[NA]Canada travel - cell service[NA]

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Dave Taylor
I am in Canada (S Ont) for 2 weeks.
I have an iphoneSE with StraightTalk on the Verizon network.

On wifi, I can surf and contact other iphones by text.

It would be ideal if I could text non-iphones and if I could make calls to the US and Canada using the cell data (none of which I can do right now).
It's not essential, just would be more convenient; ie it would not be worth $200 to me.

I was thinking, buy a short term sim card?
Buy a tracphone or other 'disposable' phone?
Contact local network provider and see if they can set it up?

Anyone done this?
 
Dunno about Straight Talk, but Canada and Mexico are free for me straight from Verizon.

Tell your peeps you want to contact to download Whatsapp.
 
I won't pretend to understand the differences in all the Verizon plans - but, when I go to the airport (ONZ (not in Canada)) I often get the "welcome to Canada" text that tells me there are no additional charges on whatever Verizon plan I happen to have.
 
May be a silly question, but do you have the Roaming turned on for your cellular data settings? I don't believe it's on by default, but I've never had any issues with my ATT service in Canada not being able to use internet/send texts to non-iDevices.
 
Depends on your plans. I used to be able to call in Canada without issues. Two years ago, I found (the hard way) that my plans had changed and Canada wasn't included for Verizon or AT&T without international roaming. Fortunately, I had a Garmin so I had navigation in the car.
 
I hate that about Canada, truth is the locals don't have great cell service in S Ont. You can turn on wifi calling so that anytime you are connected to wifi you can make phone calls. Otherwise might swing by a walmart or what ever and pick up a pay phone.
 
truth is the locals don't have great cell service in S Ont
Now, THAT's funny! Really funny when you consider that sometimes the cell service that I get is sometimes from the other side of the river in Southern Ontario even though I am in Michigan!
(I'm not saying you are wrong - just that it's funny given what happens to me...)
 
My experience was when I crossed the border into Canada, I got a text from Verizon saying, ''Welcome to Canada.''

Of course I was in BC and Yukon, so coverage wasn't continuous. And my sat radio would lose the signal often.
 
Canada and US need to do what Europe did. No roaming charges allowed. I can travel all over Europe with my German phone and not pay anything extra. Of course, Canada and US put together is way bigger geographically than the EU.
 
For Straight Talk you can make Canada/Mexico calls FROM the U.S. but cannot make phone calls while in another country. I ran into this 1.5yrs ago. It may have changed by now but that’s what I learned at that time.
 
I am in Canada (S Ont) for 2 weeks.
I have an iphoneSE with StraightTalk on the Verizon network.

On wifi, I can surf and contact other iphones by text.

It would be ideal if I could text non-iphones and if I could make calls to the US and Canada using the cell data (none of which I can do right now).
It's not essential, just would be more convenient; ie it would not be worth $200 to me.

I was thinking, buy a short term sim card?
Buy a tracphone or other 'disposable' phone?
Contact local network provider and see if they can set it up?

Anyone done this?
Just returned from Southern Ontario last weekend. I have Verizon, IPhone 6, was charged $5/day for text, cell phone service and internet usage. Details at vzw.com/intltrvl . You can skip days, start at noon the fist day and go every other day, etc.
 
Straight Talk is a prepaid service. Different rules apply.
 
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