A1533. Here is Apple's chart:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
Virgin Canada uses the Bell LTE network. (Virgin US uses Sprint). Take a look at the Bell Canada entry in the list and you'll see Virgin Canada in parenthesis right next to it.
Nov 14, 2013, 9:21 pm
#19
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SYR
Programs: US/AA-Platinum, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Gold, AVIS-Presidents Club, National-Executive Elite
Posts: 2,755
The iPhone 5 uses different LTE frequencies than the US, but the 5s uses both handles everyone but Sprint. Many Canadian networks support dual HSPA which is virtually LTE.
The iPhone 5s used by Verizon is the A1533. Here is Apple's chart:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
Virgin Canada uses the Bell LTE network. (Virgin US uses Sprint). Take a look at the Bell Canada entry in the list and you'll see Virgin Canada in parenthesis right next to it.
The iPhone 5s used by Verizon is the A1533. Here is Apple's chart:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
Virgin Canada uses the Bell LTE network. (Virgin US uses Sprint). Take a look at the Bell Canada entry in the list and you'll see Virgin Canada in parenthesis right next to it.
Nov 15, 2013, 5:52 am
#21
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SYR
Programs: US/AA-Platinum, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Gold, AVIS-Presidents Club, National-Executive Elite
Posts: 2,755
Nov 15, 2013, 7:01 am
#22
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: USA
Programs: DL SkyMiles
Posts: 267
bkafrick,
The indicator is correct. Bell/Telus/Sasktel'es network in Canada (which is what it's running on) is using dual carrier HSPA+42 (boding two HSPA+21 channels in tech speak) which allows those 3.75G speeds. Only T-Mobile USA has rolled this out in the US in urban areas. LTE has more capacity though. Your iPhone 5S can actually get LTE in Canada (which is on AWS and which VZW is also rolling out) with the right SIM. I guess the pre-paid SIM'es don't support LTE. Finally the reason the roaming was failing was because your phone is roaming on the legacy Bell/Telus CDMA2000 network (with EVDO A). A roamed on this network a couple of months ago and it worked fine.
The indicator is correct. Bell/Telus/Sasktel'es network in Canada (which is what it's running on) is using dual carrier HSPA+42 (boding two HSPA+21 channels in tech speak) which allows those 3.75G speeds. Only T-Mobile USA has rolled this out in the US in urban areas. LTE has more capacity though. Your iPhone 5S can actually get LTE in Canada (which is on AWS and which VZW is also rolling out) with the right SIM. I guess the pre-paid SIM'es don't support LTE. Finally the reason the roaming was failing was because your phone is roaming on the legacy Bell/Telus CDMA2000 network (with EVDO A). A roamed on this network a couple of months ago and it worked fine.
Jan 13, 2014, 9:27 pm
#23
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: City of Angels
Programs: DL Kettle| HH Pot
Posts: 525
Bought a Vodafone SIM off eBay for my trip to Vancouver/Whisyler at the end of the month. Anyone know what the easiest way of topping up my card? We land at YVR at 12:30am, so I'm not sure any ships will be opening selling top up cards in YVR.
Jan 28, 2014, 9:50 am
#26
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: City of Angels
Programs: DL Kettle| HH Pot
Posts: 525
Carrier: Virgin Mobile Canada
Plan: "by-the-minute" plus 500mb data add-on
Plan Cost: $20
SIM Cost: $4 USD
Just wanted to recap my trip for you guys. Like bkafrick said, Virgin Mobile Ca works like a champ. I bought a SIM card off eBay along with a 20CAD topup card. I signed up for the "by-the-minute" and did the 500mb data add-on for $20. Coverage was great in Vancouver and Whistler. Data speeds felt fast, Speedtest show 9Mbps down and 2up, I never saw LTE on my screen like bkafrick but as you see the speeds were sufficient.
Mike
Jan 31, 2014, 12:45 am
#27
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 19
I'm going to shed some light on the topic for travellers coming here.
In Canada there are 3 major companies.
Rogers
Bell
Telus
Each one of those has a few sub-brands that they own that generally are a better deal for prepaid.
Here is the heirarchy
Bell owns: Virgin Mobile Canada, and Solo mobile
Telus owns: Koodo mobile
Rogers owns: Fido, and Chatr
So the network for Fido, Chatr, and Rogers is identical. These are just brand names for the same company.
