SIM Continuity from India

[NiSn]

Guys
I'm relocating to Canada in the last week of January. I use Airtel Postpaid in India and my wife uses JIO prepaid. I have 2 queries -

a) Which SIM cards shall we take in Toronto area where in we can get good international Packs and Internet. Any rough charges?
b) Other than Mobile Internet, what are good service providers for Wi-Fi at rented apartments. How much would that cost us?
c) We need to keep our India SIMs active as well as they are linked with various institutions and accounts in India. Anyone knows cheapest ways of keeping India SIMs of Airtel & Jio active for years while staying in Canada? All this because for certain online transactions are OTPs might come on these numbers.

 

[canuck78]

Guys
I'm relocating to Canada in the last week of January. I use Airtel Postpaid in India and my wife uses JIO prepaid. I have 2 queries -

a) Which SIM cards shall we take in Toronto area where in we can get good international Packs and Internet. Any rough charges?
b) Other than Mobile Internet, what are good service providers for Wi-Fi at rented apartments. How much would that cost us?
c) We need to keep our India SIMs active as well as they are linked with various institutions and accounts in India. Anyone knows cheapest ways of keeping India SIMs of Airtel & Jio active for years while staying in Canada? All this because for certain online transactions are OTPs might come on these numbers.

Will let others reply but prepare for a shock. Costs are going to be significantly higher and mobile data is not cheap at all. What phones are you using? You will need to find out if your current phones will be able to work in Canada.

Lots of info online sites comparing Canada’s couple of carriers.

 

[k.h.p.]

Massive, massive price increases are coming your way. A "good" data pack for a mobile phone in Canada is ~$100 per month.

International telephone calling on a mobile phone is going to be very expensive. Better to use data and WhatsApp for calls.

There are handful of internet providers for apartments - we call them "RoBelUs" - Rogers/Bell/Telus, though Rogers is more or less out of residential internet in favour of Shaw. Some third-party resellers of the big three internet services exist (like TekSavvy) but as said above, google for price comparisons in your soon to be neighbourhood.

Can't comment on keeping your Indian SIMs active, other than paying the ongoing bills in India.

 

[NiSn]

Thanks guys. It certainly is costly compared to India. Anyways, checked wi-fi would cost anywhere around $80 a month from Telus.
Would rely on Whatsapp calling, so any suggestions on mobile sim cards? Which one shall I take? And prepaid or postpaid?

We are using iPhone 7 and Redmi Note 3 mobile phones.

 

[canuck78]

Thanks guys. It certainly is costly compared to India. Anyways, checked wi-fi would cost anywhere around $80 a month from Telus.
Would rely on Whatsapp calling, so any suggestions on mobile sim cards? Which one shall I take? And prepaid or postpaid?

We are using iPhone 7 and Redmi Note 3 mobile phones.

iPhone will work. Not sure about the Redmi phone. Whether you sign up for prepaid or a monthly plan depends on your needs.

 

[subodhp]

Thanks guys. It certainly is costly compared to India. Anyways, checked wi-fi would cost anywhere around $80 a month from Telus.
Would rely on Whatsapp calling, so any suggestions on mobile sim cards? Which one shall I take? And prepaid or postpaid?

We are using iPhone 7 and Redmi Note 3 mobile phones.

Redmi should also work

Check plan from carriers like Fido that are a lot cheaper if you being your own phone. Expect it to be around 50/month with good data and international calling

 

[_wanderer]

Guys
I'm relocating to Canada in the last week of January. I use Airtel Postpaid in India and my wife uses JIO prepaid. I have 2 queries -

a) Which SIM cards shall we take in Toronto area where in we can get good international Packs and Internet. Any rough charges?
b) Other than Mobile Internet, what are good service providers for Wi-Fi at rented apartments. How much would that cost us?
c) We need to keep our India SIMs active as well as they are linked with various institutions and accounts in India. Anyone knows cheapest ways of keeping India SIMs of Airtel & Jio active for years while staying in Canada? All this because for certain online transactions are OTPs might come on these numbers.

Hi, what did you do for the last question???

 

[NiSn]

Hi, what did you do for the last question???

I kept my Airtel SIM and continue pay monthly postpaid charges of approx INR 600 on that.

 

[sundeep_s_]

I usually feel Jio is best for this scenario. Once you have a plan on your sim (I usually get a yearly plan), and you enable IR ONCE WHILE YOU'RE STILL in India, you're good to go. You get all incoming messages for free & you can basically add some balance to your account, and calls from and to India will be charged at 2 rs per minute. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I have a dual sim iPhone, and I always have the Jio running on it, so even if someone from India calls me on that number, i end up paying just 2 rs per min.

First time enabling IR must be done from within India. They say it wont activate outside India at all (I was able to do this by jumping thru hoops but is not guaranteed).

Also, the wifi calling will not work like you'd expect. Jio will connect to WIFI Calling, but will not allow you to place any calls. You'll get an automated message saying "Wifi calling only available in India"... so that is that.

 

[_wanderer]

Wow. Thanks for the insight.

Just a quick quest abt the last part. What if I use VPN as India and try to use WiFi calling?? (jugaad part in me asking)

 

[sundeep_s_]

Wow. Thanks for the insight.

Just a quick quest abt the last part. What if I use VPN as India and try to use WiFi calling?? (jugaad part in me asking)

haha I tried this, didn't work!

 

[NiSn]

one question, does Jio have any international roaming packs with data access?

 

[Palamon]

I am in the same situation, as I am about to land in Toronto soon. I have Airtel postpaid, and they have an international roaming pack that costs 3999/- per month. Benefits - not bad, but not of much use to me, I just need the free incoming SMS and some free minutes of talktime per month. Don't need data at all. Airtel had a 799 plan and as @NiSn said, a 600 plan too, but for some reason, I can't seem to find them anymore on the app. I would rather pay 799 than 3999, as I don't need all the benefits of the 3999 plan. Any idea (pun not intended) if they have withdrawn the 799 plan?

 

[NiSn]

No idea on the plans. However I have an airtel sim and i am based out of Toronto. I did not activate any international roaming on my airtel. My regular postpaid plan is around INR 600/month which i continue to pay. This keeps my number active and i just take care not to activate "mobile data" as that could screw my costs significantly.

 

[Palamon]

No idea on the plans. However I have an airtel sim and i am based out of Toronto. I did not activate any international roaming on my airtel. My regular postpaid plan is around INR 600/month which i continue to pay. This keeps my number active and i just take care not to activate "mobile data" as that could screw my costs significantly.

Did you take the plan in Toronto or in India? And are you saying your incoming SMS is free? What do you do when you get a call?