Advice for phone plans in Canada

Life Hacking
1

Hi folks :wave:

I will be traveling to North America, specifically Canada, for a month starting at the end of September. My trip will cover the region from Toronto to Montreal and the northern areas of this region. I will primarily be traveling by car, so I want to ensure I have a functional GPS. I am considering using my mobile phone as GPS by getting a plan with unlimited data. Additionally, to avoid any unpleasant surprises, it would be useful if this plan also allowed me to make calls within Canada, ideally for free.

My current plan only allows unlimited calls and data within Switzerland. Since I haven’t found a post on this topic in the forum and don’t want to interfere with discussions about plans in Switzerland, I would like to know your tips and tricks for getting unlimited data in Canada.

I don’t have much experience with mobile phone plans abroad, and this will be my first long trip abroad, so I’m a bit lost. Thank you in advance for your advice.

Kaw~

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If you want a global plan by Swisscom, Wingo International | Wingo exists. It costs CHF 130.-, but they have flash sales where it costs about CHF 45.- per month lifetime.

Doesn’t matter which provider you find, Salt, Swisscom, Sunrise, unlimited always means 40GB high speed and after that 128/256kbit throttled, per month.

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All providers sell international pack

Example with Swisscom:

Would be interresting to look at what Canada offers (local number + unlimited data if available to use your GPS)

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Do you really need unlimited data? You can download e.g. Google Maps to the phone and then use it in offline mode?

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Unlimited is not that popular on the other side of the pond. But for your trip, e.g. 10GB should be more than enough for navigation etc. no?

In that case I would suggest you checkout some of the eSIM offers online.

This will often be cheaper than the unreasonable roaming packages. But sometimes you can still get decent deals with swiss telecom companies for EU/US, so make sure to look further.

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Thanks for the suggestions so far. My current plan, managed and paid for by my company, is a basic Swisscom package with unlimited calls and data in Switzerland. Therefore, I can’t easily upgrade to a higher package.

There might be short-term packs I can add at my own expense (like Wingo allows for data abroad), but I haven’t looked into this option yet, and it seems these packs are often expensive.

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This one worked for me in the past

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I always get the eSIMs from Rent a 4G Pocket Wi-Fi in 150+ Countries! Mobile Hotspot Unlimited Internet (rentnconnect.com).

  • Delivery is normally one day before starting date via email
  • Data is true unlimited
  • No restrictions on hotspot usage
  • Fast chat support response and help even during off office hours and weekends

Another option is yallo swype eSIM Swype

  • You get the swype surf for 14.95 and then the roaming option for 3.- a day
  • Total cost of 104.95.- for 30 days in Canada
  • Daily data cap of 10GB and after it’s throttled
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Huh, that looks like a horrible deal for 30 days, no? Check out the price of eSIM there for Canada… Same for the device (why would someone rent a hotspot device if you can just get an eSIM anyway?).

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Mixed yallo swype with rentnconnect. The comments should be correct now

It depends. If your mobile subscription is 20.- and international (with 40GB roaming included per month) is 35.- that’s still a 180.- difference per year. With 180.- you can buy 45 days of unlimited roaming with rentnconnect and you don’t have to worry about any throttling limit.

That’s why I specifically mention eSIM in the first sentence of the comment…

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eSIM from 1. August - 1. September: ~127 Euro if you take this deal (the first option).

Yallo Swype looks better, but not by that much.

If you really need ‘unlimited’, sure go for it.

Most people (especially the Mustachian-minded) would be more than fine with 10 GB (13.5$) or if you need it e.g. 50 GB (47$) for 30 days.

And this was the first thing I found when looking for it. There might be even cheaper options.

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Yes it’s for sure not mustachian but that’s the price for true unlimited. Only cheaper option might be a local SIM/eSIM bought directly in Canada.

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I only recently learned about it - but check Revolut’s eSIM offers.
They seem decent value-wise and worked well across continents so far.

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If you are fine to watch a 30second add every hour, you get free roaming data with firsty in 120 countries, it works with an esim: https://1firsty.page.link/idFpTZH83appJtBh7

Works very well for navigation, whatsapp, etc.

If you need highspeed you can upgrade for 1€ /day when needed

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