4G (or 3G) in Toronto and Montreal

[touristico]

In February I'll leave my home base in SoCal and spend a month on the road in Toronto and Montreal, and then about three days in NYC before returning to the left coast.  I'll travel with a laptop, and will need to check e-mails, browse the 'net and update a web site while on the road.  Faster is better, but I can get along fine with 3G speeds.

I probably will not want to keep whatever I get after I return to Southern California.  I seek a solution for a month to six weeks of use, and that's all. 

Can anyone suggest a Verizon option that will let me do what I need to do while in Canada and NYC?  Verizon sells USB modems and plans, but I can't figure out which plan would be best for me, and have gotten different answers when I have called and visited Verizon stores.

[crimedoggies]

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touristico wrote:

In February I'll leave my home base in SoCal and spend a month on the road in Toronto and Montreal, and then about three days in NYC before returning to the left coast.  I'll travel with a laptop, and will need to check e-mails, browse the 'net and update a web site while on the road.  Faster is better, but I can get along fine with 3G speeds.

I probably will not want to keep whatever I get after I return to Southern California.  I seek a solution for a month to six weeks of use, and that's all. 

Can anyone suggest a Verizon option that will let me do what I need to do while in Canada and NYC?  Verizon sells USB modems and plans, but I can't figure out which plan would be best for me, and have gotten different answers when I have called and visited Verizon stores.

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Verizon does offer prepaid mobile broadband cards, but the plans are not very data friendly.  Best choice here is to find a mobile broadband card on a third party site like Ebay or Craigs list (make sure you get the esn in advance so you can make sure the device has a clean history) and then add the unit to your acct (if you already have Verizon cell phones) on a month to month agreement.  Once your travel is over you will be able to cancel without an ETF.  Depending on the card you get you would be able to take advantage of a $50 5GB plan which should meet your needs for your trip.  Now the Canada part is a bit trickier. Canada is going to cause international roaming on the card and those rates are higher.  Below are the Canada options

$69.99 Monthly Access: 100MB ($0.005 /KB after allowance)
$159.99 Monthly Access: 200MB ($0.005 /KB after allowance)
Pay Per Use Plan: $0.002/KB

There will be a one time $35 activation fee to start the service.  Have a safe trip.

[touristico]

Thanks for the response, crimedoggies.  Maybe it's time to do some hunting on ebay. 

Have a great new year. 

[willzzz99]

Get the Global Mobile Broadband card from VZW which includes 5GB in Canada like the US. Bell and Telus and Rogers in Canada have deployed 21M HSPA+ in Canada which you should get 1/2 the speeds of LTE in the US right now with full coverage along the freeways and all major metro and sub-urban areas (you won't get coverage in really rural areas but then you will still have EDGE and 1X/EvDo rA). Your default VZW Mobile Broadband card if it isn't global will roam in Canada on their EvDo rA network like the US. You just need to update the PRL/roaming list if its a CDMA device ((*228 option 2, it's different for the data cards) and have international dial/roaming activated on your account by VZW CS!