her+I
Ontario, Canada
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We are planning on going rving fulltime once and/or when our house sells. We live in Northern Ontario. We will be getting rid of our land line phones. We presently have a cel phone each with Ma Bell but find that the reception out of the country to very sporatic if at all in some regions. Will be spending winters in Texas and Arizona and returning to campgrounds in Canada in the summer. Do you have any suggestions on which phone companies work better? Have the same question with our computor. Thanks
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Kanata
Ottawa, Ontario
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For the US I would look at getting a pay as you go phone, such as Net 10. You can purchase one when you get to the states at Wal-Mart or similar store. Not sure what to do for Canada, but you should look at a pay as you go phone here as well.
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radardog
delaware
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VERIZON
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Little Kopit
TheMaritimes.ca
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In Canada, many places close to the border (well, within 100 miles, more or less) have a card you can buy for your cell phone. These can be bought at most box stores and at convenience stores on tourist routes.
I gave up on having a land line in 2005. I manage.
I think the pay as you go card has an advantage for the area code where you purchased it. Long distance is sill one of the features where cell phone companies bleed us Canucks.
& I, I took the road less travelled by.
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sirdrakejr
Las Vegas, Nevada
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After about a week, this is going to be moved to "Full Time RVing" for further input.
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For those of you looking for expert advice, here ya go!
Frank
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jambo101
Montreal
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Most of a trip from Ontario to Texas will have no problems with cell/computer coverage but remote places of course will have spotty coverage, for a price you can get satellite phones and PC access.
"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning."
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GPs
Pittsboro, NC
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Joined: 07/24/2003
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We have Verizon and it has worked well where we've been in U.S. We have lowest cost plan and it has lots of unlimited times plus across U.S. We traveled Atlantic Canada and Quebec, Ontario this summer so were able to convert for 2 months to U.S./Canada during that period for same coverage at $20 a month more per month. When we returned home, we changed back to U.S. only. Worked well. Of course, like all, there are places where no cell coverage but we have been very pleased with Verizon.
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PrivatePilot
Courtice, Ontario, Canada
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Your Bell phones should work just fine in most areas of the USA as Bell Mobility has roaming agreements with most big US carriers.
That said, it will cost you an arm and a leg for US roaming with a Canadian account. You'd be best to get some cheap unlocked GSM phones and buy a SIM card for it based on your eventual over-winter destination. This way you will have a local number that will give you the ability to actually use the phone instead of worrying about the costs involved in using your Canadian lines.
If you want to keep your Bell numbers (as I'm assuming you do for when you return) then switch the plans to a low-cost maintenance/emergency plan and let them linger back home.
Personally, whenever I'm going to be situated in the same place for more then a week or so I get a local SIM (Pay as you go) and use it - it's MUCH cheaper then paying the gouge that is typical of US roaming with CDN cellphones.
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heislerb
Trenton, Ontario, Canada
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We fulltimed from May 2004 to July 2008. We wintered 3 times in Texas and once in Arizona. Spent 4 summers in south eastern Ontario. All this time we have used Bell cell phone service. I have to say it has been exception good, except for the price.
In October we would switch to one of the North America Plans and on return switch back to one of the Canada Plans. Expensive, but no suprises. Bell has just as good coverage in the US as US cell service.
Bob
Bob & Shirley Heisler
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freewilley
AZ in winter, ON in summer
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Only Private Pilot got it right...if you buy an ATT or t-mobile phone in the US you can just change the chip and they become a Rogers phone in Canada. We use ATT because they have a plan that offers unlimited weekends for $19.99. We mainly use our phones to call home so we schedule family calls on the weekends and can talk for hours for little money (for long distance we use toll free numbers thru pingo.com which allows us to use long distance for about 3 cents per minute, great system).
If you buy an att phone you get it for next to nothing at gophone.com After six months of use with ATT they will give you the code to unlock the phone so it will work with Rogers. Rogers also has unlimited weekend plan.
In general, Nokia has the best reception in fringe areas.
We really don't use the phones a lot during the week...the odd business call or reservation or to find each other in Wal-mart.
We buy the $100 card in Canada and the US as they give us a whole year of service.
FreeWilley
2007 Classic Silverado Duramax
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