Mobile phone solution Canada

[Traveladviceformama]

People who have been to Canada - what have you done for a phone whilst you’re out there?
The phone company I’m with charges extortionate amounts and last time we went I incurred a hugeee charge just for ten mins data usage by accident when we landed. So I don’t want to do that again!!

I’m with o2 and paid for a bolt on that was £6 per day. It was expensive but worth it! I’m pretty sure O2 refunded me for the data I didn’t use (few months ago now)

eSIM. If your phone supports them, there are many companies, such as Airalo, that offer very competitive prices and are really easy to install.

another vote for an eSIM

I bought an ESim with Airalo for my Canada trip 😊

Esims are great, I used Saily recently but not sure if they cover Canada or not

Even if your phone doesn't do esims you can just pick up a Canadian sim and use that.

eSIM I got mine via Revolut

Relatively few phones take esims. Certainly not many non iphones.

You can buy a pay as you go sim in Canada, it’s more expensive than the UK (use WiFi and WhatsApp as much as you can) but cheaper than using roaming.

It’s not as straightforward as the UK because the Canadian phone market is basically a monopoly cartel 😭

Also check coverage - from memory I think Telus is better in BC and Bells/Rogers are better in Newfie/NS. But look at the coverage maps. Most cities are fine, and pretty much everyone has shit reception in the Rockies because phone masts are few and far between.

Really? Pretty much all smartphones now have eSIM. Sony Xperia, Google pixel and Samsung Galaxy all have lots of eSIM phones. There are very few non-eSIM options that I can think of now.

My 02 phone automatically changed to a Canadian network. Same for my son .

I used an e-Sim as well - Nomad. I only needed it for data, as I could use iMessage or Whatsapp for most messages, and the few actual SMS texts I needed didn't cost that much. Mine phone is iPhone but not the latest (I think it's 11) and it worked fine, but I did have to change one of the settings when I arrived before the e-Sim would work, as the default settings assumed I had 5G when my phone doesn't. Once that was set properly, the e-Sim worked fine.

Cost about £10 for a month, with something like 5GB. I didn't need anywhere near that amount (but I had Wifi where I was staying).

We used Airalo, cheaper than the bolt on. E sims are better

I used Airalo and was so easy to use. You just download the app

We skied there last Feb and used an Airalo eSim. Just done the same for a trip to Thailand - so easy to use and reasonably priced.

Only the Samsung galaxy have it. The Samsung A and S range don't.

I use Ubigi - I've used them all over the world and never had a problem.

By the way if you decide to use them get a referral code from someone who does (like me!) you would then get 20% off and the person giving you the code gets 50% off their next plan.

If there are a few in your party then you can refer each person in turn.

As you say o2 are relatively expensive for canada, my sons lebara sim only phone was only £5 or something for 8 days, we used that as it was a number people already had.

I’m not sure what you mean by the S range.

Do you mean the Galaxy S23, S24 etc? Those do support eSIM, as do all the Samsung phones listed below.

• Samsung Galaxy S25
• Samsung Galaxy S25+
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim
• Samsung Galaxy S24
• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy S24+
• Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
• Samsung Galaxy A40
• Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
• Samsung Galaxy Note20
• Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
• Samsung Galaxy S23
• Samsung Galaxy S23+
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy S22
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
• Samsung Galaxy S20
• Samsung Galaxy S20+
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G Fold
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

If you don't actually need to make real phone calls (I can't remember when I last did so, other than to a landline for work or customer service), you could consider renting a portable WiFi hotspot. That way you have Internet wherever you go and you can use WhatsApp or Signal for your calls and messages, plus you can share it among everyone in the party. A friend did this recently in Japan and it cost about £5 per day for her and her BF.

last time we went I incurred a hugeee charge just for ten mins data usage by accident when we landed.

The EU has a rule that when your non-free roaming usage gets to €40, your (EU-based) operator has to send you an SMS to warn you, and when it gets to €60 the service is blocked until you call them and say "Yes, I want to spend big money". This once saved us a fortune when our phones connected to a satellite data service at 2am on a cruise. But maybe your trip was before this came in, or else since Brexit when this rule no longer applies to UK operators.