Roaming in Canada for a Canadian

[megaman]

Hi.

I was at a Freedom store and considering their cheap plan with 250mb with talk and text for my personal phone since I use my work phone for data and most calls. 

I live in the city and I told them I go up north to the cottage at least 15 times a year and it's surrounded by woods. This is 45 minutes north of Barrie. The guy said my phone might start roaming in the country and I'd be charged 5 cents per mb. 

I thought roaming was only for when you left Canada. Which is what a CSR told me on the phone at Lucky.

Can someone please clarify if roaming exists in Canada for Canadians? And what is the case for Public?

Thanks for the help.

[Anonymous]

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@gail709 wrote:

After that you are roaming and ARE charged long distance for any calls you make. 

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Roaming is not about long distance.

Long distance isn't related to roaming.

[gail709]

Computergeek541 you are wrong when you say : Rogers Wireless doesn't have any plans that cost extra to use in different places within Canada. While they do offer roaming in the sense that there is a extended coverage area that they allow customers to use Bell and Telus towers, they don't charge for this.

Rogers has plans that only work in St. John's (as stated above mine was one of them) the coverage area is just past Clarenville.  After that you are roaming and ARE charged long distance for any calls you make.  One of the big reasons I left Rogers and switched to PM.

[computergeek541]

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@will13am wrote:

@megaman , the freedom network is tiny and very different compared to the Bellus network which this service runs on. You won't be roaming as this is a nation wide network.  If you are looking for coverage outside the GTA, don't go with freedom.  This service might work for you.  Take a close look at the available plan options and see if there's anything that needs your needs and budget.

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I would dare say that Freddom's service can be better farther outside the Toronto area. Many of Freedom Mobile's plans now incldude roaming on other networks in Canada for no extra charge.This means that if you're visiting a place that isn't covered by them, you get to avoid the Freedom network altogether while you're there.

[computergeek541]

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@gail709 wrote:

It depends on your plan.  With PM you are covered Canada wide so there is no roaming.  When I was with Rogers, my plan covered a certain area (my city plus a little more) once I went outside of my plan erea it was roaming.  You need to check the fine print with Freedom.

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Rogers Wireless doesn't have any plans that cost extra to use in different places within Canada.  While they do offer roaming in the sense that there is a extended coverage area that they allow customers to use Bell and Telus towers, they don't charge for this.

Roaming isn't about travelling from city to city. Roaming happens when you connect to a different network. If your service works with your Public Mobile service, you're still connected to the same network, and that isn't what roaming is.

[will13am]

@megaman , the freedom network is tiny and very different compared to the Bellus network which this service runs on. You won't be roaming as this is a nation wide network.  If you are looking for coverage outside the GTA, don't go with freedom.  This service might work for you.  Take a close look at the available plan options and see if there's anything that needs your needs and budget.

[megaman]

Thanks for the responses. And someone else in the other thread I posted said check the coverage map for FM and I realized the cottage is in the yellow, which "nationwide", which means roaming.

So ya looks like I'll have to go with PM for my personal phone for the $15 plan.

[dabr]

@megaman   I personally think PM is the better choice in the long run.  PM operates on a much more extensive network with Telus/Bell towers, and you never have to worry about overages ever here.  You will only get what you paid for:)

[megaman]

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@dabr wrote:

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@megaman wrote:

Hi.

I was at a Freedom store and considering their cheap plan with 250mb with talk and text for my personal phone since I use my work phone for data and most calls. 

I live in the city and I told them I go up north to the cottage at least 15 times a year and it's surrounded by woods. This is 45 minutes north of Barrie. The guy said my phone might start roaming in the country and I'd be charged 5 cents per mb. 

I thought roaming was only for when you left Canada. Which is what a CSR told me on the phone at Lucky.

Can someone please clarify if roaming exists in Canada for Canadians? And what is the case for Public?

Thanks for the help.

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@megaman   Freedom Mobile's data is unlimited whilst you're connected to their network.  Where FM don't have connection then you will be roaming on partner networks and then you would be paying extra for that data connection.

As mentioned by @gblackma  Public Mobile doesn't charge any overage because you only get what you prepaid for.  But PM doesn't offer unlimited (throttled data) unfortunately, but any data add-ons also don't expire here and will only be used when you've run out of plan data, then the rest will roll over until depleted.

Edit:  Are you considering FM, Lucky or PM?

Edit:  Just to clarify after looking at FM $15 plan, it offers 250mb plus 250mb bonus data (500mb) for 24 months on new instore activations.  Sounds good, but I'm not too sure if they offer unlimited (throttled) data on that plan though.

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I was first considering FM but due to this roaming thing I think I'm now leaning towards PM.

I really don't even need 250mb since my phone surfing, email, etc. is done on my work phone. There would be the odd occasion where I'd do any of that on my personal phone, which I basically just use for talk and text and occasionally google maps on the road when my work phone battery is getting low.

[dabr]

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@megaman wrote:

Hi.

I was at a Freedom store and considering their cheap plan with 250mb with talk and text for my personal phone since I use my work phone for data and most calls. 

I live in the city and I told them I go up north to the cottage at least 15 times a year and it's surrounded by woods. This is 45 minutes north of Barrie. The guy said my phone might start roaming in the country and I'd be charged 5 cents per mb. 

I thought roaming was only for when you left Canada. Which is what a CSR told me on the phone at Lucky.

Can someone please clarify if roaming exists in Canada for Canadians? And what is the case for Public?

Thanks for the help.

---

@megaman   Freedom Mobile's data is unlimited whilst you're connected to their network.  Where FM don't have connection then you will be roaming on partner networks and then you would be paying extra for that data connection.

As mentioned by @gblackma  Public Mobile doesn't charge any overage because you only get what you prepaid for.  But PM doesn't offer unlimited (throttled data) unfortunately, but any data add-ons also don't expire here and will only be used when you've run out of plan data, then the rest will roll over until depleted.

Edit:  Are you considering FM, Lucky or PM?

Edit:  Just to clarify after looking at FM $15 plan, it offers 250mb plus 250mb bonus data (500mb) for 24 months on new instore activations.  Sounds good, but I'm not too sure if they offer unlimited (throttled) data on that plan though.

[gail709]

It depends on your plan.  With PM you are covered Canada wide so there is no roaming.  When I was with Rogers, my plan covered a certain area (my city plus a little more) once I went outside of my plan erea it was roaming.  You need to check the fine print with Freedom.

[gblackma]

@megaman  PM is prepaid . There are no extra charges. If you run out of minutes or data, it simply stops working. To add more, you would have to buy an addon.

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@megaman wrote:

Hi.

I was at a Freedom store and considering their cheap plan with 250mb with talk and text for my personal phone since I use my work phone for data and most calls. 

I live in the city and I told them I go up north to the cottage at least 15 times a year and it's surrounded by woods. This is 45 minutes north of Barrie. The guy said my phone might start roaming in the country and I'd be charged 5 cents per mb. 

I thought roaming was only for when you left Canada. Which is what a CSR told me on the phone at Lucky.

Can someone please clarify if roaming exists in Canada for Canadians? And what is the case for Public?

Thanks for the help.

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