I've written about Roam Mobility before:

Today Roam Mobility is launching new monthly plans that include unlimited talk, text and data. It is a middle of the ground offering between their day plans and their 3-month snowbird ones.

Although these plans were originally designed for Canadian travelers heading to the USA, it is really applicable to anyone going to the US (Europe, Asia, Middle East, etc).

At launch, there are 2 monthly plans (30 day) which both include unlimited talk and text but differ in their data offering:

1GB of 4G LTE for $39.95
4GB of 4G LTE for $64.95

Once you consume all of your data, you get unlimited 2G data. In my testing, the TMobile LTE network is excellent but their 2G network is so so.

All you need is a non-expired Roam Mobility SIM card and then you can choose these plans on their website.

Why a Canadian should choose Roam Mobility

Telus, Rogers and Bell have all started to offer special Roaming plans ($5-7 per day) where you consume your home monthly plan when in the US. The attractiveness of this plan is the ease of use. You keep your same SIM and number.

Most Canadians have limited data plans and the risk you run is the overage charges once you've eaten your monthly allocation. With Roam Mobility, you have to switch SIM cards but you are given ample 4G LTE and even if you do bust your cap, you get unlimited 2G connectivity. At least there won't be any $50-100 surprises at the end of the month.

What is my review of Roam Mobility

I have tested almost every conceivable USA travel solution from Roam Mobility, KnowRoaming all the way to buying local SIM cards upon landing. I have found the Roam Mobility solution to be the most robust one I have used.

KnowRoaming provides "unlimited" data for $US8 a day but it is slower 3G. Additionally during my last trip to San Francisco, I couldn't get inbound calling to work and finally gave up after 45 minutes on the phone with their support person. I didn't have my Roam SIM so I was stuck paying the Telus $7 a day fee.

So for USA only travel, I would buy a couple of Roam Mobility cards and use them.

Link to monthly plans page

Public Mobile to launch US Roaming Add-on

November 14, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Public Mobile is a low-cost limited network Canadian mobile service provider. It has recently announced in its forums that it will be adding a new US Roaming add-on (option) through new deals struck with T-Mobile and AT&T.

The carrier has said this is in response to comments made in its forums and will come in 10-day chunks of phone only, text only, data only or a combo plan.

Limited data is available but we expect the options to look like this:

unlimited USA talk $CAD8
unlimited text $CAD8
1GB of data for $CAD20

Let's compare the data rate to the pay per use rate of $US0.10 per MB. 1GB = 1000MB = $US100. Obviously the Public Mobile rate is cheaper. You can also buy the KnowRoaming unlimited data plan for $US7.99 per day which would cost $US79.99 for 10 days of unlimited data.

Let's compare it to Roam Mobility. A 1GB data only plan good for 30 days costs $CAD21.95 which is competitive. You can get their unlimited talk+text+data plan for only $4.95 / day ($CAD49.50 for 10 days of everything unlimited). If you add the 10 days of talk, text and 1GB of Data from PublicMobile, you get $36.

Looking at above, my recommendation is to go with Roam Mobility. For $14 more, you get unlimited data for 10 days which will likely be more attractive to most users.

Comparing T-Mobile's Tourist plan with Roam Mobility

June 2, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Image by GotCredi used under Creative Commons License

I received a handful of emails asking me to company the new T-Mobile Tourist plan with the Roam Mobility talk+text+data plans.

For $US30, T-mobile gives you:

a single use disposable SIM (valid for 21 days)
1000 minutes of local USA calling
2GB of high speed LTE data
Unlimited international text messaging to 140 countries

For $CAD4.95 a day, Roam Mobility gives you:

a reusable SIM (expires after 6 months without a plan)
unlimited nationwide calling (USA) and Canada
Unlimited international text messaging to 140 countries
~400MB of LTE Data a day

What happens when your SIM expires

With the T-Mobile and Roam Mobility plan, when the SIM expires, you lose your assigned number and need to get a new one. T-Mobile give you one free with their plan while Roam Mobility charges you $CAD9.99 per SIM.

Data usage

Both companies give you unlimited data over 2G and limit the quantity of LTE data provided. T-Mobile gives you 2GB to use anyway you want. You can use all the data in the first week and then end up stuck with low speed 2G for the remainder of your trip. The only way to get more LTE data is to buy a new plan.

Roam Mobility allocates about 400MB of LTE per day of service purchased. If you buy 21 days of service (3 weeks like T-Mobile), you get 8.4GB of data. If you manage to consume it, you drop to unlimited 2G data.

Neither service gives you the option of adding additional LTE data capacity easily but the Roam allocation should be more than adequate for 98% of users.

