Cell phone use at WDW

[Maddysdaddy]

This is slightly off topic, but since DH and I don't have cell phones (barbaric, I know!), we use our iPads to communicate with each other. He has 3G, I only have wifi (which my research indicates I will only be able to operate at the resort, Earl of Sandwich).

However, any suggestions for iPad plans for his 3G? Currently he uses Telus.

He has used Rogers in the past, but never again (they owed us $100 for over 2 years and finally paid up when my husband asked if there was a magic number of times to call to get the cheque).

Thanks!!! I think we're going to stop in Buffalo to pick up a cheap pre-paid phone anyway, but it would be nice to use the iPad for maps, internet, etc.

75 days until POR for my 1st stay in the World!

Don't know if this is feasible or not, but having been dinged by Telus in the past, I would suggest that your husband turn off data completely while you are in the U.S. and that you find a pre-paid phone with an unlimited data plan (I think on T-Mobile, you can get unlimited calling and data for $3 a day) and then use the phone as a wireless wifi hub to give you both wifi access on your ipads wherever you are.

I think on T-Mobile, the first 200mb a day are on their 4G network and then they throttle you down to their 2G network - unless you're streaming media or downloading movies, that's a whole heck of a lot of data to go through.

 

[lisa21]

Sorry if this has been discussed, but could anyone explain how roaming works? I was looking at the rates on the Telus website, and it has rates for calls, text and data, but nothing about what I thought was "roaming" (having your phone on, and connected to a US tower) so does that mean you are not charged for just having your phone on? I don't plan on using my phone much except for emergencies, and I will have data turned off, so would I only be charged the per use call and text rates?

 

[Tiger926]

Sorry if this has been discussed, but could anyone explain how roaming works? I was looking at the rates on the Telus website, and it has rates for calls, text and data, but nothing about what I thought was "roaming" (having your phone on, and connected to a US tower) so does that mean you are not charged for just having your phone on? I don't plan on using my phone much except for emergencies, and I will have data turned off, so would I only be charged the per use call and text rates?

As soon as you cross over out of Canada, you will be roaming. But, if you have data turned off, then you will only be charged for a text (does not use data as it's SMS) and phone calls, which are separate from data roaming.

So, if your phone is on, and set to roam, you will incur data roaming charges for using the Internet or messaging (such as BBM on Blackberry).

If you turn roaming off within your phone, and find free Wifi, then you won't be charged data roaming fees.

Hope this helps, Tiger

 

[CanadianGuy]

Ok so for my trip this year, I stopped at an AT&T store and for a prepaid SIM for my unlocked Canadian Samsung Galaxy Note from Telus.

Initially could have unlimited texts and phone calls for 7 days for 14 dollars. But I wanted unlimited data as well.

For S50 I had all three. With a local Orlando number that only a select few back home had access to.

That was a good setup! I used about 400 mb, 55 minutes and about 400 texts. Pretty good over all.

 

[disneyred]

Ok so for my trip this year, I stopped at an AT&T store and for a prepaid SIM for my unlocked Canadian Samsung Galaxy Note from Telus.

Initially could have unlimited texts and phone calls for 7 days for 14 dollars. But I wanted unlimited data as well.

For S50 I had all three. With a local Orlando number that only a select few back home had access to.

That was a good setup! I used about 400 mb, 55 minutes and about 400 texts. Pretty good over all.

this sounds good , first I need an unlocked phone.. but wanted to ask how much you paid for the SIM card. thanks.

 

[LuvSnowWhite]

Ok so for my trip this year, I stopped at an AT&T store and for a prepaid SIM for my unlocked Canadian Samsung Galaxy Note from Telus.

Initially could have unlimited texts and phone calls for 7 days for 14 dollars. But I wanted unlimited data as well.

For S50 I had all three. With a local Orlando number that only a select few back home had access to.

That was a good setup! I used about 400 mb, 55 minutes and about 400 texts. Pretty good over all.

First of all WHERE did you get an unlocked Galaxy note??? DUH I just reread your post and you say Telus. How much was it?
Secondly, where is the AT&T location that you went to?

 

[Lizzzys]

This is a really dumb question.... but if I use the Roam Mobility option.... will I have to download all of my apps on my iPhone? Or will they still appear with the new sim card?

