# cell phone in Alberta



## labguides (Jul 3, 2007)

Will my cell phone work in Canada? Is there coverage in Banff/Lake Louise areas?


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## Bill4728 (Jul 3, 2007)

Our US cell phones work when we are in Canada but they work via Roaming with one of the several canadian cell companies which charges about $0.50 /per minute.


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## Marge007 (Jul 3, 2007)

We were in Banff area June 15-23, our cell phones did NOT work (T-Mobile).
I had called T-M before the trip and they said I would have coverage.
Marge


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## SciTchr (Jul 6, 2007)

I am in Canada now and my Verizon phone works fine. I had to add the Canada plan before we left and I will go back to America's Choice when we return. They prorate the fee for when you use it. Verizon used to have a North Amercian Choice plan, but it was discontinued due to problems with the contrct for the use of Canadian cells. On July 1st they opened this new plan. It is working great for us.


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## John Cummings (Jul 7, 2007)

It depends on the technology. We have Cingular ( ATT ) and it worked fine in Alberta. We had to pay roaming charges which wasn't that bad as we didn't use it very much. If you are going to use your phone a lot then call your provider about getting a temporary plan that covers Canada.


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## asp (Jul 10, 2007)

Unless you are in an urban area, cellular phone coverage can be spotty - anywhere!  Banff area is mountainous and relatively unpopulated, so it is likely that there will be lots of out of the way areas without coverage.  We had the same problem in rural Hawaii.

American Cellular phone companies are going to be partnered with a Canadian company - if you find out the partner, you can go to their web site.  Rogers, Telus and Bell all provide coverage here.  Sometimes Telus is known to be better in some local areas, but Rogers advertises fewer dropped calls.


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## eal (Jul 11, 2007)

There is excellent cell phone coverage in the mountain parks - I insist that my husband and son take a cell phone when they are backpacking in the middle of nowhere because all they have to do if they don't have immediate coverage is to climb a ridge and they can call me.

Once they used their cell phone to call for assistance when a gentleman camping near them in a backcountry campsite was having heart difficulties. 

The kicker is that if you are a customer with a US cell phone company you usually have to pay roaming charges and they can certainly add up.

Have a great trip.


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