3 replies to this topic

[phishphair]

I have been researching ways to keep in touch with family and neighbors in the United States while in Canada on route to Alaska. It appears that we will have cell phone service to our i-phone once in Alaska, but we are wondering what to do in Canada. It appears that Wi-Fi is widely available, so Skype should be a very inexpensive option if we get friends and family set on Skype and they do have a landline/cell option if we need it.

I am wondering if anyone has experience with Skype or has other suggestions.

Phishphair

[kingfr]

Skype works pretty well as long as you have a fast enough Internet pipe on each end. I suspect that audio only Skype requires less bandwidth. We use Skype to see our grandchildren when we are far away (most of the time) and it works reasonably well. If we don't have a good 3G connection on the aircard, we don't bother. The kids have good high speed internet to their homes, so our connection is the limiting factor.

[SFroese]

Your iPhone will work in Canada, as will text messaging. For us Canadians, who have among the most expensive cell rates in the world, cell phone calls in the US are very expensive (with roaming + long distance), although text messaging is free (depending on our plan). For Americans travelling in Canada, I'm not sure how your rate plans cover you, but I expect texting at least is free. At any rate, your iPhone will work for either calling or texting while travelling through Canada. I also use Skype and it works very well, and actually doesn't require high bandwidth as a previous poster suggested.

[texnet]

You should go to the AT&T website and research the latest rate plans to use your USA Plan in Canada. If you do not sign up for a special plan then you will pay very high voice, text and data rates. The AT&T site also has a couple of documents for the setting up the iPhone so you aren't surprised with a extremely large phone bill when you return home!! We went to Alaska in 2009 and signed up for a voice ONLY plan, then turned off the data portion of our iPhone on the cell side. We also turned of text messaging. We left the wifi side of the phone turned on and used e-mail on the phone and wifi on our laptop.

Here is the AT&T link for International Roaming:

http://www.wireless.att.com/answer-center/...utionId=KB92093