Roam Mobile...

[tpettie]

What experience if any have you had with this...

I'm looking for first hand information on its use.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We used it in August 2014 for our two week vacation. It worked well, no issues. The only pitfall was that the number assigned is a US number, so if anyone calls us from home its long distance/international (YOU can call THEM with no long distance fees, but not the other way around).

 

[tpettie]

We used it in August 2014 for our two week vacation. It worked well, no issues. The only pitfall was that the number assigned is a US number, so if anyone calls us from home its long distance/international (YOU can call THEM with no long distance fees, but not the other way around).

do you get the US number prior to your trip that way you can give it to friends and family?

how did you find the data use?

 

[Aladora]

We got 2 SIM cards and used them in August 2015. They worked well and I have just ordered new plans for both cards for our trip next month.

 

[Aladora]

do you get the US number prior to your trip that way you can give it to friends and family?

how did you find the data use?

When you activate a SIM card with a US plan, the card gets assigned a US number.

 

[tpettie]

When you activate a SIM card with a US plan, the card gets assigned a US number.

so my canadian Bell account is still active and I could then just adjust my voice mail to say text me at ..... using the new us number ?? does that make sense? I'm just thinking what if someone phones me who I didn't give the number to that would be a way to give it to random calls.

 

[Aladora]

so my canadian Bell account is still active and I could then just adjust my voice mail to say text me at ..... using the new us number ?? does that make sense? I'm just thinking what if someone phones me who I didn't give the number to that would be a way to give it to random calls.

Your Canadian Bell SIM card is still active, just not in your phone. When we got home after our trip in August, I put my Canadian SIM card back into my phone and voicemails that I received while I was gone popped up right away. I never changed my voicemail message, I just gave my US number to people who would need to get hold of me.

 

[bankr63]

You can also forward your Canadian number to your Roam Mobility number before you swap out the SIM card, but then you pay LD for all those calls on your Canadian plan. We used Roam a few times before Rogers came out with Roam Like Home. Now that Rogers has dropped the price to something competitive, it's not worth it to change anything.

Note that Roam Mobility originally gave out Chicago numbers, but with the last service upgrade you were allowed to pick your own number. Since we do Florida the most, we chose Central Florida numbers when we upgraded the SIMs.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I just got back from a spontaneous trip to Philly and wanted to be able to stay in touch and this is what i did: Bought the "Breeze" Phone for $49.95 and it came with a SIM card in the box ... the phone is unlocked to Rogers and has a DUAL-SIM capacity so I just popped my Rogers Sim card in along with the Roam one. Once i got to the other side of the border i just switched to the Roam Sim card and used that network ... for 3.00 a day you can't beat it! Now i also have a "extra phone" pretty basic phone only does talk & text but it fit the bill and i had NO ISSUES!

 

[pipertoad]

I used Roam Mobility in January for a pre and post cruise trip in Florida. Worked great in unlocked bell iphone. I just texted to activate the post cruise plan and that worked great. I had plan up and running in my stateroom before breakfast when we arrived and end of cruise. No issues with coverage or data.

I just give my phone number out to those i want to call me. I may do as above and change my voice mail with instructions to text and i will call them back since it is unlimited calling to canada as well. We leave tomorrow for Arizona and Anaheim and i have already purchased two plans for our phones.

 

[xlxo]

I've been using Roam Mobility for my US travels for three years now... I do recommend it.

• you need to get an unlocked phone. Telus will unlock your phone for $35 if you have it activated for 90 days.
• Roam Mobility sells unlocked phones if you don't have one. Roam Mobility sells a dual SIM Que android phone. It's slower than my Galaxy and the OS is "forked". I cannot run Optik on the Go on it.
• if you swap your sim for a Roam MobilitySim, friends will need the US number. Best to use email to stay in touch or messaging apps like BBM.
• it appears Roam Mobility discontinued their Liberty hotspot. Great if all you need is data. I guess most just use their phones for hotspot now.
• I noticed Telus offers a great deal now when you can extend your Canadian plan for $7 a day. Rogers has special deal too. But if you are data hungry.... Roam is my preferred choice for multi-day trips.
• Roam does not work with Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Jellystone. I understand they have a partnership now in these regions, but what data they offer is not worth it. I get an ATT sim on my Alaska cruise.
• Roam Mobility uses Tmobile towers.... I found ATT offers better coverage where I need to go.
• Roam Mobility does not work in Canada, TMobile does not offer coverage in Canada
• Roam Mobility is a Vancouver company operating out of Yaletown. By Canadians, for Canadians, Love Canadians.
• Roam Mobility sim's expire after a year, but if you just get a basic plan for once a year ($2 ?).... the card can be used again.
• Roam Mobility sell's SIM is 2 packs. Great ideas as your significant other can be on Roam Mobility too!
• use this link to make comparisons...
  https://www.roammobility.com/compare

 

[hardis5]

Your Canadian SIM card is still active, just not in your phone. When we got home after our trip in August, I put my Canadian SIM card back into my phone and voicemails that I received while I was gone popped up right away. I never changed my voicemail message, I just gave my US number to people who would need to get hold of me.

And since all calls back to Canada are free, you can check your CDN carriers voicemail as often as you wish.

We've used the last several years in our last two unlocked phones. As xlxo states, we use largely for data. Note they will assign a random US number. If you want for a specific area (we chose the Orlando area ending up with a 321 area code) you enter and can change your number once at n/c to the area you wish.

