Roam Mobility ceases operations

[starvenger]

Pandemic claims yet another business. But unsurprising seeing as their business model relied on people travelling to the US, which obviously isn't happening right now.

I had 4 days pre-purchased that I'll be unable to use. I guess the good thing about this was that it's inexpensive, and absorbing a $20 loss isn't too bad.

Guess I will switch to using the Virgin Mobile. $8/day to use my own data isn't bad I suppose.

 

[Starwind]

Understandable but unfortunate as many people rely on them for cover during their trips.

We used Roam for a number of US trips but then started using our Rogers Roam Like Home and to be honest got much better coverage and had fewer connection issues with Rogers than with Roam, so we stopped using Roam entirely.

SW

 

[Starwind]

They have information on their website now, including a FAQ:

https://get.roammobility.com/service-update

 

[pigletto]

We used Roam pretty often with no issues. This is disappointing. It makes me sad to see businesses we used for years shut down. I will use Virgin Mobile until my contract is up with them I suppose.
Earlier this month it was Sweet Tomatoes, a restaurant we went to once or more every trip to Florida . I fear this is the tip of the iceberg, especially for any business connected to the travel and leisure industry .

 

[Kaadk]

I never really understood the Roam Mobility business model, once the major carriers started offering options to extend your plan to the US. Years back I switched from Rogers to Wind, specifically to get their Can/US plan (since my work used to take me cross boarder all the time) and my wife had their easy roam or whatever it was called that let us use hers there for $5 a day. When Telus started offering a Can/US plan, I switched to Telus, cause, well, Wind's coverage sucked where we were located. Now her easy roam option is like $7 a day, but still preferable to getting a separate phone through something like Roam Mobility.

 

[starvenger]

Yeah Sweet Tomatoes is another one that was really vulnerable. I am curious to see how the local eat all you can places will hold up. Mandarin, for instance, has always had a take out option but I don't know how many people want to get take out when you could do the buffet instead.

Frankie Tomattos is a local buffet in Markham that could suffer but as I recall their layout makes it easy to switch to a cafeteria-style serving model.

 

[starvenger]

I never really understood the Roam Mobility business model, once the major carriers started offering options to extend your plan to the US. Years back I switched from Rogers to Wind, specifically to get their Can/US plan (since my work used to take me cross boarder all the time) and my wife had their easy roam or whatever it was called that let us use hers there for $5 a day. When Telus started offering a Can/US plan, I switched to Telus, cause, well, Wind's coverage sucked where we were located. Now her easy roam option is like $7 a day, but still preferable to getting a separate phone through something like Roam Mobility.

Well let's not forget that Canadian mobile service is among the most expensive anywhere, and has generally been more restrictive than in other places. Even now the "roam like home" option for the carriers is not great. So Roam found a niche and managed to fill it. It was great if you were on a small carrier (independent or owned by one of the bigger ones) or on a PAYG program. Plus you got a US number that allowed you to get some of those automated text messages that couldn't send to Canadian numbers for some reason.

But I think the endgame would've been like it is for just about every other minor mobile company in Canada - they were looking to get bought out. Guessing it would've happened within the next couple of years anyway.

 

[Kaadk]

Well let's not forget that Canadian mobile service is among the most expensive anywhere, and has generally been more restrictive than in other places. Even now the "roam like home" option for the carriers is not great. So Roam found a niche and managed to fill it. It was great if you were on a small carrier (independent or owned by one of the bigger ones) or on a PAYG program. Plus you got a US number that allowed you to get some of those automated text messages that couldn't send to Canadian numbers for some reason.

But I think the endgame would've been like it is for just about every other minor mobile company in Canada - they were looking to get bought out. Guessing it would've happened within the next couple of years anyway.

Yeah, that's just it. They weren't a mobile company in Canada. They were a reseller (at a pretty steep markup) of a US Carrier. If I wanted a US based phone, I could have gotten one cheaper directly from the US carrier. I know some people who just have a US PAYG phone from a carrier there, that they activate for their trips. I have colleagues who travel to the US often, that used Verizon back in the day, because Verizon offered at plan (at that time) that was similar to the plan I'm on now with Telus and gave the ability to use it either side of the boarder without penalty. If it wasn't for the fact that I wanted to stick with a Canadian cell number so my family didn't have to pay long distance charges to call me, I would have been on Verizon like the rest of them.

Now that we have US based options here, it's my preferred option. Roam like home make it easy to roam to the US for a trip here or there, and at even $7 a day, that's only an extra $50 for a week over there. Or, if you're there often, my plan is only $20 more per month than what I'd pay for a Canadian only equivalent. When I was on Wind, I think it was only an extra $10 or $15 a month. And I get to keep a Canadian number, so while work may need to pay long distance to call me, my friends and family don't.

 

[Sue M]

I never used roam. But always thought about getting a US SIM card. The roaming rates keep going up. I think it started with $5/day x 10 day max charging then free. Now it’s $7/day x 14 days. I’m with Fido.
When we were in Mexico in Feb I got a Mexican sim. Easy. They put it in for me, activated it, I didn’t have to do anything. Then before I left for home I popped into the shop and they put back in my canadian sim.

So sad about Sweet Tomatoes.

