Family (4 x phones) travel to Italy... have to leave Public Mobile?

[cmariotti]

I have a family of 4, each with their own Public Mobile account...

We need to travel to Italy shortly and it seems that Public Mobile have zero options for travel to Europe. Which means, that we need to move to another mobile provider. Obviously prices in Italy are very cheap, unfortunately, at least two of the four phones require text and phone service... so using a local SIM isn't really an option.  Any suggestions to solve this issue?

[khalicki]

Have you checked out tosssabledigits.com

[darlicious]

@cmariotti 

That would be a shame to port out and lose rewards and the entire $$ rewards program if you came back to the points program. If I understand you correctly you require incoming pm texts and phone calls while away in Italy? 

This can be done with a little help from a trusted friend or family member in Canada while away. Everyone in your family can download a voip provider app like textnow or fongo and choose a canadian number. Everyone before leaving Canada call forward the pm number to the textnow phone number. Remove the sim card if the possibility of connecting to a US tower during transit could happen. The two family member's with no call/text concerns can take their sim cards with them or leave them in Canada somewhere safe and secure.

The two of you that need text forwarding have a little more work to do.....download the Mighty text app. This allows text forwarding however the pm sim card must be left in a compatible phone that is left powered on preferably connected to a charger/outlet. Best left with someone who can monitor the phones to ensure a power failure etc....doesn't cause the set up to be reset but if that happens they can perform the forwarding actions again.

All pm call forwarding will ring thru to your voip provider app on the phones while in Italy and the text forwarding to the option  you choose from their platform. ( I haven't used it myself but @BeachNBeer swears by it for his sun and sand vacations.) Download the apps and give them a test run in Canada. Textnow and fongo work on wifi and mobile data from a local sim card. Textnow has more ads but free in/out calls/texts. Fongo far fewer ads with free in/out calls and free incoming texts but a small fee for outgoing texts.

If you don't have legacy plans or specific promos you could lose by changing plans then these options work on the $15 plan if you have more expensive plans with data you won't be able to use while away.

Happy Travels and Stay--Safe!

[CountyDownIeUk]

If PM has been economically beneficial to you x 4 I would think you should look at a different option. 

Apple does have text forwarding and outbound texting from another Apple device 

As does Android 

What I don’t know is.....where does the phone or sim need to be located?

And will it work in another country 

Is data or wifi required 

[softech]

@cmariotti  Only only 2 members might need the roaming, you can also just port the 2 members to Koodo or Telus and leave the other 2 with PM

As you aware, using local sim is much cheaper, so you can have the other 2 members to have local sim cards and start a hotspot to share data for the other "roaming" members to save some roaming data charge.  

[cmariotti]

Thank you, I think that is my only option... might switch back later... might not.

[liuxinbing]

If it is that important, then you have to sign up with Tier 1 / Tier 2 companies with Roam like Home for $15/day. This is the only option. Forget about Tier 3 companies such as Public Mobile or Lucky.

[walker1 · Accepted solution]

Sounds like you're going to have to go to one of the Tier 1 phone providers since those phone calls and texts are important to you.   An expensive option though.

Mama Mia!

[cmariotti]

Should clarify, two of the phones require CANADIAN Text messaging and Phone Calls (inbound)... One is business, other is medical...

[walker1]

@cmariotti 

Use a VoIP app like Fongo or Text Now and get a Canadian phone number to use when you have access to wifi.

Then forward calls from other phone number.

[cmariotti]

I said that I could NOT use local Italy SIM due to requirement to continue having Text and Phone calls (on the canadian phone number).

[iliketotalk]

@cmariotti yes get a travel sim or local sim when you are traveling it will save you mucho dollars over moving to one of the big three 

[LeePublic]

You can buy local Italy SIM cards and use those in your existing phones, they'll be much cheaper than using any of the roaming services other providers use.