There are some small companies who have small networks only in major cities running on the AWS frequencies. These companies are not doing very well right now, both are bankrupt and running under creditor protection. They have pretty poor coverage and because their only customers are those looking for unlimited deals at cheap prices their networks are usually slow and overloaded.
Wind
Mobilicity
Public Mobile (runs a CDMA network with strange frequencies, no SIM or unlocked phones can connect to it)
There are some regional players who only operate in one province:
Videotron in Quebec
MTS in Manitoba
Sasktel in Saskatchewan
and a couple more smaller ones
If I were a traveller I would probably ignore the bulk of these and focus on the sub-brands of the bigger networks. The main company usually has poor prepaid pricing compared to their own sub-brands, especially when it comes to data.
Fido, Koodo, and Virgin Mobile are the ones to look at.
All of them are pretty easy to find top up cards in convenience and grocery stores. Doing top up online with USA credit card will always be hit or miss, just like it's hit or miss for me using my Canada credit card topping up on the USA prepaid providers websites.
For coverage Telus and Bell shared the build out of their HSPA 3G network so they have the same coverage footprint but not always the same speed because their backhaul is still separate.
Rogers is completely separate and for roamers it has the advantage of still having a 2G network if your coming with a phone that doesn't support the 3G frequencies that Telus and Bell use.
Generally in the rural areas, if you are in Western Canada then Telus and Bell will be better, in Ontario and Quebec they will be pretty equal with good coverage everywhere.
Telus, Rogers, and Bell use 850Mhz and 1900Mhz for 3G HSPA
For LTE they all use 1700Mhz AWS except in some areas Bell and Rogers also have some 2600Mhz LTE coverage but it's rare even here to have devices that support that band. It's a legacy block of frequency they converted from an older 4G WiMAX service over to LTE. Telus doesn't have this and doesn't get access to it with their sharing agreement with Bell.
For voice calling, unfortunately they are kind of backward here. Long distance calling is still a thing here. On most prepaid plans you will pay extra to call long distance even within Canada. Most prepaid plans can just be pay as you go, but the per minute rate that deducts from your balance is pretty high unless you add at least some kind of 30 day feature
Good news is that data does not have restrictions. You can use it in tablets, you can use mobile hotspot, you can connect to a voip service if the data is fast enough to support it. They do not put any artificial restrictions to prevent tethering or anything like that. For the most part if you have a newer SIM it will also let you connect to LTE as long as you are in a LTE coverage area and your device supports the frequencies. If you have LTE signal then VOIP usually works really well on the nice low latency it provides. So go ahead and use skype or a SIP client to make long distance calls.
Koodo prepaid link:
http://koodomobile.com/en/ab/plansandboosters.shtml
Fido prepaid:
http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/F...o=prepaidPlans
Virgin mobile prepaid:
http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/plans/...ext-plans.html
Last option there are a few reseller MVNO brands. These may be harder to find and harder to do topups as they are usually just sold in a certain store chain.
PC Mobile: From the loblaws grocery store chain
Runs on the Bell network
http://www.pcmobile.ca/prepaid_plans_features.jsp
7-11 speak out wireless: From the popular and ubiquitous convenience store chain.
Most popular choice for a traveller as 7-11 stores are easy to find. Finding stock in the store can be a challenge at times, they may run out of sim cards frequently forcing you to hunt around to other stores.
Runs on rogers network
http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/
Petro Canada mobile: From a major gas station
Not a great option if you want a big bucket of data. They are a few years behind the curve on offering data plans.
Runs on rogers network
http://mobility.petro-canada.ca/default.aspx
In Canada there are 3 major companies.
Rogers
Bell
Telus
Each one of those has a few sub-brands that they own that generally are a better deal for prepaid.
Here is the heirarchy
Bell owns: Virgin Mobile Canada, and Solo mobile
Telus owns: Koodo mobile
Rogers owns: Fido, and Chatr
So the network for Fido, Chatr, and Rogers is identical. These are just brand names for the same company.
There are some small companies who have small networks only in major cities running on the AWS frequencies. These companies are not doing very well right now, both are bankrupt and running under creditor protection. They have pretty poor coverage and because their only customers are those looking for unlimited deals at cheap prices their networks are usually slow and overloaded.
