Cell Phones - Niagara Falls - NY & Ontario

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We are going to be in Niagara Falls area next week. Will our US cell phones work in Canada? And if so, is there a cost? How do we know which country we are picking up? I have Verizon and my wife has Cingular.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

We are going to be in Niagara Falls area next week. Will our US cell phones work in Canada? And if so, is there a cost? How do we know which country we are picking up? I have Verizon and my wife has Cingular.

Yes it will work but you will pay 49 cents/minute on Verizon.

I can't remember precisely if I was picked up in the US at the boarder crossing.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

You will see the carrier name (or network) get changed, Cingular is to Roger. Expensive though.

Jya-Ning

[lawgs Member Find all posts View Profile Close lawgs]

do not know the cost for roaming .....but you definately can make calls that will be picked up by "roaming towers"

we found out the hard way....

we live in canada but we work just across the river from buffalo

we did not know our cell was not programmed for HOME only and made a call in canada.....well it was picked up by a NY tower ( roaming i guess that is called ) and a call that would have been free in our area ended up costing us roaming charges and fee...do not even remember how much, but we found out right away how to set the phone for HOME only

[ohioelk Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ohioelk]

I am a Verizon user. When I was up there a few years ago I made sure I made calls only on the US side. They were picked up on a Canadian cell and I was charged for international roaming. I called Verizon and explained and they refunded the charges.

[djyamyam Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close djyamyam]

Get your phone unlocked & pick up pre-paid card

We are going to be in Niagara Falls area next week. Will our US cell phones work in Canada? And if so, is there a cost? How do we know which country we are picking up? I have Verizon and my wife has Cingular.

The best thing to do is get your phone unlocked. Just google "unlock cell phone" as there are lots of services out there that do it for relatively cheap. Then when you come to Canada, just pick up a pre-paid card fro $10 or $25 from Fido or Rogers and then you'll have a local cell phone number and your calls will be local. That way, you won't have international roaming charges.

That's what I do when I go to the US, Mexico or elsewhere in the world.