Traveling to Canada with a smartphone
April 14, 2013 11:02 AM Subscribe
I'm heading to Vancouver BC next month, and I have a smartphone. How can I use it without it costing eleventy bazillion dollars?
International traveling was so much easier without a smartphone, when my rule was "buy a cheap burner when you get to town and donate it somewhere before you leave", but now here I am in the modern world. I have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus that is rooted and unlocked, which strikes me as being a good thing for international use. I am traveling with a couple different groups of people and we're all staying in different places, so we'll need to coordinate meetups and whatnot, probably via text message, and it would be nice to have at least some access to things like Yelp and maps, just in case.
Here are the questions I have:
1. With an unlocked and rooted phone, I think I could just swap out the SIM card, but I'm only going for a long weekend, so I'm assuming buying a new SIM card would be cost-prohibitive?
2. If I can't just swap out SIM cards, would connecting to the internet via WiFi avoid international data charges?
3. Is there a free/lower-cost-than-Verizon replacement for text messaging? I'm pretty sure everyone traveling has a smartphone, so if something like Skype or Gchat or whatever (I'm not on Facebook and have zero desire to be) or some other app, would work for texting back and forth as we try to coordinate being in the same place at the same time, that would be good, but I am ignorant of these things.
I appreciate the help.
International traveling was so much easier without a smartphone, when my rule was "buy a cheap burner when you get to town and donate it somewhere before you leave", but now here I am in the modern world. I have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus that is rooted and unlocked, which strikes me as being a good thing for international use. I am traveling with a couple different groups of people and we're all staying in different places, so we'll need to coordinate meetups and whatnot, probably via text message, and it would be nice to have at least some access to things like Yelp and maps, just in case.
Here are the questions I have:
1. With an unlocked and rooted phone, I think I could just swap out the SIM card, but I'm only going for a long weekend, so I'm assuming buying a new SIM card would be cost-prohibitive?
2. If I can't just swap out SIM cards, would connecting to the internet via WiFi avoid international data charges?
3. Is there a free/lower-cost-than-Verizon replacement for text messaging? I'm pretty sure everyone traveling has a smartphone, so if something like Skype or Gchat or whatever (I'm not on Facebook and have zero desire to be) or some other app, would work for texting back and forth as we try to coordinate being in the same place at the same time, that would be good, but I am ignorant of these things.
I appreciate the help.
I have a plan that allows me to text internationally for a small amount. If you all signed up before leaving that could work.
Skype is another option if you all have smartphones or computers. Get the Skype app for your phone and when you're around wifi you can text and talk to your heart's content. But that's only in wifi range, unless you pay for it, in which case e-mail would probably work just as well.
posted by vecchio at 11:09 AM on April 14, 2013
Skype is another option if you all have smartphones or computers. Get the Skype app for your phone and when you're around wifi you can text and talk to your heart's content. But that's only in wifi range, unless you pay for it, in which case e-mail would probably work just as well.
posted by vecchio at 11:09 AM on April 14, 2013
pdb: "I think I could just swap out the SIM card, but I'm only going for a long weekend, so I'm assuming buying a new SIM card would be cost-prohibitive?"
7-11 gives you a SIM card for free with a $100 worth of air time. Plus they are currently including an additional $25 top up card. You can buy them in store. Unlimited browsing will suck up $10 of that voucher and unlimited texting $15.
Whether that is cost prohibitive I guess depends on how long you are stay though the air time does last for 365 days.
Petro Canada charges $15 for a SIM card and their pre-paid plan with data is cheaper if you don't think you could burn thru the $100.
posted by Mitheral at 11:45 AM on April 14, 2013
7-11 gives you a SIM card for free with a $100 worth of air time. Plus they are currently including an additional $25 top up card. You can buy them in store. Unlimited browsing will suck up $10 of that voucher and unlimited texting $15.
Whether that is cost prohibitive I guess depends on how long you are stay though the air time does last for 365 days.
Petro Canada charges $15 for a SIM card and their pre-paid plan with data is cheaper if you don't think you could burn thru the $100.
posted by Mitheral at 11:45 AM on April 14, 2013
Verizon will give you an international data plan for a month - you don't have to completely change plans. I've done this several times and it's always worked well. It wouldn't be enough data to stream a ton of media or large downloads, but it's perfectly serviceable for general texting, googling and yelping as needed in new places.
posted by barnone at 12:34 PM on April 14, 2013
posted by barnone at 12:34 PM on April 14, 2013
Verizon will let you text for domestic rates from Canada. I was just in Vancouver and texted from my Verizon phone to a Verizon phone here in the States for the usual rate.
posted by gingerbeer at 1:05 PM on April 14, 2013
posted by gingerbeer at 1:05 PM on April 14, 2013
You can replace your sim card on a Verizon phone? I thought their phones weren't GSM compatible.
Make sure of such things.
posted by oceanjesse at 3:38 PM on April 14, 2013
Make sure of such things.
posted by oceanjesse at 3:38 PM on April 14, 2013
Response by poster: Oceanjesse - my phone is 4G LTE, which means it has a SIM card. Unfortunately, it's a micro-sim card, so mithereal's awesome free SIM card offer won't work for my phone. I think we're going with WhatsApp, thanks Pomo and thanks everyone for the advice.
posted by pdb at 9:26 AM on April 15, 2013
posted by pdb at 9:26 AM on April 15, 2013
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posted by Pomo at 11:05 AM on April 14, 2013