Best option for prepaid data in Canada?

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backfiah

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#233757 1-May-2018 12:35

Will be traveling to Canada towards the end of the month for around 1.5 weeks. Have been investigating Canadian prepaid options but they're all basically outrageously expensive for the amount of data they provide, so much so that Spark's $15 500MB for 7 days looks like the most attractive option. Also, sim cards seem to cost $10 or $15 outright??

Would be interested to hear from anyone who has been to Canada recently what option they used, and how painful roaming is on Spark prepaid, which is apparently only 3G roaming.

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#2005943 1-May-2018 12:50

Buying mobile data in Canada is a joke as you know, VodafoneNZ $5 daily roaming is by far the best option and it's 4G

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/daily-roaming/

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backfiah

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#2005950 1-May-2018 12:57

$5/day would be about $50 for the trip though, plus whatever data allowance I'd have to buy from Vodafone.

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#2005958 1-May-2018 13:08

backfiah:

$5/day would be about $50 for the trip though, plus whatever data allowance I'd have to buy from Vodafone.

@backfiah You don't buy extra data your home Data bundle is included and all calls around Canada and back to New Zealand

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unowho08

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#2005975 1-May-2018 13:25

Will you be traveling to Canada via the USA? There are better options if you can pickup a US prepaid SIM card as some plans allow the use of your talk, text and data limits within Mexico and Canada for no extra charge. As an example, AT&T Prepaid's US$45 plan offers 6GB of data with unlimited talk & text while their US$50 plan offers 8GB of data with unlimited talk & text.

The fine print on these plans is that both the number of texts and number of voice minutes used, made, or received in Mexico and Canada cannot exceed 50% of the total number of texts or voice minutes in a month for any consecutive three-month period, or service may be terminated. However, since you're only going to be using this for ~1.5 weeks, you won't need to worry about this.

wellygary

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#2006020 1-May-2018 14:26

There are no best options for Canadian data, just "least worst"

As others have said, if you can get access to roaming data, either from the US, or NZ you are probably going to end up ahead of any domestics Canuck offerings...

If you want to feel like you have gone back in time check out this story from Canada last month, (the data prices/offerings are just truly miserable)

https://globalnews.ca/news/4050708/best-cheapest-cellphone-plans-canada-2018/

quickymart

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#2006168 1-May-2018 18:21

Wow those prices are really crap. What is the coverage like? I know Canada is a big country - I bet the coverage is nowhere near 100%.

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#2006170 1-May-2018 18:22

quickymart:

Wow those prices are really crap. What is the coverage like? I know Canada is a big country - I bet the coverage is nowhere near 100%.

Been to Canada a few times and noticed no coverage issues

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backfiah

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#2006172 1-May-2018 18:26

Thanks for all the advice.

@unowho08 I will only be transiting via the USA (if at all) so won't have time to get a SIM sorted, unfortunately. I'll be back in USA/Canada for a longer period this December, so will definitely look at roaming from the USA then, cheers!

@wellygary You know your telecom market is crap when people roaming from elsewhere get a better deal...

quickymart

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#2006324 1-May-2018 23:51

Linux:

quickymart:

Wow those prices are really crap. What is the coverage like? I know Canada is a big country - I bet the coverage is nowhere near 100%.

Been to Canada a few times and noticed no coverage issues

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The providers have coverage across 100% of the country, not just populated areas?

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#2006359 2-May-2018 07:32

quickymart:

Linux:

quickymart:

Wow those prices are really crap. What is the coverage like? I know Canada is a big country - I bet the coverage is nowhere near 100%.

Been to Canada a few times and noticed no coverage issues

Linux

The providers have coverage across 100% of the country, not just populated areas?

I have no idea about 100% coverage but I doubt it can't you check out the coverage maps?

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Sidestep

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#2006369 2-May-2018 08:04

quickymart:

The providers have coverage across 100% of the country, not just populated areas?

No, Canada is a huge country with most of the population living within a few hundred km of the Southern (US) border.

In cities, towns and along the main highways, generally well covered but you'll still hit dead spots - even on the Trans-Canada.

Generally the further North you go, the more sparse it gets. But most of the populated places you're actually likely to go, you'll have coverage - depending on the geography.

In places like the tourist towns in the Rockies - Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper you'll have good coverage in town, but go off into the mountain valleys it soon drops out.

Yes Cell plans in Canada suck. In comparison value and coverage here in NZ is great.

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quickymart

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#2006378 2-May-2018 08:38

Thanks Sidestep, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

Strayfire

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#2019347 20-May-2018 14:59

On the off chance you are transiting in Singapore, you can pick up a Starhub SIM for roaming:

2GB/day for 15 days - $32 ($34.44 NZD)

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/374391

2.4GB/month for - $15 ($16.15 NZD)

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/316426

Data works in 18 countries including Canada, NZ, Australia, Japan, USA.

backfiah

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#2019381 20-May-2018 15:45

Wow, that looks amazing, thanks. Not going through Singapore on this trip unfortunately, but will be when I go to Japan in July so will definitely pick one or more up for then ;)