I have my bill right here. roaming in the states is 1.17/min. I think it's gone down since our loonie has strengthened. long distance is 41 cents per minute. So thats 1.60/minute.

My plan is only $25 a minute, and the cheapest north american plan is $75 a month. It takes a lot of minutes to make up that $50.

 

I'm from Canada and 90% of the time I go to the USA. I had the same cost problem because Canadian cell plans get expensive when you want to use the phone both in the USA and Canada. My provider is called ROGERS and I have to fork over Cnd$120 (appr. US110) a month if I want to use ... 400 minutes only. With this plan there's no roaming and long distance charges anywhere in Canada and USA. My last bill was ... $300 because I went over the 400 minutes.

I used to have a cell phone from Verizon Wireless (USA) and their US-Canada plans are much much much much cheaper: you can get around 800 minutes (no roaming, no long distance) that are usable anywhere in USA and Canada. The only drawback is you'll have a U.S. area code (I had 708). This plan costs US$80 plus taxes and fees ... which comes to 90-95 bucks a month.

So, now I cancelled the US part of my plan and I only use my phone south of the border if there's some kind of an emergency. I have a satellite terminal in my truck and how most drivers here communicate with their dispatchers. It also gives me free access to text-based e-mail...

If I were an American constantly travelling to Canada, I'd probably sign up for Verizon international plan. It's not cheap (80 bucks) but convenient since you don't have to worry about long distance and roaming charges. Another tip is to use payphones whenever you can if the number you're calling is a 800 number.

 

This topic has got to be an eye-opener for Americans about The Great North called Canada. Yes, the cell phone costs are ridiculous, particularly if you're travelling back and forth to the USA. Also, the price of gasoline, even regular gasoline for 4-wheelers, usually hovers just about DOUBLE, when you factor in the litres/gallons/exchange rate.

The Canadian public just haven't got a clue. which is surprising because they ALL have American relatives or family members who work south of the border. It's a matter of DENIAL. Also, the government brainwashing in the media keeps telling Canadians that them Yankees are gun-toting homicidal maniacs and war-mongers. Canadians are "peace-keepers" supposedly.

At least that was the illusion, until the present Prime Minister Harper became buddies with "W". Now we've got flag-draped caskets coming back from the Middle East on a daily basis also.

 

That would be a lot of booze, I guess... :lol:

 

What's a VOIP phone? Some kind of Canadian landline? Sounds like it could help solve a lot of problems. That and a US cell phone is a whole lot better than $2/minute.

And, it sounds like for me, if I started doing a lot of runs up there a Canadian cell phone wouldn't be the answer.

 

What's a 'loonie'? $50 is nothing at $1.60/minute. I'd have to get up to get a calculator, and that ain't happening, but that's less than an hour on the phone. We can spend an hour talking about Esther stealing Frankie's food. :lol:

 

 

Now this is interesting.

I've sometimes wondered if Canada could become the Saudia Arabia of the future. Tiny population, huge land mass...so what kinds of mineral and oil deposits are underneath all that Northern Territories snow, anyway? Then there are the immigrants, you let only the best educated and wealthiest immigrate, is that right? Now, what's that going to do to the gene pool over the years, let alone the discipline and work ethic being handed down?

 

VOIP - Voice over Internet Protocol

In other words. Using your laptop with a mic to make a phone call.

 

A VOIP phone is a "Voice over Internet Protocol" phone. It is offered by among other companies, Vonage and Primus. It is available both in the US and Canada. It is a proper land line other than the fact that you plug in a box provided by Primus in my case into a high speed internet modem at one end and plug your normal phone jack into the other end. The only downside is that if your high speed internet connection is down, you have no phone. Also if your power supply is down, you have no phone. But is far cheaper than a traditional land line. I use it an additional phone line to supplement the traditional land line.

The basic problem in Canada for truckers using cell phones is that the US concept of no long distance and no roaming is not available. That makes is very expensive. In the US, the T-mobile plan that I had effectively had all local minutes. So my 1000 minutes could be used in Los Angeles or Miami. Depending on my how much running you plan on doing in Canada, the best thing to do is get a Canadian cell phone with a Canadian roaming plan. That will ensure that all that you have to do is track your minutes usage, no long distance. But it will offer far lower value for money than comparable US plans e.g. Rogers, a cell phone provider in Canada offers something called the "Canadian one Rate" plan. It has various slabs with about an effective 80-85 Canadian dollars giving you 500 minutes usable all over Canada . Included in those 500 minutes is that you can dial anywhere in Canada or the US. While is is better than normal plans, it is nowwhere near as good as anything available from Verizon, Sprint or T-mobile in the US.