Anyone try a Mobal international phone? Help!

[The Quilting Lady]

I am trying to get phone access when we go to Chilliwack and Osoyoos this month. I found out that I can not unlock my Total Wireless no contract phone until 2 more months, so getting a sim card for it is out of the question.

I read about the Mobal phone, you pay for each call and it is pricey, but I am not even sure it is even good coverage in Chilliwack and Osoyoos.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Nancy

[elongest]

I will try to help. My wife just went to P.I. and needed a phone over there. Very basic info: There are two formats, The Verizon format will not work internationally. ATT format is the international format. We bought a ATT unlocked cell Samsung from Amazon and plan to use it at home later. The phone is the same one I use and is now $70 at Wally world. My ATT Go Phone uses a SIM card and I think you could use the ATT go phone from Wally World and just get a Canadian sim card. If you have a ATT Go phone plan I think I paid $5 or $10 to use mine in Canada a month.
I'm sure others know more about it than I do.
Eddie
I found out not may cell phone sales people have a clue about international use. I lucked out and got help from a phone salesman at Wall World who traveled overseas.

[rbryan4]

There's a bit more to it than that. AT&T uses GSM, and Verizon uses CDMA. GSM is the format most common and compatible internationally. But, the newer Verizon phones are LTE, and LTE is based on GSM technology. Newer Verizon phones like the iPhone 7 are network unlocked. That means in most cases, if you're traveling overseas, you can just remove the SIM and insert a GSM global SIM and your Verizon phone will work fine. I travel weekly on business, and sometimes overseas. I've used my Verizon phone internationally without issues by just doing a SIM swap, and in some countries, even that is not necessary.

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[thoer]

We were just on a trip in Italy, Croatia, Greece and Amsterdam and we used our Verizon phone everywhere with no SIM swap. We just bought a small international add on plan from Verizon before we left. Mexico and Canada are included without a daily fee on the Verizon Unlimited plan with other plans it is $5 per day to use your plan there. We're just going to bump up to the unlimited plan during the months we travel in Canada.

[Ron in BC]

The unlocked situation is a nuisance. It depends on what you want to do with the phone and who you're calling.

We've used other sim cards and add-ons but that doesn't help you with a locked phone. Have you used WhatsApp? If you have any wi-fi at all and the people you want to call also have WhatsApp you can phone them for free. We used to use Skype all the time but WhatsApp is so much better and more convenient.

Ron

[The Quilting Lady]

Thanks Ron, that sounds like something I can look into, I know folks with contracts like Verison don't have much of a problem calling internationally.
I use to have Verison and liked the reception but not the cost. I really don't want to sign a contract to have a phone I can use internationally for 10 days. As usual you get what you pay for.
Nancy

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

The unlocked situation is a nuisance. It depends on what you want to do with the phone and who you're calling.

We've used other sim cards and add-ons but that doesn't help you with a locked phone. Have you used WhatsApp? If you have any wi-fi at all and the people you want to call also have WhatsApp you can phone them for free. We used to use Skype all the time but WhatsApp is so much better and more convenient.

Ron

[float5]

For ten days, you could tell the family in advance that you will be gone, if possible, and contact them when back in the country. We were in Canada for many weeks and paid for phone service that did not work.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by float5

For ten days, you could tell the family in advance that you will be gone, if possible, and contact them when back in the country.

That is the real advantage of having WhatsApp on your phone and relatives that you want to stay in contact with also having it. The phone calls are made with your cell phone number but use wi-fi, not your phone plan.

As long as your relatives have their wi-fi enabled on their phones you can call anytime you have wi-fi. And there's tons of places that have free wi-fi. No need to be out of touch for 10 days.

Ron

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

There's a bit more to it than that. AT&T uses GSM, and Verizon uses CDMA. GSM is the format most common and compatible internationally. But, the newer Verizon phones are LTE, and LTE is based on GSM technology.

While LTE is derived from GSM, LTE is supported by both the Canadian networks which used GSM (Rogers) and the Canadian networks which used CDMA (Telus and Bell)... so LTE is the "unification" standard which works with all companies, although only where their network is up to current standards. If you are in LTE coverage, it doesn't matter whether the company providing it was in the CDMA camp or the GSM camp. Unfortunately, not everywhere - and especially not everywhere rural - has LTE.

In Canada, if you can't get LTE, CDMA coverage has historically been much better than GSM coverage. There have been very frustrated people stuck with corporate Rogers plans in rural areas, although perhaps this has improved in the last couple of years. When people say that GSM was the most common "internationally", I think they really mean "outside of North America".

Unfortunately, the commercial agreements of mobile network companies are another layer of complication which makes the compatibility of phones locked to companies even less straightforward than the technical compatibility.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

In Canada, if you can't get LTE, CDMA coverage has historically been much better than GSM coverage. There have been very frustrated people stuck with corporate Rogers plans in rural areas, although perhaps this has improved in the last couple of years. When people say that GSM was the most common "internationally", I think they really mean "outside of North America".

I find this mostly true, being with Telus. The one exception, whether good or bad, is at our land NW of Sundre, where Telus gets no reception yet Bell and Rogers do. Kinda nice to abandon the phone for the time there, and if needed I can do a short 1/2 km walk/ride/drive up from the river bed and get reception. Or, borrow someone else's phone.

[rbryan4]

Canada is certainly a different case. My comments about GSM vs CDMA were more directed toward overseas countries. My Verizon phone works just fine, anywhere in Canada. Well, at least anywhere I've been. [emoji6]

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[gocamp]

Verizon has "travel pass". 2 bucks a day when in Canada. Then stop it when back in usa. You Activate it online under your account. Then text yourself a test message once across the border and it's activated. Back in the usa we didnt have to do anything, the GPS knows you are in USA and it the option was over.