My wife is Canadian and her parents still live in Quebec but she hasn’t lived in Canada in a couple decades. Her parents are getting older now and I’ve been thinking it might be helpful to put a Canadian eSIM as a second line on her phone so she can get calls more easily from agencies/hospitals/doctors/etc. Often these groups will say they can call a US number or they don’t know if it will work (I think it’s more confusing since the US and Canada share the same country code), but only sometimes will she get calls, so I think it might be helpful to have a more local number.

Does anyone have experience doing that, or at least have suggestions for brands to look at? I’ve heard Canadians complain for years about how expensive mobile phone plans are compared to the US or Europe and I’ve seen the same as I started looking. Since this is something we’d only be using occasionally I think a prepaid/pay-as-you-go plan might make more sense than a standard monthly service. When we talk to her parents or other family and friends up there we typically use FaceTime or WhatsApp, so it would really only be for trying to help with their care.

  • nixx@piefed.caEnglish
    4·
    1 month ago

    I have a Canada-US-Mexico plan with PublicMobile.ca, the few time I was down in NY before The Horrors, it worked well.

    I think Koodo also have a similar plan, and FreedomMobile has a yearly plan that does the same.

    You can have a basic plan for $20/month and they buy add-ons for roaming.

    All in all, yup, it is expensive because Canada but they do work.

  • nixx@piefed.caEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    I actually thought of something else that might be a better option.

    Have you considered using VoIP?

    I use voip.ms, it charges 0.85/mo for the phone number, and I think 1 cent per minute, you can with your a voip app (they have their own) or just forwarded the calls to your US number.

    It depends on how many calls you do, but I spend something like 25/year.

    Good luck