Which cell phone plans do folks who have already moved north recommend? [Lets say data of 5GBpm]
Is it better to get Telus/Roger/Bell or go for cheaper alternatives such as Koodo/Freedom? Or just stick to AT&T which allows coverage in Canada with a US plan?
Appreciate your responses.
I had a T-Mobile One plan for more than 6 months in Canada and it worked great. Once I got a message that data was throttled since it’s on roaming. Not sure about AT&T policies.
I’m on Bell which gave me a CAD 75 per month for a 5gb plan. I thought it’s better to start with these postpaid plans even if expensive. I had a credit limit of some $120 per month for 6 months. After 6t months no limit. So added an another line for CAD 45 per month, 2GB per month, which was through some haggling online through their chat.
IMO Bell is expensive. Most carriers charge for Visual Voicemail.
In terms of coverage, I haven’t travelled more than 50 kms from home, so cannot comment on that.
Not sure how other carriers compare to the plan from Bell.
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I have been using chatr for about a year now. For $50+taxes, my plan includes unlimited Canada/US calling and 8 GB data. Also I got an additional 500MB for auto payment. Chatr is a part of the Rogers network but cheaper. The coverage is pretty good. You could also check out Virgin mobile. For me, Bell, Telus, and Roger was too expensive since I needed to have US calling.
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I used AT&T prepaid, their $50 plan has 8GB 4G/LTE data. It roams on Rogers and the network is pretty good. I drove from Toronto to Victoria and apart from some areas away from civilization, the network was quite good.
You can get a prepaid and a multiline discount on AT&T for 2 lines this would bring the costs down to $70(USD) per month.
In the last couple of months we’ve had almost no cellular data usage and therefore I decided to downgrade. I now have a data only eSIM from Airalo. This costs $15 (USD) for 3GB 4G/LTE data and also roams on Rogers. The other benefit of an eSIM is that you don’t need a physical SIM but you do need a phone that supports eSIMs. For calls and texts I continue to use my Google Voice number over data or wifi.
This is the most cost effective option that I’ve been able to find to date. I’d probably avoid chatr because they offer only 3G data and going down from 4G to 3G is excruciatingly noticeable.
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I use Koodo (Telus network) 6GB 500 mins, C$ 46/month before tax. Works great in Toronto.
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Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Very helpful.
This might be helpful for some folks. ATT prepaid 8GB LTE plan is available now for $25 per month if prepaid for the whole year upfront ($300 USD per year). Unlimited talk and text & 8 GB data can be used in Canada too. Seems like a good option to start with for folks moving from US to Canada.
More details here: https://www.att.com/buy/wireless/prepaid/plandetails
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@sk987 This is actually a very good option, but be sure to activate the plan in the US before moving to Canada. It’s probably the best $value for the features of essentially entire North America roaming with a sizeable 8GB high speed allowance and the ability to use hotspot.
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I was roaming on Rogers network with my US Sprint in Toronto/GTA area for several months and the network(both data and call) quality was not that great. It could be that Rogers treats third party network traffic as lower priority than their own traffic.
I mainly kept my US phone for transitioning purposes and after a few months I parked my US numbers on numberbarn, I still receive text messages online and they can also forward calls for additional monthly charge.
Another issue I faced is when I call local businesses (like restaurants) with my US number they wouldn’t pickup thinking its spam or if I leave a message wouldn’t call back (international calling charges?)
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@am1 how much did you pay for parking your number on numberbarn, and are the texts real time, or with any delay?
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Any particular reason you did not choose google voice. GV seems to be doing the same for a one time fee of 20 USD to port your number?
U$2 per month. Yeah texts are real time (but online on their website) I used it to get one time passcode from banks for logins etc.
GV couldn’t port my Texas number.
I’m using Koodo. After all discounts i pay 45 per month +hst. Unlimited talk n text and 4 gb data. My wife has the same plan but with 6 gb data. I’ve ported my US number to GV and all calls are routed to Hangouts.
Ram ram @panditji
I am using my Tmobile in canada. It has good plan. it covers north america + global data .But I need to buy a local number due to some incorporate requirement.
- GV number which you are using with Airalo is US number right ?
- don’t you feel need of Local Canada number ?
- I like the idea of Esim. I think I will get esim for local number and keep my tmobile for sometime.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Jai Shri Ram @sameer
You can get a local number for free with TextNow or paid with Voip.ms both these are VOIP.
I haven’t had any issue providing a US number to places in Canada, a couple of people are curious and ask me about it but I’ve been able to get it setup to receive 2FA codes from Questrade, CRA etc on it.
I think it’s a good idea to stick with Tmobile and use a VOIP local number for your communication needs.
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Thankyou @panditji , I had issue when my CPA was registering my INC . thier account was not able to take out of canada area code. I will try to see which VOIP will best good for me.
I was thinking , if I need to stay here then why not move to Canadian number. Let me check these services.
Good post…Thanks guys!!!
If you rely on a local phone to run your business, then I wouldn’t rely on a VOIP option and I think it makes sense to go with one of the bigger providers in that case.