Prepaid data plans in Canada

[tedkopp]

I will be travelling to Manitoba Canada for a couple of months this summer and I am looking for a prepaid data plan. I have searched the web but did not come up with anything so far. Since I have noticed a few Canadians on this forum I would appreciate if somebody would give me some suggestions.
Thanks :o

[IndustryCanada]

I will be travelling to Manitoba Canada for a couple of months this summer and I am looking for a prepaid data plan. I have searched the web but did not come up with anything so far. Since I have noticed a few Canadians on this forum I would appreciate if somebody would give me some suggestions.
Thanks :o

My suggestion is travel to a different country, or avoid using data in Canada.

I'm not aware of any prepaid data plans that Fido or Rogers offers.

These are the only two GSM providers in Canada that will work with an unlocked GSM phone (They're actually the same company).

www.Rogers.com (They do Cable TV, etc, so select they're mobile wireless)
www.Fido.ca

Safe Travels!

[drtolson]

I will be travelling to Manitoba Canada for a couple of months this summer and I am looking for a prepaid data plan. I have searched the web but did not come up with anything so far. Since I have noticed a few Canadians on this forum I would appreciate if somebody would give me some suggestions.
Thanks :o

Actually, since you'll only be staying with us for a couple of months, it might be better to check with your local provider and see if they have any 'international roaming' plans. If I understand the way things work correctly, ROGERS/FIDO will simply pass on any roaming charges to your home provider, who will then charge you...

Unfortunately, I don't believe there is any way in Canada to get a 'pay as you go' SIM card including data that's anywhere near reasonable rates.

[tedkopp]

Thanks guys for your help.
I do have a prepaid sim with Rogers but I cannot figure out what they would charge for data. Their customers service is unbelivably bad.
I did check with Swisscom and the best deal I could find so far is 125 sfr or approx. 100 cad$ for 200 MB/month.
If anybody has more suggestions please let me know.

Thanks again.

[stepw]

Rogers data rate for pay per use is CAD$ 0.05/KB
You can get roughly 2Mb for your CAD$ 100.
Welcome to our nightmare...

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/paygo_rates?content10=paygo_rates&setLanguage=en&setProvince=MB

[tedkopp]

Rogers data rate for pay per use is CAD$ 0.05/KB
You can get roughly 2Mb for your CAD$ 100.
Welcome to our nightmare...

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/paygo_rates?content10=paygo_rates&setLanguage=en&setProvince=MB

Wow, Swisscom would charge me 100 times less in Canada than what Rogers would. :eek: And they go through Rogers!!
You guys should sign up with Swisscom !! http://www.swisscom-mobile.ch/scm/kd_datentarif-en.aspx
When I travel in Italy I can get 1GB with Tim for approx. 30 Cad$ !!!

Sorry I don't mean to make you guys feel bad but I always thought that North America was the leading edge on technology.
I was living in Canada when cellphone started to come out at an affordable price and in Europe they were still a luxury item. Now it seems it's the other way around.

[poly_poly-man]

hmm, this is indeed interesting to me too.

I'll be travelling to ontario for a short time, probably more often somewhat soon.

The data is not too big a deal, I plan to go pretty much only to places with wifi, and otherwise, AT&T gives me USD$0.015/KB data - cheap enough for a quick check of something.

However, having something with which I can call for relatively cheap would be great...

With any prepaid (I am not going in often enough to use a monthly plan) plan, can rogers beat that data rate or USD$0.79/minute phone calls? The website is hideously annoying to use... I thought I too might ask a canadian.

[poly_poly-man]

Hmm, did some research on Fido:

1. It never makes sense to use their data unless you use A LOT of data (a lot being a lot for a day when you're cutting back, not a lot for a month or so).

2. It always makes sense to get their prepaid service for voice - compare either CAD$0.50/minute or [CAD$0.60/minute with CAD$0.30/minute nights + weekends + CAD$1/day] with USD$0.79/minute.

Good thing I have a simunlocked kaiser lying around with nothing much to do :P

[bmw2320]

In my country, Indonesia, is extremely cheap, just $ 0.0001/Kb data :)

[Macmee]

In my country, Indonesia, is extremely cheap, just $ 0.0001/Kb data :)

Canada phone companies are all bloody ripoffs, I hate it:mad:

[Farmer Ted]

Rogers data rate for pay per use is CAD$ 0.05/KB
You can get roughly 2Mb for your CAD$ 100.
Welcome to our nightmare...

