RV Cellular Phone Plan for RVing

Written by Adrian Thompson

Tuesday, 13 April 2010 00:00

RV cellular phone plans and coverage for RVing remains one of the biggest expenses and ongoing challenges for anyone on the road. Rvers need a cell phone as one of the main ways to contact friends and family, as well as for contacting RV parks and for emergency use.

Many RVers try and use WiFi and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) programs such as Skype for telephone communications but as most figure out pretty quickly these methods are by no means reliable.

There are very few cellular plans available from US carriers that can work quite well for people travelling in US, Canada and Mexico.

We personally use Verizon for all of our cellular needs. With a Verizon plan, you will receive a US cellular number not a Canadian or Mexican cellular number. We recently cut our Rogers (Canadian) phones loose, as the cost while travelling was prohibitive at $1.50/min in the US and $3.50/min in Mexico. We now have our US phone on the Verizon Nationwide plus Canada or Mexico plan. The plan allows for you to buy monthly minute bundles starting from $59.99/month which gives you 450 minutes per month of peak time usage and 1000 minutes per month night and weekend minutes. Plans go up to 6,000 minutes per month. While on the "Nationwide + Canada plan", we can call anywhere in the US or Canada within our month plan minute limit. The monthly bundle of minutes can be used to call anywhere in the US or Canada without incurring any long distance or roaming costs. We just travel and use our phone as if we are in our home area of Canada.

All calls while in the US to other Verizon phones are free. Larger minute plans up to 6,000 minutes per month can be purchased. Plans of 900 minutes - $79.99/month allow for setup of your ``Favourite Five. `The Favourite Five allows you to enter any 5 US telephone or cellular numbers that you can call an unlimited amount each month.

When we travel to Mexico in the winter months we change the plan to the "Nationwide + Mexico plan". All calls received in Mexico are included in your monthly bundle. Calls within Mexico or the US are also included. Calls to Canada are charged at $0.49/minute. Many find that most of their friends and family at home have a long distance plans in place that makes calling a US phone number cheap or free. A one minute call to Canada can be made to say "hey, give me a call back", allowing the person you called, to call you back for no fee on your receiving phone. Your bundled minutes are used only with no long distance or roaming fees being charged.

We find Verizon is very flexible and easy to work with. We purchased our phone outright for $200.00 and are just on a month to month plan. This month to month plan allows us to cancel our phone at any time if something were to change in our circumstances, as we are not tied into a fixed term contract. We can increase or decrease our plan size at anytime. We can switch to the Nationwide + Mexico plan and back at anytime that suits us and the switch is immediate and done over the phone.

If we wish we can also place our phone on ``vacation`` at anytime for 3 months without any fees. The phone will reactivate automatically after 3 months, and if you wish to extend the vacation, wait one day and then it can be placed on vacation again for another 3 months on an ongoing basis.

We think this plan provides the best option so far in our investigations for travel in US, Canada and Mexico. A Verizon sales rep at a Verizon store claimed that they are the carrier for Telus phones in the US. Verizon uses the CDMA platform which does not use a SIMM card as the Rogers and AT&T phones do. Visiting a Verizon corporate store seems to be the best alternative. Verizon is able to use your Canadian social insurance number in order to obtain a Canadian credit search on you and once approved there may be no deposit required with a good credit history. This is all done within minutes at the till. We have found Verizon to be very customer-friendly.

Verizon

www.verizonwireless.com

Telus is the CDMA carrier in Canada. Telmex is the CDMA carrier in Mexico.

Verizon's Nationwide + Canada Plans

Verizon's Nationwide + Mexico Plans

Verizon / CDMA Phone Coverage by City in Mexico

AT&T

www.wireless.att.com

AT&T offers a US + Canada plan but does not have an plan that includes Mexico.

Rogers is the GSM carrier in Canada for AT&T. Telcel is the Mexican carrier for GSM phones

AT&T's "Nation with Canada Plans"