What about WIFI Hotspots like a Mifi

T-Mobile will allow you to use your SIM in an unlocked WIFI hotspot but you will likely consume your LTE data allocation in no time. The Roam Mobility service isn't built for this type of use but they do allow you to enable the Hotpost function on your smartphone.

Calling from the USA to Canada

T-Mobile does not provide any international calling in the existing tourist plan. Roam Mobility gives you unlimited calling back to Canada.

Calling from USA to International locations

Neither providers allow you to make international calls. You will have to rely on VOIP type solutions (Skype, Hangouts, Facetime, etc).

Conclusion

Neither solution is perfect but I believe the Roam Mobility solution is still a better value.

I am also testing the KnowRoaming service but their current unlimited $7.99 data package is limited to 3G and relies on T-Mobile's older, slower, less reliable non LTE-network.

T-Mobile launches tourist plan for visitors to the USA

May 31, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

T-Mobile just launched a plan for tourists visiting the USA. Go into any T-Mobile store with an unlocked GSM phone and buy this $30 plan. It is active for 3 weeks and does not auto-renew.

You get 2GB of LTE data
Unlimited texting to 140 countries
1,000 minutes of domestic calling
a free SIM card

This will complete directly with companies like Roam Mobility and KnowRoaming. Let's see if they respond with cheaper plans.

Source

Roam Mobility Breeze unlocked GSM phone review

May 20, 2014technologyEdward Kiledjian

As a Canadian that travel to the US once in a while, I fell in love with Roam Mobility's US roaming services. They offer very competitive easy to understand plan to save you real money anytime you are in the USA.

I have actually written about them very often (some examples):

Since they are a reseller of T-Mobile connectivity services, as long as T-Mo has good coverage, you'll get good Roam Mobility coverage. I have tested and liked their Liberty hotspot and their SIM based service. During my last trip to Burlington Vermont, I decided to test their Breeze unlocked GSM phone.

The physical device

The device itself is fairy solid, is lightweight and is built with soft cheap plastic. It's features are:

Dual-SIM
Quad-band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900) unlocked
Qwerty keyboard
2.2" color LCD screen
Bluetooth

The $49.99 device looks like a Blackberry-esque smartphone but in reality is is a dumb phone. As I played with the device to learn how it works, it really reminded me of my old Nokia 3310 phone.

It has a basic menu system that will remind you of those 1990 Nokia menus. After playing with it for a couple of minutes, you'll quickly understand where everything is and how to configure it just the way you want.

There is a built in battery which should provide a full day of heavy use and is recharged using a standard micro-USB plug (which is great since you don't need to carry another proprietary cable).

The fact that it is unlocked and has 2 SIM ports means you can use the Roam Mobility SIM card (for US roaming) but also insert your Canadian one (if you just want to take 1 device) but personally I just used it for US roaming.

Unlocked means you can take it anywhere where a carrier offers compatible bands (like the UK, Hong Kong, etc).

The Kit includes

The kits comes with

The device
A Wall USB charger
A short USB cable
A small manual
The Roam Mobility SIM card

How does it work?

Once the nostalgia of using something that brought back my 1990 memories wore off, I sometimes found myself frustrated with the device. Everything seems to require 3-4 clicks (seeing missed calls, sending a text message, etc). The truth is we are not used to modern smartphones where every user interface design is closely scrutinized and a $50 phone just can't compete.

Once you get over this expectation of efficiency though, the device works fairly well. Even in locations where their Liberty hotspot had 1-2 bars with slow data connectivity, the Breeze phone had a solid voice connection that never died or cut-out. Every call I made went through and sound quality was on-par with no HD voice standard cell calling.

The device has a couple preconfigured alert modes and I found I had to leave the device in Outdoor mode to hear it. Otherwise I would sometimes miss calls (small alert speaker means lower than smartphone ring volumes).

My personal cell is an iPhone 5s and my work phone is a Blackberry Q10. The Breeze kind of looks like it has a Blackberry style keyboard but doesn't perform like one. I found typing on the device less than optimal and it really slowed me down (also no autocorrect). So the keyboard get's a 2/5 rating from me. Functional but frustrating.

Verdict

I typically use Roam with my personal unlocked iPhone 5s or the Liberty WIFI hotspot and only used the Breeze to review performance for this article. Would I use it on my next trip? Probably not. Although it is functional, I found myself frustrated too many times. I wasn't frustrated by the performance of the device itself but frustrated when I compared how different and less intuitive its use was [compared to my iPhone].

I think this is a great device for users who only need voice plus text messaging but don't have an unlocked phone [or don't want to go through the trouble of unlocking their phone with their carrier].

Another use case is for a family that wants to take a beach vacation and can carry this with them without worry. Even if it is stollen or breaks, you are only out $50.

For moderate users who are regular smartphone users (iPhone or Android), forget about this device.

Roam Mobility launches USA Monthly Plans