 

[DavidL]

I've been a Roam user for a few years now. It will be at least a year before I go back to the USA again, so that'll give me some time to find an alternative. In their goodbye email, Roam Mobility recommended "Ting" as another service. I will give it a look, and see what other options are available for buying a SIM card on a prepaid plan. I loved knowing in advance how much the plan would cost and with "unlimited" data there was never a surprise.

 

[starvenger]

I never used roam. But always thought about getting a US SIM card. The roaming rates keep going up. I think it started with $5/day x 10 day max charging then free. Now it’s $7/day x 14 days. I’m with Fido.
When we were in Mexico in Feb I got a Mexican sim. Easy. They put it in for me, activated it, I didn’t have to do anything. Then before I left for home I popped into the shop and they put back in my canadian sim.

So sad about Sweet Tomatoes.

fido and Virgin are similar in that their US per day plans were crap, and I think that it's only now that it's getting better. If you were doing a per day plan, Zoom's rate did offer enough savings ($2-3 per day) to make it worth your while, but their monthly rates were at the point where I'd look at something else should I be there for more than a week.

 

[pigletto]

This past autumn we were in the US for 12 days for a Disney trip, 5 days for my sisters wedding and then 2 days in November for a quick weekend trip. I was able to do a Roam plan that covered the entire 30 day period that our travel fell in and it cost me around $60. It would have been a lot more on each of the three phones to use the Virgin Mobile US travel plan. In the end it saved us quite a bit of money . When you have a big wedding and a big trip and the costs fall in one month , you are happy for the savings.

I also don’t feel any love for the big three cell phone companies and I was happy to circumvent their exorbitant prices. Its not the end of the world but it’s one more small business that couldn’t make it and thats never a good thing.

 

[AdamsMum]

preferable to getting a separate phone through something like Roam Mobility.

ROAM wasn't a separate phone, just a sim card. I found it very convenient since Wind changed to Freedom and no longer had a good deal for roaming in the U.S.

 

[Kaadk]

ROAM wasn't a separate phone, just a sim card. I found it very convenient since Wind changed to Freedom and no longer had a good deal for roaming in the U.S.

Opps, another victim of my brain running faster than my fingers. That was supposed to say "a separate phone number", as it was the need to get a US number that I didn't care for. But thanks for the info on the sim vs phone thing. When I've looked at Roam's website in the past, I was under the impression they also did phones, like, the cheap, pay as you go style. Never realized they only did Sims.

Obviously, nobody's travelling there now, but if you're there often (like I am for work) then Telus' US plans aren't too bad (in comparison to their Canada only plans). It's about $20 a month more to change to a US/Can plan vs the equivalent Canada only plan from them. That works out to like 3 days a month vs their $7 a day EasyRoam prices. But, if you're there less than 36 days or so a year, then no, it's not a savings. That'd be my wife's situation. We're only across as a family maybe 2-3 weeks total over the year at most (2 different week long vacations + a couple of weekends). For her usage, Wind was the most economical, but it made sense to keep the phones tied as a family plan when I switched to Telus to still get US coverage and better service. That was coincidentally just about the time that Wind switched to Freedom. We didn't bail because they became Freedom, we were grandfathered our Wind contracts so nothing at their end changed for us. I was actually looking forward to Freedom taking over Wind, as I had hoped they'd boost Wind's lousy service. But then Telus started offering us an alternative that worked for my work, i.e. a flat rate US coverage offering, and they already had better service than what Wind/Freedom had available in our area...so we bailed.

 

[von Monster]

I've had great success with Public Mobiles roaming packages in the past; however the last few trips I've used an eSIM from Airalo as I really only need data.

 

[starvenger]

It's kind of hilarious that the CRTC got some new mobile carriers to encourage competition and within 10 years they were all purchased by Big Media to be their de facto "urban" mobile carrier, just like they did previous with the "discount" carriers like Fido and Virgin Mobile.

 

[AdamsMum]

I'm not really happy with Freedom's service anyway, the cheap plan served me for a while, but now I live in a condo in the midst of other condos and the service cuts out during phone calls. Need to check out a new carrier.

 

[Kaadk]

I'm not really happy with Freedom's service anyway, the cheap plan served me for a while, but now I live in a condo in the midst of other condos and the service cuts out during phone calls. Need to check out a new carrier.

You might want to check these sites for help in making your determination:

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html Shows a map of where the cell towers are located
https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2020/02/canada/mobile-network-experience Has some different network rankings, in 10 major cities in Canada (but not Windsor unfortunately)

OpenSignal's app is also great when you're south of the border, to see real reports of various signal strengths in different areas. I wish they expanded their offerings to Canada, as it would really help for situations like yours, where you'd basically be able to poll your neighbours in the condo and see what works or doesn't for them among the various carriers they all have.

 

[starvenger]

When I lived in Windsor I was pretty close to the river (right by the Tunnel). Looking back I probably could've gotten away with having a US phone, seeing as I was a cross-border worker. But at the time, Canada's rates were better than the US, if you can believe it.

 

[CanucksRock]

I've used them for years, going to suck losing the number. But at least my last trip to Orlando I tried out using Airalo for data (esim). Worked just as well, so I'll do that going forward and just pay $8 to use my Canada number for calling if needed. (Public Mobile)