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> when I moved here it was cheaper to pay the roaming fees for my US phone in Canada than it was to switch to a Canadian telecom. Was it data quantity that mad

> when I moved here it was cheaper to pay the roaming fees for my US phone in Canada than it was to switch to a Canadian telecom. Was it data quantity that made that feasible? My Canadian plan is $45/month and has unlimited phone time and 6 gigs of data (which is great for my usage) and is on one of the big three carriers so coverage is great. Freedom mobile offers 20gb for $50, but their coverage is weaker (i.e. you're roaming outside of major cities). These convert to $33/$36 in USD. Both of these options look significantly cheaper than any plans I quickly see on the big US carriers, before even accounting for the roaming charges (albeit with more limited data)

lstamour 3y ago
If you go back to when T-mobile was incredibly competitive, plans were often $20-30. If I want a month, I can get a SIM prepaid for $30 or less with all the data in the US, and sometimes as little as $3 in Europe. Plus there was a time, albeit almost a decade ago now when the dollar was on par. Even about a year ago the dollar was still aiming for 0.8 rather than the 0.74 it’s flirting with right now. Lastly, if you want an Apple Watch with cellular, you end up needing a more expensive plan from the big three rather than their sub-brands. And the Canadian government is threatening regulation to encourage carriers to offer more data for less. There was a time within the decade when $60 at Fido would get you 2GB and that was during a “double data” promo. This was 2018. https://forums.redflagdeals.com/fido-60-unlimited-canada-wide-2gb-1405435/ https://forums.redflagdeals.com/fido-60-unlimited-canada-wid...
dghlsakjg 3y ago
The landscape has changed since I came in 2018 (after some parliamentary rumblings, the big telcos rolled out "unlimited plans"), but for context, a 5gb plan was considered a large data plan, and generally was in the $80+ range when I arrived, starter plans were generally 2gb in the $60 region. Extra data wasn't throttled, it was charged for at a high rate. The plan I was referring to is an older tmobile plan with 3 lines on it. They come out to just under $50 cad per line including taxes/fees and that includes 5gb of Canadian/Mexican LTE/5g, unlimited 3g after that, as well as unlimited everything in the US, and no extra charge to call anywhere in NA. I can roam on Bell, Telus or Rogers, so tend to get better coverage than my Canadian friends. I also get unlimited worldwide texting and 2g data when I travel for no additional charge. If I switched to one of the new t-mobile plans, I would be paying $59/line, but that includes a free Netflix subscription, and 10gb of Canadian data. I just priced out a roughly comparable rogers plan for the features I actually use (5gb, unlimited US calls, data in the US) and it comes to $65 CAD + $12 per day I'm in the US, or go for the unlimited US plan which is $105 CAD on a promotional offer right now. Add on another 12% for tax and a bunch of fees I'm sure I'd learn about after the fact, and keeping my US service is very competitive. Rogers new plans, are pretty new (I believe unlimited data only started in 2019 or 2020, and their definition of unlimited is 20gb). The takeaway for me is that if I was just a single line, and I didn't leave Canada much, I would probably pay slightly less. Since I call and text the US daily, and travel there for at least a month a year, I save several hundred dollars a year on tmobile, and don't have to worry about getting billed hundreds or thousands because I forgot to buy a data pass for a trip across the border.

lstamour 3y ago

If you go back to when T-mobile was incredibly competitive, plans were often $20-30. If I want a month, I can get a SIM prepaid for $30 or less with all the data in the US, and sometimes as little as $3 in Europe. Plus there was a time, albeit almost a decade ago now when the dollar was on par. Even about a year ago the dollar was still aiming for 0.8 rather than the 0.74 it’s flirting with right now. Lastly, if you want an Apple Watch with cellular, you end up needing a more expensive plan from the big three rather than their sub-brands. And the Canadian government is threatening regulation to encourage carriers to offer more data for less. There was a time within the decade when $60 at Fido would get you 2GB and that was during a “double data” promo. This was 2018. https://forums.redflagdeals.com/fido-60-unlimited-canada-wide-2gb-1405435/ https://forums.redflagdeals.com/fido-60-unlimited-canada-wid...

dghlsakjg 3y ago

The landscape has changed since I came in 2018 (after some parliamentary rumblings, the big telcos rolled out "unlimited plans"), but for context, a 5gb plan was considered a large data plan, and generally was in the $80+ range when I arrived, starter plans were generally 2gb in the $60 region. Extra data wasn't throttled, it was charged for at a high rate. The plan I was referring to is an older tmobile plan with 3 lines on it. They come out to just under $50 cad per line including taxes/fees and that includes 5gb of Canadian/Mexican LTE/5g, unlimited 3g after that, as well as unlimited everything in the US, and no extra charge to call anywhere in NA. I can roam on Bell, Telus or Rogers, so tend to get better coverage than my Canadian friends. I also get unlimited worldwide texting and 2g data when I travel for no additional charge. If I switched to one of the new t-mobile plans, I would be paying $59/line, but that includes a free Netflix subscription, and 10gb of Canadian data. I just priced out a roughly comparable rogers plan for the features I actually use (5gb, unlimited US calls, data in the US) and it comes to $65 CAD + $12 per day I'm in the US, or go for the unlimited US plan which is $105 CAD on a promotional offer right now. Add on another 12% for tax and a bunch of fees I'm sure I'd learn about after the fact, and keeping my US service is very competitive. Rogers new plans, are pretty new (I believe unlimited data only started in 2019 or 2020, and their definition of unlimited is 20gb). The takeaway for me is that if I was just a single line, and I didn't leave Canada much, I would probably pay slightly less. Since I call and text the US daily, and travel there for at least a month a year, I save several hundred dollars a year on tmobile, and don't have to worry about getting billed hundreds or thousands because I forgot to buy a data pass for a trip across the border.