Canada has many ‘snow birds’ or business workers that travel to the US with their smartphone, and while traveling, naturally they want to keep in touch with family, friends, and the office. The Canadian carriers are well aware of their situation and have developed packages or plans to help alleviate the added expense of roaming and data fees – especially with the government hearing complaints from customers about overage charges. According to internal documents our source has obtained, Wind is now offering two new promotional plans to both new and existing customer and those both on contract and off contract. These plans are designed with US roaming in mind – the “Everything 45” and the “Everything 60” – that allow customers who frequently travel to the US a way to roam without having to purchase a monthly travel packs for an additional fee – much like Rogers’ ‘Roam Like Home’ or Bell’s “Roam Better” or Telus’ “US Easy Roam.”
These are entirely new plans – not an add-on – so they cover your usage in both Canada and the US. The “Everywhere 45” Plan gives you unlimited Canada and US calling, unlimited international texting and 5GB of data to use. While you are in the US, you get 2,400 Canada and US minutes to talk, unlimited texting, and pay-per-use data at five cents per MB. The “Everywhere 60” Plan gives you the same amount of “Everywhere 45” except the data is bumped up to 10GB to use in Canada and 1GB to use while in the US. Being an active Plan, not an add-on, the “Everywhere 60,” is good for people that must travel back and forth across the borders and do not want to be bothered about remembering to add a new travel pack each month.
Wind’s pay-as-you-go roaming rates are very reasonable when compared to other Canadian carriers, so it really comes down to how much traveling you do to the US. Wind’s individual rates are $0.15 per minutes, $0.05 per text, and $0.05 per MB – so if you visit the US only on occasion, you might just want to pay-per-use. Just remember, those rates can quickly add up if you are staying for an extended time and do a lot of talking.