Will my droid work in Canada?

[Zoompy]

I'm heading up to Canada for the weekend and i'm wondering if my droid will work and if there are things i should avoid?

I know my buddy went up once on his iphone and ended up with this HUGE bill.

Anyone have any first hand experience or advice?

 

[MisterEff]

I would like to know as well since I might go up there to visit a friend a little closer to christmas.

 

[Zoompy]

I just did some searching at the Verizon site. Looks like the phone would work but you get nailed with 0.69c per min of voice and some painful amount for data.

ie, i should turn off data for the trip and just use the phone in case of emergency

if anyone has better info or tips i would love to hear it

 

[vikingisson]

It can get seriously expensive. They are insane up here and even if you're local you keep an eye on your data plan lest you go bankrupt.
Adam Savage found out the hard way: Mythbusters' Adam Savage Discovers Insane Roaming Fees: $11,000 iPhone Bill For A Few Hours Surfing | Techdirt

I like my WiFI.......

 

[MisterEff]

Damn, that would mean being confined to wifi.

 

[rok8man]

I used to be a BB admin for my last job and we had a mixture of Verizon and Nextel phones and as you know Verizon is on the CDMA network. Yes they all can send and receive calls and you can check your emails but it will cost you an arm and a leg. Most of the people who went over to Canada would simply turn off their data as that is a lot more expensive than the roaming call charges Verizon had. Hope this helps.

 

[vikingisson]

It's the same going the other way. All of that marketing about coverage is a joke since you'll go broke by simply driving 20 minutes and suddenly you're roaming. This is why I haven't used a cell phone at all for the last 7 years. Now the 1G plan is useable but I don't dare roam. WiFI isn't so bad.

 

[IslesFan]

You might want to give global support a call. At least on CDMA blackberries and Winmo phones, you can add the prorated GlobalEmail CDMA plan on to your account for the time that your in canada. That way your data is included as well.

 

[MisterEff]

It's the same going the other way. All of that marketing about coverage is a joke since you'll go broke by simply driving 20 minutes and suddenly you're roaming. This is why I haven't used a cell phone at all for the last 7 years. Now the 1G plan is useable but I don't dare roam. WiFI isn't so bad.

You haven't used a cellphone for 7 years???

 

[vikingisson]

You haven't used a cellphone for 7 years???

nope. Been on a Nokia N800 SIP phone for the past few years and didn't care about cell before that. It is simply too expensive and too screwed up to waste my money on it. I'm very comfy with my own PBX and pennies for usage costs. I couldn't easily take a call on the move but that's what voice mail is for. Now with Android I have cell service that is almost tolerable but I can still do SIP and I use more WiFI than cell data.

Canada probably has the worst cell system in the developed world. The U.S. is slightly better but still crazy expensive as far as I'm concerned.