Liz

The only other option (other than paying Telus' ridiculous roaming/data charges) is to go with Roam Mobility - the Canadian company. FYI - Roam works on T-Mobile's network, so you're still getting lousy data speed, but you do have unlimited calling back to Canada, which you don't have on T-Mobile's pay by the day plan. It is more expensive upfront than T-Mobile, but if you plan to call home, it's the way to go.

 

[Geodoc]

There are 3 of us going in August. As we don't require calling unless it is an emergency, we are planning on going to bring our iPhones and get us data packages to use iMessage to communicate. Should be less than $30 per person and no worry about major overages.

I like this idea. We have a trip planned in Augest as well and will try iMessage to communicate after turning off push notifications and not doing any other data heavy things.....ie web pages twitter facebook apps etc. at $.006 a Kb it should be doable. (We have Rogers iPhones)
Has anyone done this and at the end of the day did it rack up big costs??

 

[Tiger926]

Ok. Posted on the Community Board too in hopes of getting some more responses, but not much.

What US carriers and phones have you purchased as Canadians for use in the states? We think we'll just purchase a US phone, as we are in states several times per month, and several weeks per year for our Disney vacations.

We want data, and would love to be able to text from US to Canada as well.

We would even purchase a monthly plan, but what about the prepaid, no contract plans? Can we get an iPhone this way?

I have been researching for days on all of the major US carrier websites, and it's very confusing!

Any help would be appreciated, Tiger

 

[mickeyman42]

So i have a telus iphone 4. If I get it unlocked by telus, how do i get a t-mobile sim card, and how do i setup a pay per day plan with them? Seems to be a great way to go but i cant seem to figure out how to do it without spending half a day driving to a t-mobile store and then spending more time trying to activate it

 

[Tiger926]

We just bought a US cell phone yesterday! Since we are in US several times per month, and vacation to Disney and other states for several weeks per year, we had placed the One Rate data sharing package on our Blackberries. This meant that for $10.00 plus tax per phone/month, we would share our CDN and US data, and as long as we stayed under our cap, we had no roaming charges.

Problem is that to text or voice, we had to buy another package (eg. $40.00/month on US texting) or temp passes. Since this just keeps adding to the costs, we only did the data portion on a monthly basis. So, I would purchase temp text passes for like $12.00 or $25.00 several times per year.

Yesterday while in the US, went to Metro PCS and purchased a cool Samsung phone for $100.00 and for $60.00 flat/month (no contract), we get unlimited talk, text and data. We can let it lapse for 3 weeks each month if we need to, but not anymore as we will lose our phone number, and then at week 3, we can restart the monthly fee again (prepaid on credit card). Easy! Pretty good service yesterday too as we made some calls home.

I just cancelled the One Rate on my phones and will be cancelling our On Star in our van (satellite phone) as well as no more long distance cards to buy, and between all of that, and with no text passes, we are actually going to come out cheaper!

I realize not everyone will want to do this, but for those who go often like us, you should check out the prepaid/no contract options such as Metro PCS, Boost and T-Mobile, as when all is said and done, you may be pleasantly suprised with the final result. We will actually be cheaper doing this, than all of the other stuff we used to do before!

Tiger

 

[Maddysdaddy]

This is a really dumb question.... but if I use the Roam Mobility option.... will I have to download all of my apps on my iPhone? Or will they still appear with the new sim card?

Liz

Can't say for certain, but I assume not. I just came back from San Francisco and did the T-Mobile sim, and the only thing that changed on my phone was my phone number.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

So i have a telus iphone 4. If I get it unlocked by telus, how do i get a t-mobile sim card, and how do i setup a pay per day plan with them? Seems to be a great way to go but i cant seem to figure out how to do it without spending half a day driving to a t-mobile store and then spending more time trying to activate it

Turn your data and roaming off before you hop your plane to come down south. When you arrive, head to your nearest T-Mobile store (they seem to be everywhere) and they will set you up.

I just came back from San Francisco and purchased a T-Mobile microsim (for the iPhone) for $10, which gave me a $3 use credit, and put down another $10 on the account. I then had them set me up on the $2 day unlimited calling/texting in the US plan which also has unlimited data (2G so it's slow, but they say they will have 3G for the iPhone this fall - anyway, wifi still works fine).

