Cell-phone rental (outside the US)?

[lookin4hotties]

Anyone ever rented a cell phone outside the USA?

I have a miserable cell plan and am going to Canada

for a week. Was thinking of using World Cellphone

Rental: http://www.worldcr.com/

 

No deposit, but they reserve $500 on your CC until

they get the phone back. They can ship to me from

Florida or I can pickup in Canada. (They're in

Montreal and Toronto, Florida, NYC., etc.)

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated -

 

Lookin4hotties

[seaboy4hire]

If you have a cell now why not just add international calling onto your plan or get an international calling card? Just my half cents worth.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[email protected]

http://seaboy4hire.tripod.com New page for reveiws http://www.daddysreviews.com/newest.php?who=greg_seattle

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Manners and class are two things money can not buy!

CHI

[+ ArVaGuy]

You should not have any issue with your cell phone carrier in Canada. However, you will likely experience roaming charges. I have Verizon and it works fine in all of Canada (except the remote parts obviously). Getting your voice mail might be an issue but instead of dailing *86 you dial your cell phone number and this puts you directly into your carrier's system.

 

I also travel to most parts of Latin America and that's been more hit or miss with Verizon, even with an international plan. Strangely enough, my phone will pick up the signal and will recieve calls but placing them proves to be a challenge. To ensure I have a phone that works, usually I rent a phone through either my organization's local office or the hotel. It's easy to get a pay as you go phone that you can load up $20 at a time.

 

From experience I have found that Cingular (The New AT&T) seems to have the better international coverage over Verizon. T-Moblie is just as hit or miss as Verizon. And Sprint is lousy no matter what part of the planet you are calling from.

 

I really don't think you need to rent a phone for Canada, you should just check with your carrier and make sure you are clear on the roaming charges.

[lookin4hotties]

Totally makes sense....

 

After I read your response, I called my cell company,

and they said they can upgrade me for $20/month to

use minutes for calls in or to/from Canada.

 

Thanks for the tip. I'm glad I just pickd up the phone

& called 'em - they used to charge more....owe u one :9

 

Lookin4hotties

[lookin4hotties]

sounds like that's a bigger pain when travelling

to, say, Brazil or Argentina - both of

which are on my to-do list.

 

wonder if you can easily rent one in europe too...

 

Lookin4hotties

 

PS - Thanks a lot :7

[seaboy4hire]

I have Sprint and have never had any problems either in big cities like LA, Chicago (I MISS CHICAGO ) or small towns like Butte (yes I said Butte) or Yakima. Maybe I am just lucky with my coverage or caught Sprint on a good day And Lookin if you ever get to Seattle I know how to give a good time

 

Hugs,

Greg

[email protected]

http://seaboy4hire.tripod.com New page for reveiws http://www.daddysreviews.com/newest.php?who=greg_seattle

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3307/dsc05257be3.jpg[/img][/url]

Manners and class are two things money can not buy!

CHII

[lookin4hotties]

sounds great !!!

thanks a bunch

Sending smooches your way,

 

Lookin4hotties

[Guest EuropTravl]

I have Cingular, live in Texas, and have more "bars" anywhere in Brazil than I have in my own backyard. I just turn on my cell down there, and depending on which city you'll see you are connected to "vivo" or "tam" - what's weird is I was having the WORST time making calls to friends in the US and always got some Portuguese message I couldn't make heads or tails of, and I know I was doing the international code and country code correctly - I always had to wait to use the hotel phone. Then one time I just dialed - from my cell on the beach- the local Texas area code and the number (you have to do that here always anyway) and guess what? Connects to the US every time just doing that - don't even have to dial the "1"!

[imrthr]

For those individuals who travel and want to avoid renting a cell phone in various countries, here is a site that may solve your needs -

 

http://www.gosim.com/

 

The initial poster of this thread seems to have solved his question concerning making and receiving calls from or to Canada.

 

The above website may be of help to those who have an "unlocked" cell phone and who want to save on their cell phones costs while travelling to foreign countries.

[SAdler]

>Anyone ever rented a cell phone outside the USA?

>I have a miserable cell plan and am going to Canada

>for a week. Was thinking of using World Cellphone

>Rental: http://www.worldcr.com/

 

Having JUST arrived home from Canada going through the same thing while I was there I hope this helps.

 

I use Verizon with an unlimited data plan so I could text message for free all I wanted. Unfortunately Verizon phones use CDMA technology which doesn't work for SIM cards (or prepaid cell phones).

 

I went to Fido in the mall which is a subsidiary of the Rogers network which is apparently the best in Canada. Translation, Fido is a cheaper cell company that uses all the same towers as Rogers so you're getting same quality for less.

 

I bought a phone that came with $25 of prepaid time for $70 CDN. I was using it for five days and making international calls on it and didn't have to refill it.

 

So that's my best recommendation!

[+ newatthis]

RE: buying sims for other countries

 

A couple of quick points. If you decide to go the foreign SIM route, it's always cheaper, often considerably so, to buy the foreign SIM in the country you're going to, rather than from an online site. I've had a FIDO SIM for Canada for a long time; I think it cost CDN$30, including a fair amount of air time. The gosim site is quoting the equivalent of US$58.

 

Also, while prepaid service in the US and Canada is rounded to the nearest minute, in Europe (more precisely, in France and England), the prepaid service was charged by the second, and incoming calls were free. That means that $10 can last you a very long time.