Any advice on whether an unlocked uk smartphone will work in Canada and the US if I get a local sim card, and is there a company with full phone coverage for both Canada and US or not because of the size. If not, does the system work on the roaming principle like when we go to Europe from the UK for example.
Basically whats the best way to go about this small problem of keeping in touch locally on the road while working and every week or so to ring home to the UK.
IIRC US and CA work on a different GSM frequency and you would need to make sure that the phone supported the frequency band. Consider checking the bands that the phone works on before you try.
In the early days they used to be called Dualband, Triband or Quadband. I believe you needed a Quadband to ensure functionality over that side of the water.
Sorry to appear so vague. I am on my mobile and cannot research the info.
Canadian phones are a bloody rip off, you can use an unlocked UK phone though, the kids both have Blackberries that we got sent over from the UK as they’re much cheaper.
If you go into the US a lot then get a Verizon contract, cheap as chips and excellent 4G coverage, but you need a Canada Plan which bumps up the cost a bit and you will need to find wifi for the smartphone side of it up north as data roaming in Canada is ridiculously expensive 
Whe we get visitors they bring their UK phones with them and they always work.
Cell phones over here are a rip off whichever side on the border you are. You will get charged for incomming calls which is ilegal in the UK which means if you get an unwanted call from apremium number you will get billed for it. It’s the same for everything you have here, the cost is horrendous for every service.
We have a 4 phone plan, my account section is unlimited as is my wifes, the 2 kids have limited service and the monthly bill is $350.00 
How would you cope if your mobile phone bill in England was 350 quid ?
$350 a month is serious, you could probadly talk to some one in Australia for 24hrs for that price, Is there a pay as you go service in either country or are they all contract deals on offer. It might be just as well to buy phone cards as and when required to ring home/office.
cheers,
Pat, you need to go back and see Verizon mate, they’ve raped you
I have a 2000 minutes in Canada and unlimited in USA package, unlimited international texting and 4GB of data and it’s only $159 a month.
newmercman:
Pat, you need to go back and see Verizon mate, they’ve raped youI have a 2000 minutes in Canada and unlimited in USA package, unlimited international texting and 4GB of data and it’s only $159 a month.
Does this work on a sim card, and could that be placed into an unlocked uk phone?
We use Net10 in the usa, and nothing in Canada yet, but we try to use Skype as much as we can for international calls.
I have Verizon too & they do work via a sim card, I didnt use a uk phone as they had a great deal on a Samsung Droid which im typing on now, they have plans to suit everyone & Calling another Verizon number is free, some Petro stops have Verizon shops in & the one at Fargo has one next door, you may have to bang $400 deposit down which is refundable with interest aftet one year.
newmercman:
Pat, you need to go back and see Verizon mate, they’ve raped youI have a 2000 minutes in Canada and unlimited in USA package, unlimited international texting and 4GB of data and it’s only $159 a month.
Is that 4 phones and wifi ?
Everything down here is a rip off Mark you know that, we pay $250 a month for Direct TV, ok so it’s in every room and 500 channels but it’s still expensive.
Our Verizon phones don’t have sim cards in them, we have to get each phone set up when we buy it, Kate has an iphone 4, I have a Droid 2x, Seth has some other smart thing and Sadie has a blackberry.
Don’t even go there with the TV, adverts, adverts,[zb]ing adverts 
I would love to be able to do the Sky thing like you can in Europe, but evidently we can’t see the satellite over here, which seems a bit strange to me as it’s orbiting the earth 
I pay $49 a month for unlimited US calls, texts and unlimited data (3g). I have a droid phone which cost me $120 and have a standing order set up for the monthly call and data plan.
No contract all with Net 10 but I’m told the Virgin pay as you go is even cheaper.
fly sheet:
I have Verizon too & they do work via a sim card, I didnt use a uk phone as they had a great deal on a Samsung Droid which im typing on now, they have plans to suit everyone & Calling another Verizon number is free, some Petro stops have Verizon shops in & the one at Fargo has one next door, you may have to bang $400 deposit down which is refundable with interest aftet one year.
I have verizon too, the contract was exchanged into my name from a friend of mine. I use the shop in Fargo (some good looking women in there ) for most of my upgrades and buying anything. Verizon make it very easy to stay within your plan, with text alerts, online up to date usage levels etc. Best of all is the free verizon to verizon calls, who needs cb’s 
The other verizon shop I would use is opposite the Flying J in Billings, Mt, they will still let you use the shop address to take out a new contract.
I avoid using the ones in the truckstops, they have very little idea what they are talking about and very little stock, phones have to be ordered which means returning to the same truckstop asap. Having said that, because they have no idea what they are doing they can be good for the occasional bargain
newmercman:
Don’t even go there with the TV, adverts, adverts,[zb]ing advertsI would love to be able to do the Sky thing like you can in Europe, but evidently we can’t see the satellite over here, which seems a bit strange to me as it’s orbiting the earth
It’s is the same as most comunication satelites Mark, it’s in what they call ‘Sationary orbit’ it is further out in space than ordinary satelites and orbits at te same speed the earth turns and in the same direction so it stays above the same area constantly.
Pat Hasler:
Whe we get visitors they bring their UK phones with them and they always work.
Cell phones over here are a rip off whichever side on the border you are. You will get charged for incomming calls which is ilegal in the UK which means if you get an unwanted call from apremium number you will get billed for it. It’s the same for everything you have here, the cost is horrendous for every service.
We have a 4 phone plan, my account section is unlimited as is my wifes, the 2 kids have limited service and the monthly bill is $350.00
How would you cope if your mobile phone bill in England was 350 quid ?
You saying that Pat when I was driving Europe my monthly bill was about £80 - £90 a month when you include data charges etc not including the wifes phone
Driving outside the UK always was more expensive on the phone use. Whenever I dove out of the UK my bill was huge and I got billed for incoming calls. Each time I crossed a border my roaming charges were incured.
Pat Hasler:
Driving outside the UK always was more expensive on the phone use. Whenever I dove out of the UK my bill was huge and I got billed for incoming calls. Each time I crossed a border my roaming charges were incured.
Its got better now where you can get tariffs where you either pay 75p to connect the call and thats good for upto an hour or pay a set rate and free incoming calls for about 1000 mins but still costs to send texts
billybigrig:
Here’s why you can’t get it NMM
That makes me feel so much better
newmercman:
billybigrig:
Here’s why you can’t get it NMMThat makes me feel so much better
Happy to help 