Cell phone use at WDW

[Tiger926]

Originally Posted by glorania

This helps tremendously!! Thankyou! We will use our ipod/iphone to text each other in the park if needed. nice to know we can do this without being charged. Will have to let DD know not to text back home or the bill will be a fortune! lol

You are most welcome. Have a great trip!! Tiger

[Geodoc]

And the DisBoards is reporting that free wifi is now online at Hollywood Studios!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

[CanadianGuy]

Short summary:
1) Get your phone SIM phone "unlocked"- if your worried about doing this use an older phone that you might have. (e.g. I just got a iPhone, but it is my old Blackberry Pearl that I got unlocked)-not all carriers use SIM cards in their phones
2) Buy a prepaid phone plan with a SIM card included, when in US. (Walmart, BestBuy, AT&T store etc.)
3) Put the card in the phone & your all set to go!- No more Rogers roaming

I only have one small correction.. I fly out of Portland Maine and I just stopped at the AT&T store in the mall there with my unlocked Canadian phone and asked for a SIM with data and a phone number for the duration of my trip. They gave me the SIM, I put it in my Galaxy Note and voila!

Bing bang boom and away I went.. total cost for me was $65 for the whole trip.. I had an Orlando number.. international texting was included.. no issues whatsoever and no ugly surprises in the bill when I got home.

Couldn't have been easier.

[shillee]

I am trying to make sense of this and figure out what might be best. I have a pay-as-you-go from Rogers. It is something like $10-$15/month. It is voice only. For texts I pay $0.30 each (which I never use).

We will be in Disney and DH has his iphone. I am thinking it might be good if for once I have a phone with me in case we do a few separate things with the kids.

So either text/voice (or both) would be nice. I am wondering what my best (and cheapest) option would be? Should I try to get something for Rogers for a couple of weeks or am I better to pull out my SIM card and buy something in the US?

Oh, and we have an old iphone 3 (or 3S or whatever it was) since DH upgraded but it is still locked with Bell. If we could somehow get that unlocked that would be great but have no idea where/how to do this.

[MaMudduck]

Originally Posted by shillee

So either text/voice (or both) would be nice. I am wondering what my best (and cheapest) option would be? Should I try to get something for Rogers for a couple of weeks or am I better to pull out my SIM card and buy something in the US?

Oh, and we have an old iphone 3 (or 3S or whatever it was) since DH upgraded but it is still locked with Bell. If we could somehow get that unlocked that would be great but have no idea where/how to do this.

Ok I'm not sure if you asking: "If I pull out the Rogers sim, and put in a US sim, will it work?..or are you asking "If I stop using my Rogers phone & get a phone in the US will that be cheaper?"

So based on question #1- I've tried to answer below:

If you got your phone from Rogers originally then it's locked to Rogers (regardless what type of plan you have) unless you know for-a-fact that phone has been unlocked. So you will not be able to pull out the SIM card and put in a US one.
I don't know if you can have a the Rogers US thingy added on a prepaid Rogers phone, you'll need to check with them directly.

To get your phone unlocked there are many companies that will email you the unlock code for a price.($5 to $30) Google search, there are even youtube videos. the last one I used was from "mobile-phone-unlock.com"not an endorsement, just a statement

[MaMudduck]

delete- answered already

[shillee]

Thanks Wendy. I don't think my Rogers phone is locked as it was one we bought while not under contract. But I better check that out in case!

And I will also look into the web site you listed. DH did 'buy' a code to unlock the old iPhone but it didn't work (not sure where he got it from but did pay for it through an online site). I wasn't sure if this is something that does work so at least knowing there are places people have successfully used is good! He had even bought me a nice Disney cover for the phone so I would love to be able to use it

Originally Posted by MaMudduck

Ok I'm not sure if you asking: "If I pull out the Rogers sim, and put in a US sim, will it work?..or are you asking "If I stop using my Rogers phone & get a phone in the US will that be cheaper?"

So based on question #1- I've tried to answer below:

If you got your phone from Rogers originally then it's locked to Rogers (regardless what type of plan you have) unless you know for-a-fact that phone has been unlocked. So you will not be able to pull out the SIM card and put in a US one.
I don't know if you can have a the Rogers US thingy added on a prepaid Rogers phone, you'll need to check with them directly.

