CMobile broadband plans that cover USA & Canada?

January 30, 2011 4:10 AM

Mobile broadband plans that cover USA & Canada?

I will be frequently travelling between the USA and Canada. Like about 4-5 days in each country, rotating constantly. I rely on cell service and mobile broadband on a constant basis. Constantly on the move. I also need high bandwidth/month.

Voice plans seem easy enough to get with reasonable pricing.. but the data plans are frustrating me.

I currently use millenicom for my mobile broadband, since its about the only unlimited access service I can find these days. But of course, they don't cover Canada.

Is there a company and or plan that covers both USA and Canada without charging crazy $/kb or $/mb rates when in the 'other country'? US companies charge about $60-80 for 5GB/month when in the USA, but then when in Canada: Verizon recently changed their costs to about $2/MB, and At&t wants about $15/MB. That's just nuts. As an exampole, even at $2/Mb, that's $10 to download 1 mp3.

Is the best option to buy two plans, one for USA coverage, and then when I'm in Canada, buy something up there?

posted by herox to technology (3 answers total)

I think your last question is going to be the right answer.

But before doing that, check out the mobile providers in places near the US, like Toronto, Niagara Falls or Windsor. They may have cross border deals that aren't necessarily advertised widely.
posted by gjc at 7:46 AM on January 30, 2011

Yeah. You are going to need two plans. Canadian and US providers to not play nicely with each other.
posted by saradarlin at 9:55 AM on January 30, 2011

There are no "cross border deals" for data. There are no "mobile providers" that magically offer deals to Windsor or Surrey because they happen to straddle the US. Windsor, Surrey, Niagara Falls, Lethbridge et al all have the same providers and the same plans as the rest of us.

The data standard in Canada, and this is for every single carrier now, is HSPA/HSPA+. Verizon and Sprint mobile hotspots (or whatever, any EVDO or WiMAX device) is worthless up here if you wanted to use whatever data roaming a US telecom provides. You are limited to ATT and T-Mo, which for reasons only Americans can understand are the only GSM providers in the US.

But regardless- if you're spending lots of time in the two countries, yes, get two plans. If you want to use the same device (like a tethered phone) you need one that supports HSPA on AWS for T-Mobile in the US and Wind or Mobilcity in Canada, or 900/1800 for ATT in the US and every other provider in Canada. No CDMA here.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:37 PM on January 30, 2011