Travel Tech Smart

Helpful Tips

Are you one of many of convention attendees traveling from the United States or internationally into Canada? Take note, roaming charges and data plan fees for cell phones—especially smart phones like the iPhone or the Android and tablets like the iPad—can be costly, with prices spiking as high as several dollars per minute.

Before Catching Your Flight

Contact your local cell phone carrier to get information about special pricing plans for calls, text messaging, and Internet usage outside your home country. If you use a smart phone, ask your carrier about certain settings such as "airplane mode" that may help you save money on usage.

Some U.S. providers include Canada within their area of service. Still others allow you to add on a service package for your trip that eliminates or reduces the roaming surcharge. Below are links to international coverage plans for popular carriers:

• Verizon Wireless

• AT&T

• Sprint

• T-Mobile

• Boost Mobile

• Virgin Mobile

When in Canada

You can tell whether you are subject to roaming charges when you open your phone, which will indicate which carrier you are accessing to make the call. If you see Rogers, for example, it is a Canadian provider and you might incur very high costs to make calls. Options to avoid roaming charges include keeping your minutes low or buying a minutes card from a Canadian provider. Another option is to contact your cell phone provider before leaving for your trip.

Also beware of forwarding your calls to voicemail, which could be considered to be answering a United States-to-Canada call. Worse yet, you may be charged again when the call is forwarded back to the United States where your voice mailbox is located.