(no subject)

[calimac]

This happened at two separate AT&T stores. (I went to the second one because the clerk at the first one was alone in the store and too busy to deal with my follow-ups.)

Me: I want to know about using my GoPhone [AT&T's cheap prepaid service] in other countries.
Clerk: It doesn't work in other countries.
Me: Really? I've used it in Canada before.
Clark: Oh, it works in Canada.
Me: Perhaps you don't know this, but Canada is another country.

I wasn't laying a gotcha, either: I was conflating two questions. 1) confirm it would work in Canada (when I used it before, I was close to the US border; this time I won't be); and 2) could I use it overseas? Turned out you can, you just have to change the payment plan.

Other option, I suppose, is to buy a disposable phone when I get there, but I don't know anything about those, and Googling "disposable phone" got me a raft of what were intended as helpful articles that were of no help whatever. Either they were answering different questions from the ones I was asking, or else they assumed things I guess I didn't know.

Comments

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

Canada's phone system is integrated with the U.S., unlike other countries. Look up the country code for international dialing into Canada. It's +1, the same as the U.S. Also, Canada is not exactly overseas from the U.S.

The least expensive way to use your phone overseas (the ones with their own phone systems) is to buy a pre-paid SIM in that country, and use it while you are there. When you return to the U.S., simply swap back in your GoPhone SIM. The question to ask AT&T is if the phone is unlocked.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the information in the second paragraph, but the bit about Canada skirts some perils. That Canada's phone numbering system is integrated with ours doesn't require that my GoPhone will work there. GoPhone has its own network. There are some rural areas of the US where other AT&T phones will work but GoPhones will not. (Norfolk, Nebraska, from actual experience, for one.) And I noticed on my previous trip to Canada that my phone accessed a different network there than it does in the US. That might have been border areas only, or its contract with AT&T could have been cancelled since then. Both these facts show that the integration of the phone numbering system has nothing to do with whether the phone will work. Nebraska's numbering system is also integrated with the rest of the US's.

Nor has not being overseas anything to do with it. A cell tower doesn't have continent-wide coverage. And I didn't ask about "overseas". I asked about "other countries". Mexico isn't overseas, nor is Central America, nor even (technically) South America. Hawaii, on the other hand, is.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

You were asking about phone plans, not service coverage in rural areas.

GoPhone most certainly uses the AT&T network. In areas where the major networks do not provide service, it is common for cell service to be provided by a local company. If you were with someone who had an AT&T phone in Nebraska, it was able to connect to extended service, and for some reason the GoPhone was not. It could be that the handset lacks transceivers for less commonly used radio bands, or it could be contractual (roaming disabled), or it could be just a setting (roaming needed to be turned on).

If you would like to take the phone overseas, you should check which radio bands it can use, and make sure it includes at least one of the bands that are used in your destination country. U.S. and European GSM networks use different frequencies but there are a couple of frequency bands that are the same.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Whatever; the point is that the numbering system has nothing to do with it.

I was expecting the phone not to work in rural Nebraska, because the GoPhone coverage map showed no coverage there. (That was at the time; it has since changed.)

I've now asked 6 AT&T or GoPhone technicians this question. Besides the 2 in the stores, all said no, the phone will not work, especially if they asked me what my rate plan was. All changed their minds when I told them it worked the last time I was in Canada. Clearly, they know nothing; and even more clearly, the numbering system has nothing to do with it.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I'm treasuring the thought of you saying drily, "Perhaps you don't know this, but Canada is another country."