To get your any phone unlocked there are many companies that will email you the unlock code for a price.($5 to $30) Google search, there are even youtube videos. the last one I used was from "mobile-phone-unlock.com"not an endorsement, just a statement

[Maddysdaddy]

Just as an FYI - there is no way to unlock an iPhone if your cell provider is not offering the service.

Unlike other phones where there is the "secret code", all iPhones are registered with Apple's central database, and unless your provider has an agreement with Apple to unlock phones, it can't be done.

There have been semi-successful workarounds in the past (Gevey), but those are not official unlocks and every time Apple updates its IOS, the phones revert back. Even so, without an official unlock (Telus is doing it, and I think Rogers 'might' be - Bell isn't), you aren't going to be able to swap sim cards in an iPhone.

Originally Posted by shillee

Thanks Wendy. I don't think my Rogers phone is locked as it was one we bought while not under contract. But I better check that out in case!

And I will also look into the web site you listed. DH did 'buy' a code to unlock the old iPhone but it didn't work (not sure where he got it from but did pay for it through an online site). I wasn't sure if this is something that does work so at least knowing there are places people have successfully used is good! He had even bought me a nice Disney cover for the phone so I would love to be able to use it

[MaMudduck]

Originally Posted by Maddysdaddy

Just as an FYI - there is no way to unlock an iPhone if your cell provider is not offering the service.

Unlike other phones where there is the "secret code", all iPhones are registered with Apple's central database, and unless your provider has an agreement with Apple to unlock phones, it can't be done.

There have been semi-successful workarounds in the past (Gevey), but those are not official unlocks and every time Apple updates its IOS, the phones revert back. Even so, without an official unlock (Telus is doing it, and I think Rogers 'might' be - Bell isn't), you aren't going to be able to swap sim cards in an iPhone.

Thank you...I knew there was always a problem with unlocking iPhones, but I didn't know why. What I always noticed on those unlocking website was that the iphone wasn't usually on the request list...
I personally have had 4 cell phones unlocked, Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola- I've always used my phone that was a few years older (when I done a hardware upgrade) and never try it on the current one that I plan on continuing using at home, just in case "it would void the warranty" on the phone.

[magpie0327]

Sorry to repeat all the info on here already, but I just want to doublecheck what I think is right--I have an Android, with no data plan, on Bell. If I get the TextPlus app, I can use that to text back to Canada as long as I am in a wifi area? And the other party in Canada can text back to that TexyPlus number free as well? Also, I could post to Facebook in a wifi area? I was planning on getting a plan to cover texting and calls for the 9 days we are there, and using Facebook as a mailing system, but this kind of sounds like we won't need to spend the extra money?? Am I completely wrong here?? No?

[RoxyJ]

I have a few questions:
I have an unlocked iphone 4 from Telus. I would like to purchase the $2 per day pay-as-you-go from T-Mobile.

This is what I plan to do:
Order the no contract micro sim from T-Mobile website for $0.99 (about 2 weeks in advance) to be shipped to where I am staying. Or is it easier to just get the sim at the T-Mobile location?

Before I hop onto the plane, I disable data roaming, and turn on "airplane mode" (turn back on wifi while in airplane mode if I need wifi)
Tip: You can turn wifi back on after you turn on Airplane mode.

Activate the new T-Mobile Sim: How do I do that? How long does it take to be activated, can I activate from Canada before I leave?

Purchase a pre-paid T-Mobile card to add funds to my account.

Questions:
Do I need to connect to itunes to use the new sim card?
Will it work immediately when I put in the new sim, or will there be settings that I need to change?
Can I reuse the sim for future trips (with a new activation)?
This may be a silly question, but will removing the telus sim and replacing it with T-Mobile sim card prevent roaming charges from Telus?

Thanks!

[Maddysdaddy]

Hi Roxy. My comments are incorporated into the body of your message (in bold).

Originally Posted by RoxyJ

I have a few questions:
I have an unlocked iphone 4 from Telus. I would like to purchase the $2 per day pay-as-you-go from T-Mobile.
Smart move. One thing you will want to check is whether T-Mo has rolled out their upgraded network in the area you are travelling to. If so, you will be able to get 3G/4G data speeds on your iPhone, so it may be worth an extra dollar a day to you to not have to suffer through the Edge speed at $2, which limits you to very basic (and slow) web surfing. The upgraded network is supposed to be rolled out this fall, so you might luck out.

