Data OPackage For US Travel With Rogers

[disneyworldfamily]

Hi everyone,

I have an off topic question...

I have to do some non-Disney, US travel soon, (I WISH it were Disney ) and I will need to get a package for my iPhone so I can send/receive email, access the internet etc. when I am not at my hotel.

I am with Rogers. Can anyone let me know how it works, what it's going to cost me, anything else I need to know...I will be in the US for 3 days. I want to be fully prepared before I call them.

Thank you!

 

[mamaCta]

If they work like Telus, you can just call them or log into your account on their website to add the temporary package.
Telus has unlimited texting for $40 each phone. Their data packages are expensive without much data, so we are skipping that part and only using wi-fi.

 

[ixmnrs]

I believe they have 1 month add-ons that you can add. They start at $35 for 40 min / 100 text messages but does not include data (browsing, etc.) That you will need to add a US Roaming Data plan which start at $10/day or something like that. Pretty much, I turn off data functions for my iphone when in the US and use Wifi exclusively., The talk/txt packages may work well for keeping you voice and text covered.

As a side note, the other thing I also have is that I bought a Virgin Mobile Broadband2go Hotspot off eBay (Mifi2200 or something like that), which I just use when travelling to US and I top up with Virgin mobile Broadband2Go data plans as I need whenever. I turn it on when I need to check stuff, surf, etc when I don't have access to wifi. I've used it on and off many times when travelling to the states and therefore I don't pay the exorbirant Rogers data fees. $35/2GB to use over a month vs Rogers 10Mb for $10/day

 

[mamaCta]

As a side note, the other thing I also have is that I bought a Virgin Mobile Broadband2go Hotspot off eBay (Mifi2200 or something like that), which I just use when travelling to US and I top up with Virgin mobile Broadband2Go data plans as I need whenever. I turn it on when I need to check stuff, surf, etc when I don't have access to wifi. I've used it on and off many times when travelling to the states and therefore I don't pay the exorbirant Rogers data fees. $35/2GB to use over a month vs Rogers 10Mb for $10/day

That's good to know. I remember my uncle saying he used something like that when he is in the US. Since we will be driving all over the country for almost a month, it would be nice to have.

 

[networktek]

Rogers does have what they call buckets you can get different types. they have Data, Voice and texting buckets you can get different sizes depending on how much you want and it will last 30 days from when they add it on to your account you can do it online or call them to add it on, for what you get it is not that cheap i have used it in the past.

 

[newdeal]

Call rogers and get them to unlock your iphone (it costs $50) Get a tmobile sim card on pay as you go, they have a plan where you pay 3 dollars a day and get unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data (first 200megabytes per day 4g and the rest 2g). If you have an iphone you cant use 4g on tmobile so then you can get a $2 per day plan which is the same thing except the unlimited data is all 2g. Even though its $50 to unlock the phone it is unlocked forever so it wont need to be paid again and it greatly increases resale value

 

[newdeal]

That's good to know. I remember my uncle saying he used something like that when he is in the US. Since we will be driving all over the country for almost a month, it would be nice to have.

Thats actually not that great i am pretty sure with tmobile you can get unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data for $40 on month to month

 

[bookbabe626]

We got a Virgin Mobile hotspot device at Best Buy in the States last year.

http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=5512805&pid=1218662124219

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/mobile-broadband/broadband-2-go/sierra-overdrive-pro/features/

It's awesome. It fits in a pocket and you can connect multiple devices (smartphone, iPad, etc) at once. And you have a choice of buying different time lengths of access. A day's access is $5, and there's two levels of full month access. I think all the variations are listed on their website:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband-plans/broadband-2-go/overview/

We buy top-up cards when we are in the States (sold almost everywhere...bought at Walgreens last time) and use those to load it when needed. It won't allow you to use a Cdn credit card to pay via the website.

When we first bought it, we had to go back to our hotel and set it up via our laptop. That was the only complicated part, but now that's done DH can just go to the website on any device, log in and add the top-up card number to add money to our account and away we go...

We've been really happy with it, and the bandwidth is even pretty good for using Skype and FaceTime to avoid phone charges.

 

[ixmnrs]

We buy top-up cards when we are in the States (sold almost everywhere...bought at Walgreens last time) and use those to load it when needed. It won't allow you to use a Cdn credit card to pay via the website.
.

I bought the top up minutes online through pinzoo.com which worked very well. The code is given to you instantly after transaction completed. May have used paypal as well to pay, but don't remember. I do remember not being able to use paypal to top up through virgin mobile though.

 

[mamaCta]

Thats actually not that great i am pretty sure with tmobile you can get unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data for $40 on month to month

But that would also require me to pay for each of our phones to be unlocked, and $2 per day per phone adds up. We are going to be in the US for almost a month in a variety of locations. I don't want to spend the money to unlock the phones because we probably won't be going to the US again before we upgrade to new phones.

I was already going to pay Telus $40 for each phone for unlimited text (and some minutes), that is a must. I saw used hotspot equipment on ebay for $20 and we can share the data between our phones.

 

[Babooagain]

My dd has been looking into packages to get data for our trip in August. She was just in the States last week and was told that she wouldn't be able to use T-mobile for data even though her HTC Desire first gen. is unlocked. apparently there is a code that our phones may or may not have, and even if they do have it it's iffy for it to work.
She's wondering how you can use a hotspot without incurring roaming charges on her Canadian phone?

 

[mamaCta]

My dd has been looking into packages to get data for our trip in August. She was just in the States last week and was told that she wouldn't be able to use T-mobile for data even though her HTC Desire first gen. is unlocked. apparently there is a code that our phones may or may not have, and even if they do have it it's iffy for it to work.
She's wondering how you can use a hotspot without incurring roaming charges on her Canadian phone?

The hotspot converts the cellular data signal to wi-fi for your devices. Your phone will think it is using wi-fi and you can turn the data usage off.

 

[Babooagain]

thanks for the reply. She says that makes sense.