I'm moving to Vancouver on the IEC in May. If i take my iPhone 4 with me and use it over there, is it going to cost me a bomb?
I'm at lost with what to do as I'm due to still pay the £40 p/m tariff for the next year here in the UK.


What do you reckon is best?

If you use your UK contract it will cripple you. Talk to whoever you are with and ask the to put you on their lowest tariff and then pay it off monthly or in 1 go

If you end up having to pay the ridiculous monthly payment for the next year, but fear actually using the iPhone abroad, then http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/ is a good option for PAYG whilst in Canada.

You should just be able to get it unlocked and buy a SIM card over here for $20. You can go PAYG or sign a contract to get a cheaper deal. Alternatively, can't you sell the phone and contract to someone in the UK who doesn't want to sign a two year plan to get one?

One option you have RE your contract back home is to give it to someone else. When I came here I transferred my contract over to my mums name and now she uses it. Doesn't cost me anymore which is great! So if you can find someone that could take over your contract then that would work.
If not then either ask the company to put your contract on hold (not likely to happen but its always worth asking, cant lose) or yeah put it down to the lowest tariff if you can. Although if you have an iPhone i'm guessing the lowest tariff isn't going to be much cheaper than £40 is it?

Phone contracts are not as good over here as they are back home so prepare yourself for that!

Hi,

I've looked into this as were moving to Vancouver soon. I work for Vodafone so might be able to help give some more information. (cant tell you much about coverage though!)

I think if your bringing a phone over (which is what we intend to do) and its a smartphone. Your options very much depend on the 3G frequencies your phone supports.

For the iphone 4 to work on 3G you must use it on a network which runs its 3G network on 850mhz, 900mhz, 1900mhz and 2100mhz.

Both WIND and Mobilicity (strange name!) use none of these frequencies instead they use a AWS band which is a mix of 1700mhz and 2100mhz. The iphone 4 doesnt support this band - hence you cant use it on there networks.

For iphone 4 your best bet would be Bell or Telus, they run there 3G network on 850mhz and 1900mhz which is fine for your Iphone 4.

Personally I'm looking to use Wind as they offer a $45 unlimited plan which includes minutes/texts and more importantly data! Its offered on prepay hence I dont need to pass a credit check and will work on the phone I like and have which is the Samsung Nexus S. This supports the AWS band (the only phone sold in the UK which does).

I would caveat this with the fact that if your not interested in 3G then you have more choice, it just means your data rates will be a lot slower which is not something I'm prepared to accept especially on a smartphone. I'm expecting google maps and its navigation to be very useful when I'm trying to find my way around Van!

Hope this helps

Cheers

Andy

Rogers/ fido also an option for iPhone 4

Bell are good company. A lot of people are trying the newer phone companies that have been coming into the Canadian market lately, but they have a lit of problems. A little like when '3' first came into the UK market and people jumped onto the cheap contracts but then realised they would never get a signal and their calls would be dropped etc. I would always recommend Bell to people coming over here.