This is what I plan to do:
Order the no contract micro sim from T-Mobile website for $0.99 (about 2 weeks in advance) to be shipped to where I am staying. Or is it easier to just get the sim at the T-Mobile location?
Unless you have a US dollar credit card with a US billing address, T-Mo won't let you order online. You'll have to go into one of their stores and buy the sim in person ($10 - not $0.99). The upside is that they will set up your phone for you - just make sure that calling/texting/data are running before you leave the store.

Before I hop onto the plane, I disable data roaming, and turn on "airplane mode" (turn back on wifi while in airplane mode if I need wifi)
Tip: You can turn wifi back on after you turn on Airplane mode.
Yup. Just make sure that you have gone into your settings and have switched 'data roaming' to "off".

Activate the new T-Mobile Sim: How do I do that? How long does it take to be activated, can I activate from Canada before I leave?
Per comment above, you will have to activate in the US.

Purchase a pre-paid T-Mobile card to add funds to my account.
You can go online or call their 800 number to add $, if you prefer.

Questions:
Do I need to connect to itunes to use the new sim card? No.
Will it work immediately when I put in the new sim, or will there be settings that I need to change? Should work immediately. If it doesn't, the salesperson in store will make sure it does.
Can I reuse the sim for future trips (with a new activation)? The sim expires after 90 days, unless you add money (I think the minimum is $10). If you plan on travelling often, it may be worth adding money every 89 days to keep the card active, otherwise you just need to buy a new card every time you go down.
This may be a silly question, but will removing the telus sim and replacing it with T-Mobile sim card prevent roaming charges from Telus? YES!!!

Thanks!

May I suggest that you look at my posts over the past couple of pages where I talk about Google Voice. It's a free product from Google which will:
1 - give you a permanent US phone number, so even if you change sim cards, your US phone number will never change; and,
2 - allow you to call Canada for free.

How it works is much like Skype - your T-Mo phone number will call the closest Google hub (US roaming is free on T-Mo), and the Google hub places the long distance call. You're making a local call (unlimited on T-Mo) and Google is the entity calling Canada.

You can't set this up in Canada, but will only take you all of 5 minutes once you get down to the US.

[doug74]

How do I go about buying US prepaid phones (throwaway) with minutes (60?) online and having them shipped to my resort?

I just want to use it for communicating with family inside the parks..

Bringing my Motorolla 2-way radios, but I dunno how well they'll work..

I'm thinking this might be the best option.. I have a Telus pay and talk phone, but if it's going to be more of a hassle..

[5mouseketeersforus]

Ok experts.....talk to me like i am a 5 year old - slowly and don't use too many big words

Last time we were in The US, i called Telus and added on the US 30 day packages for phone/text/data. IIRC, total cost was approx $75? Weeks later i got my bill......close to $300!!!!! The data/roaming charges were insane even with the add-ons

Obviously i don't want this to happen again. So here is the situation:

I want to be able to text DH & the kids as well as folks back home, use gmail and also access the web. Not really concerned with using the phone.

I have an Iphone4 with Telus - under contract for another year or so.

The kids have ipod4s so would like to be able to text them and they want to surf the net.

DH has a company BB.

I have an old BB (i think it is the curve?)

What is the least expensive way to do this?

Unlock the Iphone through Telus & then pick up a sim card here or pick up a sim card in the US?
Somehow get the old BB unlocked and then get a sim card?
Other??

Remember i am 5; at least when it comes to this kind of stuff LOL

[robinsnest49ers]

OK so I just found out that Disney has wifi in all the parks and their resorts. So if you have an iphone or an ipod download the text plus app and use that.

Not sure what to do with the blackberry.

But Make sure you go to your settings on your iphone and turn OFF your

cellular Data
Enable 3G
Data Roaming

To do this go to

Settings
General
Cellular

I'm pretty sure this will work, I am going to try it in a few weeks.

But if you are really worried about getting dinged for something, ask your cell provider if they can disable internet etc. for a specified period of time.

Canadians have always been looking for a way to use their phones in Disney and I think they finally responded by getting wifi. I have heard it works pretty good, will see soon I guess.

Not sure when you are going but I will update this post when I get home and let u know how it went.

Just keep an eye on you phone and make sure the little "?g" is NOT on. If it says "3g" or 4g you are connected to a network and may get charged.