Border Zone / Extended Local Calling Area for border towns

[mgoss]

I live in a border town with the USA.  With Rogers, Bell and Telus, they each have a feature called Border Zone (Bell), Extended Local Calling Area (Telus), or something else similar. 

What this enables is when travelling in the USA, any calls within the border zone count as if I'm in my local Canadian community and as a local call.  This is a free feature from all the large carriers and has no minimum monthly requirement.  (I'm on a Telus $55/mo plan right now.)

The zone itself is huge.  It stretches well over 100km into MI, USA, and is over 100km north to south meaning I can travel far inland and not have to worry about roaming charges and long distance.  It does not cover outbound texts or data roaming.

Does Public Mobile have such a feature for accounts with phone numbers in border towns?  If I end up saving $10 - $15 per month with PM, that's great but the savings would be wiped out with just a few phone calls from the USA. 

Thanks for whatever information you can supply.

[Tigerheron]

I did a little experiment last Friday to determine whether I would get phone service when I cross the border into Detroit. My past experience ranged from only on the riverfront (Virgin Mobile) to pay-per-use roaming anywhere in the U.S. using T-Mobile (Wind).

I took the tunnel bus and naturally lost all reception while under the river. When I emerged from U.S. immigration I had received a text saying that my service was not valid in the U.S. There was also an active Public Mobile LTE indicator on my phone screen, so I went to two sites - TuneIn Radio and Twitter. I was able to listen to music and read posts. I extend the tunnel bus and got onto the new Q line streetcar northbound. I kept an active signal up past Comerica Park - about 1 km inland from the tunnel exit.

I expect that this range would be greater if I had not been inside a grounded metal cage, or if I had some other brand besides an iPhone. When I exited the streetcar at Mack Avenue, about 3 km from the tunnel, I could only get a T-Mobile and an  AT&T signal.

So it does work in Detroit, but nowhere near as far as a

the maps indicate.

[mgoss · Accepted solution]

I think, unfortunately, the question has been answered.

I didn't even think to look but it seems that PM doesn't currently have any roaming agreements with US carriers.  Your PM phone won't work at all in the USA unless you are really close to Canada and have Canadian signal still. 

That's a real bummer because I just received my SIM card yesterday.  😞

Hopefully this changes soon but for now, I'll keep paying $55/mo with my current carrier. 

Thanks to all for the responses and for trying to assist.  You do have a great thing going here.

[mgoss]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the responses so far.  The map shown above does show some coverage in the USA, however it is simply coverage from towers in Canada which extend their signal across the border.  (Much like listening to a Canadian FM radio station while in the USA.) The ELCA is specifically for roaming over to US towers on an agreement with the US and Canadian providers to not charge roaming/LD.

I have some additional information about the ELCA for my area.  I get free roaming and local calling anywhere in the following MI, USA area codes:  248, 313, 810, 586, 734, 947

The map for these area codes is:

Taking the coverage map from the PM website, I've added lines to show the approximate area in which this coverage spans.  Everything within the green lines all the way back to Canada would be covered as a local call. 

I'll make some calls to determine what the prepaid accounts get on Telus.  I've never had one before so I can't comment yet.  I should emphasise that this ELCA feature is available to anyone in a border town for zero cost but has to be specifically requested by the end user.  It's not an automatic thing and even if it is available to prepaid accounts, it is something that requires the code be added to the account by customer service.  Many Telus and Bell employees don't even know that this feature exists and I've heard so much misinformation about them such as "It's no longer offered" or "We have never had that" or "We discontinued that years ago" all from employees of the big 3. 

Thanks again everyone.  I'll reply back with what I can find out.

[imm1304]

Thanks @PublicMobile101 for pointing this out.  

@mgoss, if you look at the coverage map at http://publicmobile.ca/en/on/coverage in the Windor-Detroit area, it also shows similar coverage area across the border into the USA.  Does this match with what you know of re the Extended Coverage Area?

[PublicMobile101]

When i Look at the Coverage Map it does seem to show what you are asking ! 😄 this is from PM themselfs its not 100% but it seems to be true 

[imm1304]

Hi @mgoss, My understanding is that we do not get the coverage if its coming from Telus' agreement with other providers.  If the signal is coming from Telus' own towers, then the PM customers get it.  

All coverage that Telus prepaid gets, is what we at PM get.  You can ask Telus if their prepaid service has access to the Extended Local Calling Area.   Maybe you can share your answer here if you find out from Telus.