Your sim card and credits will last for 90 days - i.e. they will expire at the 90 day mark unless you top up your account (once you have put $100 on your account, 90 days turns into a year).

 

[Maddysdaddy]

For those of you who purchase a US phone or US sim card - when you are in the States, log into GoogleVoice.

Once you have a US number, you can use this service to obtain a phone number through Google. This is a permanent number, so you never have to worry about losing your number if your phone plan or sim card expire - you just go online and link your Google number to whatever US phone number you happen to have active at the time.

The system works much like Voip, so when I was just in San Francisco and wanted to call home to Calgary, I would dial the number through Google (you can use their App if you have a US iTunes account, or just go through the Google website) and it would connect me to Canada via a local US phone number. There is talk that they may start charging for this service at some point, but I think it's been running about 2 years and it's still free.

 

[elaine amj]

i love my Tmobile prepaid plan on our unlocked cellphones. I almost bought a cheap US cellphone, but like our nice smartphones so switch the SIM instead. Means we're not really reachable on vacation other than by close friends given our US number, but that's OK

We travel over to the US frequently, so spent the $100 to get Gold status so our $100 is valid for a year.

One thing to keep in mind - phone coverage in the US does not seem as consistent as here. I'm OK in most places but last year I travelled to Cincinatti and was shocked to find it a "dead zone" for Tmobile. We had to use our Cdn SIMs for that trip.

 

[mickeyman42]

So if i get a microsim, use it for 2 weeks, then use mu regular telus sim when i get back, how much would i have to pay to use my tmobile sim next year? Ie would i have to buy a new sim or pay a fee to reactivate it orwould i just have to pay the per day fee and be assigned a new number?

 

[Maddysdaddy]

So if i get a microsim, use it for 2 weeks, then use mu regular telus sim when i get back, how much would i have to pay to use my tmobile sim next year? Ie would i have to buy a new sim or pay a fee to reactivate it orwould i just have to pay the per day fee and be assigned a new number?

The simcard will expire after 90 days unless you top up your account (or put $100 on your account - in which case it won't expire for a year).

Given how much it costs to purchase a travel pack from the big 3, plus the inflated talk/text/data rates they charge, even with these packages, you're still way ahead even if you have to purchase a new sim every trip.

 

[fdecker]

1. Have an unlocked GSM Global phone (has all the transceivers for all the frequencies in the different countries. This is usually a quad-band phone)

2. Get a Google Voice number

3. Get a SIM card and a pre-paid card to load up your minutes in whatever country you are in.

4. From now on, only give out your GV number, not your cell number and forward that number to your cell and any other numbers you want.

5. Done

Roaming is just ridiculous, so it makes no sense to try and keep your service when traveling. But if you use a new SIM and prepaid, you can't use your old number while in another country. This is where the google number comes in. Use that as your permanent number and then just forward the calls to whatever phone or phones you are using at the time. Viola, no matter when and where anyone dials you, it will connect to you. Many times, I didn't even use a google number if I was on vacation, I used the phone to make local calls and did not want people from my home country calling me or visa versa.

Blackberry users have an advantage for internet use. Because internet (except for music or video streaming) goes through the RIM servers (BIS), most providers have a flat-fee add-on for unlimited internet. For example, while I was in South Africa, I bought a SIM card for 99 cents. I then bought $30 worth of air time and $10 for a month's worth of connecting to BIS. I was in SA for over a month and used the phone like crazy. I never spent another cent above my $40. I downloaded a lot of apps to my phone and did a ton of browsing, email, Blackberry Messenger, etc, etc.

 

[mommyof2boys1girl]

So, I know nothing about cell phones, plans, etc... All I know is I want to be able to text dh while in WDW without paying $.25 per text!!!

Dh has a blackberry bold, I have an iphone 3 and we are with Bell (both phones are locked). Can we buy a prepaid phone while down in the US and just use that? Or do we need a US billing address? We just need to be able to communicate and not pay a fortune to do it - in this day and age, why is that so hard??

Anyone have any ideas??

 

[dontthrowsand]

the texting plans from bell aren't bad. I used them in Cuba. Figure out how many texts you will need. If all you are doing is texting, you should be fine.