Re: 鈥淲hy are cellphone rates so high?鈥� letter, March 31.
I agree with the letter-writer. Canadian charges for roaming abroad are a total ripoff and should be legislated by government, as they are in other countries.
Whenever I visit Europe, I replace my SIM with a local 鈥減ay as you go鈥� card and get far better rates than at home, with a generous amount of data and no roaming charges for all EU countries.
One time, on return via the U.S., I replaced my EU card with my Canadian SIM at JFK airport. I switched my phone on for (literally) 10 seconds just to confirm that it still worked. Apparently, when it booted up, 105 kilobytes of data were exchanged. So guess what: My Canadian cellphone provider billed me an extra $7 plus taxes, in addition to its monthly charge for when I wasn鈥檛 even using its services.
That is equivalent to $6,000 per GB of data. After spending an hour waiting to get through to a human being, my roaming charge was reversed.
The downside of using a local SIM when travelling is that nobody at home can contact you unless you give them your number. But otherwise, it is well worth it. If your phone is unlocked, it is by far the best way to go.
Richard S. Taylor
Victoria
