Rogers launched a global roaming plan back in June, while Telus followed suit last month. Now, as expected, Bell has also debuted a global roaming plan to match its rivals, with Quebec being the battleground thanks to Videotron.
Bell’s global roaming plan costs $70/month for bring your own device after autopay, and includes 250GB of 5G+ data to use in Canada and internationally (78 countries and territories). The “Elite 250 – CAN/INT” plan in Quebec also includes Crave Basic.
To use this roaming plan, you must live in Canada and mostly use your phone there. While traveling in supported countries, you’re capped at 10GB of data per billing cycle per user.
Texts to and from supported countries are included, but premium texts are not. Calling numbers outside of the supported list costs $1.45/min. Roaming, picture/video messaging, and Push-to-Talk are only available in supported countries and use data from your plan.
Bell’s global roaming plan supports usage in a wide range of countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. In the Americas and the Caribbean, supported countries include Argentina, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Saba, St. Barts, St. Eustatius, and St. Martin.
Across Europe, the plan covers Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Vatican City.
In Asia and the Middle East, supported countries include China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
For Oceania, the plan includes Australia and New Zealand.
Here are Bell’s plans in Quebec right now:
The big question is whether or not you can get this Bell global roaming plan outside of Quebec? iPhone in Canada readers tell us new customers in Ontario can get the plan at Bell stores, but starting at $85 per month with 250GB.
In comparison, here are global roaming plans from Rogers and Telus in Quebec:
While Bell has more destinations, they also cap data at 10GB when roaming internationally. Rogers and Telus also have identical 100GB and 175GB plans, matched by Bell.
As for Quebec’s Videotron, they have $75/45GB global plan, but bundling with internet knocks it down to $55/month, and supports 100 destinations.
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Does anyone know if Rogers and/or Telus cap their roaming data usage per billing cycle like Bell?
Telus' plan is unlimited, with 150GB being high-speed, available both at home and while roaming. There's no cap.
With Rogers whatever data you have in the plan you can use, there is no cap.
I'm pretty sure the Telus plan is actually $70 ($80 – $10 for debit prepayment) for roaming in 68 countries, not 27. That's the plan I have, anyway. I also wasn't told about any cap. You can use all of your available data (150GB, not 250GB), at the highest speed, and then it's unlimited after that at a lower speed.
The question I think that iPhoneincanada needs to ask the carriers is whether users can switch on and off these plans freely, without restriction and without penalty.
The question I think that iPhoneincanada needs to ask the carriers is whether users can switch on and off these plans freely, without restriction and without penalty.