The CDN carrier "roam" plans are getting better (and way better than previous) but still as significant savings can be had with Roam and for the inconvenience of sharing my US number (that all know now) I see the flip side in the nuisance calls or those I do not want to deal with on vacation, I am able to screen out.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

One thing I did notice on my last trip (two weeks ago) using Roam is that I was now able to use my iphone as a wifi hotspot, which allowed my wife to use her phone for email and messaging as well. In all my previous trips using their service, the ability to use it as a hotspot for her never seemed to be available.

 

[MikeyNS]

We've been using Roam for many trips to Florida and even Hawaii and it's great. We can use our BlackBerry as a WiFi hotspot with lots of data to use (if need be). Voice calls have been great, and we give Disney our US# to send us our room number, and it's worked perfectly.

 

[missthatgator]

We've used Roam for 2 trips to Disney now and 1 to New Hampshire, service was great in FL, no issues, spotty in New Hampshire though. Cheaper than the "easy roam" plan from Telus, and comes with a ton of data for just under $4 a day.

It was also super easy to activate.

 

[Starwind]

I have used Roam for trips to Texas and Florida. On our last Disney cruise (Nov 2014) we went to St Thomas (2G speeds) and St John (partner coverage now, but when we went IIRC there was no coverage on the island).

As others have noted, you need an unlocked phone. Mine have been iphones.

Two issues I had:

(1) inside some buildings I had poor coverage; Roam (well, Telus) has now expanded their LTE coverage and that should reduce that issue significantly -- Orlando has extensive strong LTE Telus coverage now. For example, in our WL room to get a decent data connection the phone had had to be over by the window; I do not anticipate having that problem on our upcoming trip.

(2) sometimes when i called out if I immediately put the phone up to my head it would have trouble connecting; the solution was to dial the desired number and wait until it started to ring then put the phone up to the head. An annoying issue that I do not have using my phone with my Rogers or AT&T SIMs.

We will be using Roam Mobility again for our upcoming December WDW-cruise-cruise-WDW trip. Although we will be on a cruise with no service for part of the time I just buy a block of days to cover the entire trip plus an extra day in case we are delayed coming back. This gives a LOT of data which IMO makes the bit of extra cost worth it.

We do not normally connect to public wi-fi (on Disney cruises being an exception), and I have always found the data to be sufficient for my needs, using the phone exclusively for data services.

We have two phones in our house. One on Bell and one on rogers; both are on old grandfathered plans with amazing data allowances that make no sense to switch. Therefore, I do not have a Rogers "share everything plan" and cannot use Roam Like Home.

This is how I set things up:

(1) I bring my Rogers Sim on the trip for emergencies -- since rogers roams on AT&T I *should* work most anywhere; should I have a situation where I NEED to make a call and cannot with Roam, I will put the Rogers SIM in and pay their insane roaming rates; hence *emergency* use

(2) Rogers has "extreme messaging". Before I leave home I use the "My Rogers" app and go to "extreme text messaging"; I select COPY. I then can put in my email address OR a 10 digit mobile number. Rogers will then copy all text messages to the email address I provide. I turn it off once I am back home, at which point since I used COPY all the messages then are received by my phone. The other option is to use FORWARD but I prefer COPY. Note there are auto reply and other functions which may be desirable to use.

(3) I have a OneSuite toll-free number (<US$4/month). I works anywhere in the US or Canada and you set it to forward to the number of your choice. I forward it to whatever my active cell # is, so in Canada to Rogers, in the US to AT&T or Roam, whichever I am using. When people use it I pay the long distance charges, but they are very minimal. I then do two things: (1) I give the toll free number to friends and family who may need to get ahold of me -- note they can use it when I am at home too, and it has come in handy a few times when someone has been somewhere they could not dial long distance but could use the toll free #); when they call it will go to my active cell phone (as long as I remembered to switch the forwarding #); and (2) I forward my Rogers phone to the toll free # once I have set the toll free forwarding # to my US number. This way I do not pay anything extra for Rogers since it is going to a toll free # not a USA #.

(4) an alternative I have considered is to buy a one month pack of free or reduced cost USA LD from Rogers and then just forward the rogers # to the USA #. For me, I rarely get calls from anyone, so the toll free # is more versatile.

(5) I also have an AT&T GoPhone SIM with just text and voice (no data) for backup.

SW

 

[tpettie]

Thanks for all the great feed back we went to staples and got to Sim cards for the price of one turned out there was as sale Bonus for us. ....

Those of you who had them while on a cruise how does that work?? I'm doing a 3 day on the Dream to the Bahamas so I'm assuming during that time we just don't get coverage right?

 

[xlxo]

If there is no Tmobile coverage... there is no Roam Mobility coverage. Just go online pay for the days you know you will be in coverage.

 

[peacefrogdog]

I echo the good experience using Roam. I recently used it on a trip to Lake Placid.
Only thing is this: I planned to use it in my old unlocked iphone 4, and keep my iphone 6 as I would use at home if needed. I was aware that since my iphone 4 was not LTE, that I may be restricted to 3G or 4G (as per the coverage map). I got cell signal using Roam, but was not able to get any data, not even on 3G.
Unfortunately the Roam customer assistance was of no use to help me problem solve. I ended up switching the Roam simcard to my Iphone 6 it worked beautifully.

Maybe it was just the coverage at Lake Placid. Would be interested if anyone was able to use their iphone 4 with a Roam Simcard down in Florida.

 

[pipertoad]

I used an iphone 4s in florida in January. Worked great for text, data and voice.

I am currently in Arizona and have had no problems here using Roam on an iphone 6.