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/paygo_rates?content10=paygo_rates&setLanguage=en&setProvince=MB

I have a friend who has to travel to Canada frequently for work (from the US). He has a work blackberry on ATT, and he just got a $3000 bill for data usage during a 3 day trip. I think he said it was $15/MB.

[GolfVR6]

Hi. Sorry to dig this topic, but my question is very similar and I don't know if I could create a new thread with the same subject.

I'm from Brazil but I usually travel to Toronto once a year, so I'm used to buy Prepaid SIM Cards to use in my cellphone, but this time will be the first time I will go with a 3G Smartphone (French LG Optimus 7 - WP7). So my doubt is all about prepaid data plans :confused:

I was browsing Fido website and I saw the "Unlimited Mobile Browsing" for 10 bucks a month, but isn't clear for me if this pack is unlimited only when I am using the cellphone's web browser or if it's valid for Apps, Mail, Push, Bing Maps et al. too.

Someone more familiar with the Canadian providers could help me with this issue?

PS.: I need a prepaid plan because I will stay for a month only.

Thanks

[Straightflush]

I need something similar as well, I'm actually Canadian, but a friend is going to be here for a couple of weeks, and was asking... any help would be nice

[adminlt]

I would also be interested on Canadian prepaid data plans.
There is a mention of prepaid 500MB data plan on Rogers website:
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/plans

But I can not find any info on how much does it cost :confused:.

[AerialX]

Yeah, plans tend to suck in Canada. You can get pretty cheap ones from Mobilicity/Wind Mobile, with "unlimited" data (5GB, after that they may or may not throttle your speeds). Not sure how their prepaid works though.

I just bought a Bell prepaid tablet plan a few days ago for my Nexus S, seemed like the best I could get from the big three, Bell/Telus/Rogers. No voice in the plan, but I just use Google Voice for that anyway. It's $15 for 250MB, $20 for 500MB, or $35 for 5GB.
EDIT: Plus $5 charge for the SIM card.

[adminlt]

Bell plan sounds reasonable. I guess I will have to cancel after 30 days in order not to be charged again. Is it freely available for walk-in customers for overseas?
Any other suggestions, which would include voice, would also be much appreciated.

[AerialX]

Right, you just cancel before 30 days end.

Mobilicity/Wind/Videotron are probably the best you can get in terms of price. As an alternative to the Bell one but with voice, you might be able to go with something like Koodo, which has fairly cheap voice plans (starting at $15), and the data kinda scales (http://koodomobile.com/en/on/datacalculator.shtml) ($10 for 100MB, $15 for 200, $20 for 300, $25 for 500, $30 for a GB). That's not pre-paid though, just no contract.

Not really sure how it works for walk-in customers / non-residents. I believe the first three I mentioned have prepaid you can just buy, not entirely sure though. Bell did make me sign up as a customer even though it's prepaid, but that might be because I wanted it activated in-store. Maybe find a Canadian friend to sign up for you and then cancel soon after? :P

[whitebreadstyle]

Yeah, plans tend to suck in Canada. You can get pretty cheap ones from Mobilicity/Wind Mobile, with "unlimited" data (5GB, after that they may or may not throttle your speeds). Not sure how their prepaid works though.

I just bought a Bell prepaid tablet plan a few days ago for my Nexus S, seemed like the best I could get from the big three, Bell/Telus/Rogers. No voice in the plan, but I just use Google Voice for that anyway. It's $15 for 250MB, $20 for 500MB, or $35 for 5GB.
EDIT: Plus $5 charge for the SIM card.

This sounds sweet. Some help if you would though please:
They mention a $35 activation fee on sim card packages (which cost more- $10 at kiosks). Did you get around that?
Did you activate sim online, by phone, in person? Any tips on IMEI to use?
Thanks!

[whitebreadstyle]

This sounds sweet. Some help if you would though please:
They mention a $35 activation fee on sim card packages (which cost more- $10 at kiosks). Did you get around that?
Did you activate sim online, by phone, in person? Any tips on IMEI to use?
Thanks!

Nevermind, all sorted!
Phone rep activated without IMEI, and no activation fee because it's prepaid.
I'm now running a Bell Atrix on the Bell tablet ($35/5gb) plan. Since it's a Bell phone to begin with, I think things were a little more seamless. No need to manually enter APN's or anything like that.
Once again, the website to top up / check balance is mobile.mselfserve.ca/tablet/login.htm -- NOT the one on the self serve app (which is where the phone rep sent me incidentally). It was quite obviously the wrong page because there was no $35 top up choice and no mention of tablets.
Thanks, people in the thread, for your tips.