I headed over to tweeter to tweet my questions to my cell carrier and received a tweet from @RoamMobility about their USA calling plans. The prepaid plans sounded just like what I needed and would give me the piece of mind that I was looking for while away at BlogHer.
Roam Mobility is a Canada company that is located in Vancouver BC. They offer prepaid cell plans for traveling in the USA. If you are looking for Unlimited Talk & Text to USA & Canada you will be super happy with Roam Mobility. They also have great data plans you can add on also. You can choose data plans from 100MB to 3GB!
The Talk, Text and Data plans start as low as $3.95! This is great if you will be heading into the USA for a day of shopping. I had plenty of data with the 700MB plan (7 day) which costs $27.95. Compared at my carriers plan of $50 where I would get 50 mins of US roaming talk, 50 US roaming MB, 200 US roaming text and unlimited incoming text.
How does Roam Mobility work? You will need your current cell phone unlocked, then purchase a reusable SIM card from Roam Mobility which is $19.95. Go to Roam Mobility website and order the prepaid plan you will need. Don't worry if you run out as you can top up on the go. It is super simple to set up the data on your phone by following the instructions on their website or in the SIM package. You will need to use your SIM card once a year to keep it active but if you travel often this wont be a big deal.
Just need data - order the Hotspot and add a data plan when you will be traveling.
The best part of the whole thing? The piece of mind and the low price! I love how quick it is to set up. You can visit your account and schedule your plan to start the day you will be leaving. If you need to make changes it is super simple to adjust. When I crossed the USA border all I did was turn on my phone and I could begin using my plan. It was great to be able to keep my family in the loop to how I was and find out how they were doing while I was away. It was also great to text friends that live in the USA and were at the conference also. I was connected. I can't believe I went last year without a phone and had a super hard time getting connected to the wifi. I felt totally lost for the 3 days I was away. This time around I was super connected and didn't have to feel restricted with talk, text or data. Never had to watch the time or how many texts I sent. I felt horrible watching other Canadian bloggers having big problems with their cell phone carrier plans. Thank you Roam Mobility you made my trip and eased my mind!
Next time you are about to travel to the USA head over to Roam Mobility and get connected. You can follow Roam Mobility on Twitter and Facebook.
~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn on behalf of Roam Mobility. I received a cellular plan to review while away at BlogHer '13. All opinions are honest and my own.*~
I have heard horror stories about bill after a trip to the states. Even from people who thought they turned roaming off. I would totally leave my phone at home and go with the option to have one of their phones.
ReplyDeleteThat was my biggest fear that I wouldn't do what I needed to do and would end up roaming or something. Piece of mind.
Deletethose are just rumours. as long as you keep your device turned off or in airplane mode you won't need to worry. as an alternative, just remove your SIM card from your device. No SIM, no cellular network, you can still make 911 calls without a SIM card.
Deletetaking out the SIM may work for some but a lot of us want the freedom to call home or connect with others through phone or text.
DeleteCanadians considering Roam Mobility when travelling to the US need to know where they are going to be using the service. Coverage is good in many (but not quite all) population centres, but very spotty otherwise. If you are driving across the US, for example, I'd say that you will have coverage less than half the time.
ReplyDeleteRoam Mobility uses the T-Mobile network in the US, not the dominant AT&T GSM network that covers about 95 percent of the US land area. This means that if you want service outside the T-Mobile coverage area you will have to reinsert your Canadian SIM card and pay the exorbitant roaming fees of your Canadian cell phone carrier that has an agreement with AT&T. Roam Mobility lacks such an agreement and is therefore limited in this regard.
Thanks for your comment Bill. I traveled in 3 states to get to Chicago and had great coverage. I hope to head to Miami next year and will see how it works then.
DeleteWhat people don't get is that T-Mobile does not give Roam Mobility full access to their network. That's why you can have two people in the same area where one get's good coverage and the other poor coverage. The difference is that one is a RM customer and the other is T-Mobile customer.
DeleteIf one insists on using T-Mobile's service, you can opt for a cheap pay as you go plan where you get a SIM card for free or next to free. There is also a great deal for $30 valid for one month where you get 5GB of data and 100 minutes of talk time.
However, if you are wise, you'd be better off with AT&T or another provider in the USA instead of T-Mobile.
The AT&T or T-Mobile may be great if you need data or talk/text in the US but my main use when I travel is to stay in contact with my family back in Canada. RM worked for me and that is why I posted. If people are more interested in another service that is fine also, I did not say that it is the best or only service for Canadian's traveling.
DeleteThere are horror stories with Roam Mobility. Think long and hard before buying their outrageously priced SIM card. Please take the time to read the comments to the responses in the blog on Roam Mobility: http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/reviews/roam-mobility-review/
ReplyDeletehe writer there too was impressed but his experiences are not typical. The comments paint a very very different picture. Do you research before going with Roam Mobility.
Like I said, those are just rumours. Keeping your phone on is fine unless you're roaming onto a network that charges roaming fees for just having your device turned on. You can always force your device to choose which network to Roam to if you have a compatible SIM and phone.
ReplyDeleteif you want to just voice calling, then it's usually cheaper to buy a prepaid phone at Walmart USA for like $10. Then you can add how many minutes you want cheaply. The expiry is usually 90 days.
If you're like most people who has a smartphone, you can easily get an app that assigns you a telephone number in Canada or USA and you can receive/send SMS and voice (for free). This way your callers aren't dinged long distance or US SMS charges.There are free wifi hotspots every where.
While you many not have come out and said RM is not the best, you kinda implied it. So are many people in the media and those who are writing blogs.
What I do is use my locked device (I have several UNlocked phones btw) and just receive SMS text. If a caller leaves me a Voice mail message I access it by using my smartphone via wifi. I never pick up or send SMS from my CDN carrier while roaming. Depending on who I trust, I'd give them that special telephone number I mentioned earlier. That way they can call me while I am at the hotel.
Unless you have a business account or your cell phones are a tax deduction, I would pass on Roam Mobility. They're not a very ethical company from what I seen.
Nice reply .
DeleteJenn, I can report that my wife was in Miami in June and had no coverage issues with Roam Mobility.
ReplyDeleteAs for Mike's comments regarding RM's ethical practices, I have no specific evidence or experience they have been deceitful. Yes, there is not what I would consider complete transparency and full disclosure, but this is endemic in the mobile phone industry. The major Canadian providers are no better in this regard. It's a reason I'm wary of all of them. Consumers deserve better, but until we raise our collective voices and make timid politicians and captive regulators aware we will not stand for this situation, we get our just desserts.
new news
ReplyDeleteI have been using RM for over a year when I travel. I have had good experiences in the following cities. Orlando, Buffalo and Fort Lauderdale.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I went on a driving trip from Toronto to Washington DC and was horrified to find that I had about 30% coverage during my drive which meant I couldn't use my phone's map function and finding places to eat. Even when I had coverage it was spotty and weak. Once in Washington DC, I had coverage for about 90% of the locations I went to. I will continue to use this service but be aware that the coverage can be horrible when not in the huge population areas or driving around. Always, check their coverage areas also. I wish I did.
Thanks for the info Ray. I think that it is like lots of phone plans, they work better in some places and not in others.
Delete