Best Cellphone Plans for International Crew Members

[jinxer226]

Hello Everybody!

I was wondering what type of phone plans crew members usually have when travelling abroad. I am aware that some US carriers have worldwide packages such as Sprint and T-Mobile. However, here in Canada, do most you eat up the roaming charges, not use your phone,or is there any specific plans offered for crew members?

[C-GGGQ]

Depends. For Canada/ US I use Telus. unlimited talk and text, Canada and us no roaming no long distance $60 a month plus whatever data package you get. Data is useable either side of the border no charge. If you're talking truly international like Europe and Asia etc. I'm not sure other than prepaid sims

[co-joe]

I just do that $7 a day thing from Telus but I'm not south of the order enough to justify a monthly plan. Catch is flying over the US if your phone picks up a tower you get the bill just for the electronic handshake...aeroplane mode yeah.

[ant_321]

I just leave it off. I find it nice to be unreachable once in a while.

[indieadventurer]

Get a voip number from voip.ms or a similar service https://voip.ms/en/rates/canada

$4.25 usd/month gets you unlimited incoming calls and outgoing calls are about 1 cent/minute in North America. Rates vary internationally but as long as you're on wifi or a data connection you can receive and make calls.

[schnitzel2k3]

Depends. For Canada/ US I use Telus. unlimited talk and text, Canada and us no roaming no long distance $60 a month plus whatever data package you get. Data is useable either side of the border no charge. If you're talking truly international like Europe and Asia etc. I'm not sure other than prepaid sims

I think their plans went up a little (particularly if you want a flagship phone). I think they are 80+data. I use the same plan and love it, company covers the bill.

It's nice landing in the U.S and just turning on your phone without fear of repercussion.

As Q said, only really good for transborder.

S.

[WhataYoke]

Is there such a thing as corporate cell plans for flight crew members flying for Canadian airlines? I heard of a friend in freedom land telling me they had corporate plans at his legacy carrier.

[x-wind]

I second the VoIP route. I use Fongo and have a data only plan, ported it over when i ditched the regular cell plan. $15 a month with fido for data only 3g. $10 per gig over.

If you can get a us address in paper I'd look into google FI. Haven't tried it but looks pretty sweet for a world traveler.

[maxflight636]

Have you guys played around with these roaming wifi things? They claim it's satellite-based. I see them all the time on Instagram, I'm trying to figure out if they'd actually be cheaper and more reliable then depending roaming cell data.

I've been pretty lucky with tapping into "free wifi" for staying in touch (just gotta make sure you're using a VPN or something to stay moderately secure).

[FL410AV8R]

I purchased a Vodaphone sim card for £25 which included the first month's usage. After that, it is £10/month to top it up. I get 5GB of data, a couple of hundred minutes airtime and unlimited texting. It also works in many other European countries without any extra charges. To me, the convenience of not having to hunt down "free wifi" is well worth the £10/month. YMMV. Most other mobile providers offer similar rates on pay as you go sim cards.

[complexintentions]

Just be aware that using a sim card plan from one country internationally can be problematic over the long term if the provider spots that the card is being used more outside of the country of intended use than in. Most fine print agreements will state this. This is referring to contract plans - even if you maintain a fictitious address in another country or use a friends obviously they can tell where you're mainly using their service. I'm not sure about PAYG but I have a feeling they may be also intended for use primarily in their country of purchase as well, perhaps worth a check even if it's worked ok so far. Then there's prepaid, but SIM's that don't require identity or residence/address proof are becoming rarer and are usually really restricted due to the security implications. Good only for tourist use really or if you have a regular layover somewhere and a g/f there.

For example I had family members living in the US who had a great plan with T-Mobile that had unlimited North American calling/texts/data. They moved back to Canada, kept using it no problem for quite awhile - $25/month, way cheaper than Canadian plans even with exchange - but eventually had the account closed when T-Mobile USA noticed almost all their usage was within Canada.

Canada has some of the highest costs in the world for mobile use unfortunately, and not many easy ways around it. My plan in the UK is £11/month (all taxes in, $18.50 CAD) for 8GB of data, unlimited calls/texts that includes over 70 countries but not, of course, Canada. The salesperson was apologetic when I inquired, but I laughed and said I understood, Canadian roaming charges would have made the plan financially unfeasible and not worth it for the target market. For North America and backup worldwide coverage I use a T-Mobile sim piggybacking on an American friend's corporate plan, which has different TOS from a consumer plan allowing it to be used worldwide without limitations. I just pay him the line cost, $22/month ($29 CAD) for unlimited worldwide data/text (2GB of 4G speed, slower after that). I get that an option like that isn't available to everyone though.

I just cringe when I see the costs of mobile data in Canada. Hopefully it will improve eventually.

A brief note about VPN's - I always highly recommend on a public hotspot, I've had a subscription to one for over ten years even since leaving the ME as they're useful for other things as well such as getting around geographic blocks. But if you're using Skype or WhatsApp or similar apps such as Signal, the app themselves are encrypted so you are protected* even without the VPN.

I wouldn't bother paying for a dedicated VOIP service, once you have data and/or wi-fi just use one of the aforementioned apps. It's ALL Voice Over IP!

*(As protected as one can be, of course - a determined entity can always hack into your shizzle with enough resources, but then that also applies with a VPN.)

[TG]

Have you guys played around with these roaming wifi things? They claim it's satellite-based. I see them all the time on Instagram, I'm trying to figure out if they'd actually be cheaper and more reliable then depending roaming cell data.

I've been pretty lucky with tapping into "free wifi" for staying in touch (just gotta make sure you're using a VPN or something to stay moderately secure).

I’m using Surfroam SIM for almost two years now and I’m pretty happy with them.
It’s “à la carte” Their prices are getting cheaper and cheaper as they seems to negotiate better contract with local providers.
And with Skype/Whatsapp/Messenger/etc.... It is more than enough to stay in contact with who you want.
https://surfroam.com/pages/rates