Wind
Mobilicity
Public Mobile (runs a CDMA network with strange frequencies, no SIM or unlocked phones can connect to it)
There are some regional players who only operate in one province:
Videotron in Quebec
MTS in Manitoba
Sasktel in Saskatchewan
and a couple more smaller ones
If I were a traveller I would probably ignore the bulk of these and focus on the sub-brands of the bigger networks. The main company usually has poor prepaid pricing compared to their own sub-brands, especially when it comes to data.
Fido, Koodo, and Virgin Mobile are the ones to look at.
All of them are pretty easy to find top up cards in convenience and grocery stores. Doing top up online with USA credit card will always be hit or miss, just like it's hit or miss for me using my Canada credit card topping up on the USA prepaid providers websites.
For coverage Telus and Bell shared the build out of their HSPA 3G network so they have the same coverage footprint but not always the same speed because their backhaul is still separate.
Rogers is completely separate and for roamers it has the advantage of still having a 2G network if your coming with a phone that doesn't support the 3G frequencies that Telus and Bell use.
Generally in the rural areas, if you are in Western Canada then Telus and Bell will be better, in Ontario and Quebec they will be pretty equal with good coverage everywhere.
Telus, Rogers, and Bell use 850Mhz and 1900Mhz for 3G HSPA
For LTE they all use 1700Mhz AWS except in some areas Bell and Rogers also have some 2600Mhz LTE coverage but it's rare even here to have devices that support that band. It's a legacy block of frequency they converted from an older 4G WiMAX service over to LTE. Telus doesn't have this and doesn't get access to it with their sharing agreement with Bell.
For voice calling, unfortunately they are kind of backward here. Long distance calling is still a thing here. On most prepaid plans you will pay extra to call long distance even within Canada. Most prepaid plans can just be pay as you go, but the per minute rate that deducts from your balance is pretty high unless you add at least some kind of 30 day feature
Good news is that data does not have restrictions. You can use it in tablets, you can use mobile hotspot, you can connect to a voip service if the data is fast enough to support it. They do not put any artificial restrictions to prevent tethering or anything like that. For the most part if you have a newer SIM it will also let you connect to LTE as long as you are in a LTE coverage area and your device supports the frequencies. If you have LTE signal then VOIP usually works really well on the nice low latency it provides. So go ahead and use skype or a SIP client to make long distance calls.
Koodo prepaid link:
http://koodomobile.com/en/ab/plansandboosters.shtml
Fido prepaid:
http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/F...o=prepaidPlans
Virgin mobile prepaid:
http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/plans/...ext-plans.html
Last option there are a few reseller MVNO brands. These may be harder to find and harder to do topups as they are usually just sold in a certain store chain.
PC Mobile: From the loblaws grocery store chain
Runs on the Bell network
http://www.pcmobile.ca/prepaid_plans_features.jsp
7-11 speak out wireless: From the popular and ubiquitous convenience store chain.
Most popular choice for a traveller as 7-11 stores are easy to find. Finding stock in the store can be a challenge at times, they may run out of sim cards frequently forcing you to hunt around to other stores.
Runs on rogers network
http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/
Petro Canada mobile: From a major gas station
Not a great option if you want a big bucket of data. They are a few years behind the curve on offering data plans.
Runs on rogers network
http://mobility.petro-canada.ca/default.aspx
Feb 3, 2014, 7:14 pm
#28
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: San Jose CA
Posts: 1,100
Turns out that my six-month old prepaid Koodo SIM cannot be topped up now that I'm going back to Canada in a week. The SIM must be discarded and replaced. Are there prepaid SIMs that don't turn into a lump of coal six months after purchase?
Feb 3, 2014, 7:21 pm
#29
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: YVR, HNL
Programs: AS 75k, UA peon, BA Bronze, AC E50k, Marriott Plat, HH Diamond, Fairmont Plat (RIP)
Posts: 7,830
You can buy a cheap phone + sim at any 7-11 or online at http://www.speakout7eleven.ca or just by a sim or micro-sim for $10 and use your own unlocked phone. I use mine on an iphone 4s. For data, you just have to change the APN settings.
Feb 3, 2014, 9:15 pm
#30
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: San Jose CA
Posts: 1,100
Should I really entrust my internet access to a person named Finkface? Anyway, thanks for the excellent advice, I'll give it a shot. As for this:Here's a useful post from another forum on the topic of speakout APN settings.