Living in Canada, Working in the US

[VinceThePrince]

Hi all, my contract is about to expire in August. I live in Windsor, ON which is right across from Detroit and I just obtained a position within an engineering firm in Michigan.

The company will be paying for my cell phone bill (I'm allowed to keep and use my personal line). I do however, would like to help make it as less financially-taxing for them as possible.

Mainly I'm looking for talk, text, and data that would be usable from within both Canada and the US as I will be communicating with clients and management constantly. I've dealt with retentions plenty of times before, but have no experience or knowledge on what to ask for regarding anything other than local features.

I appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction, thank-you!

[Zolutar]

There's currently no way to do this. US carriers do have US land Canada voice, but data is US only.
Rogers does have US and Canada data but no voice plans...

Scratch that, Rogers small business does have North American one rate, but it is ridiculously expensive, but this likely would be your best option paired with Canada/USA data..
I used to do the same, live in Canada and work both Canada and USA. But then I used google voice to bounce calls to each of my phones phone depending on the country I was in. When I was in the US and someone called my Rogers phone, it would bounce to google voice, then to my USA phone. For it to do the opposite I have to use a workaround to call Canada no charge. Complicated to setup but considerably cheaper than the Rogers solution.

[enoss]

if you check out Ting.com (disclosure, I work there) it may give you what you need. it would be a US service, but when using it in Canada it woud be $0.15/min from minute 1 (no bundles) which is cheaper than both Rogers and Telus pau as you go. data in Canada would be $0.50/mb, pricey, but again even better than domestic pay-as-you-go.

and you would save a TON on your US calls. happy to answer any questions is you have any.

[some-gei]

Just get two SIMS and swap them when you cross the border. It's really the easiest and cheapest way.

You can forward one to the other (through an intermediary like voip.ms) when it's not in use. That way you'll have a US and Canadian number to be reached at, and will be reachable at both at all times.

[steven81]

I know Telus and bell have some plans like what you are looking for. Perhaps Rogers has some plan that will match them ? How many minutes do you need in the states ?

[mch]

Verizon Nationwide plus Canada with the 100MB/$25 global data plan is one option if your data usage while in Canada isn't too high.

Your monthly cost would be
- the voice plan - min $60 for 450 mins usable in the US and Canada and to call the US and Canada.
- SMS if you need it - unlimited for $20. If you are a light SMS user and have a smartphone, you could use google voice over data for SMS. Verizon SMS includes use from/to the US and Canada.
- $30 for 2GB of US data.
- $25 per 100MB of Canadian data (it will be relatively slow 3G in Canada)

100MB of data actually goes a pretty long way if you aren't downloading apps, video calling, and streaming over it. So it could be workable. If you need another 100MB chunk of Canadian data then it is another $25.

Oh, and you'll probably end up with the joy of filing tax returns in both countries. ugh. Been there, done that.

Alternatively, if you go with one SIM for each country, then you could use line2 to forward both SMS and voice calls from the line2 virtual number to either the Canadian or US phone depending upon which side of the border you are on. The nice thing about the line2 virtual number vs most voip providers is that it will forward both voice and SMS to either a Canadian or US phone and you can call out/reply with the caller of that same number. It is sort of like google voice with support for Canada. N.B. The line2 toll free numbers do not support SMS, but the US and Canadian local numbers do support SMS. You also need android or iOS for line2.

The best solution probably depends on how much Canadian data you will be using and whether you need fast data in Canada.

[amrando]

dear God no!

I have had to deal with cross-border cell issues for several years with a previous employer, lots of travel between western Canada and PNW. Trust me, ditch your Canadian cell as soon as possible. I can guarantee either AT&T or Verizon will offer you a North-America wide data and voice package FAR cheaper than any Canadian carrier. From there, I would buy a Canadian VOIP number through any one of a dozen providers for $5-10/mo or less, and permanently call-forward it to your US cellphone.

I do this in reverse when traveling, or staff were overseas. Rogers et al block call-forwarding to numbers outside North America, so I would forward the Canadian cell to a US VOIP number, itself forwarded to the local prepaid cell whereever the user is - England, Germany, Hong Kong, etc..


At one point, for ***** & giggles I drew up the numbers to show we could buy all our BC staff Verizon cellular plans with nationwide roaming CHEAPER by several hundred dollars a month than Telus' corporate packages. The only problem of course being it would look a little odd that all our BC staff had Portland OR phone numbers..