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Which networks work in Canada?

C

Caryllb

Newbie
I have an unlocked Exhibit 2 4G (the Walmart version). I'm planning to go to Canada for 3 months. It seems there are 3 major phone networks there, Bell, Rogers, and Virgin. I've seen posts that state Bell sells the same version of the phone and using their IMEI checker they indicate the phone will work.

I used the IMEI checker on Virgin and it seems they might not support the phone.

Does anyone know if the Rogers network will support this phone in particular for data? I'm looking at the 7 eleven or Petro Canada SIMs but both of these use Rogers. So I'd like to know in advance if data would work or not. Otherwise I'll try Bell.
 
If you unlock your device, you can use it with AT&T, Rogers, and whatever carrier that uses SIM cards.
 
In theory that is true. However, I've found that in practice sometimes not. I took this phone, it is unlocked, to the UK and tried using it with their O2 network. While the phone and texting worked fine, data never did work. When I first put in the O2 SIM card it did not automatically download the APN. This was evident because it never got the G, E, or 4G with the up and down arrow symbols showing a data connection.

Back to O2 I went and learned how to manually input the APN. This time the E symbol showed, however, the data was so slow that the phone was virtually useless for browsing. I wound up borrowing a phone for the duration of our stay.

So that's why I'm asking about Rogers. I'd like to know if anyone has had experience with using an unlocked, T-mobile version of the Exhibit 2 on Rogers to verify if it really does work for data and works reasonably well.
 
If you have a prepaid SIM with T-Mobile, only 2G (EDGE) will work in Canada on Rogers and you will have voice service along with picture messaging, otherwise no data roaming.

If the SIM is on a postpaid account, then you should have access to both EDGE and HSDPA up there.

It all depends on what services are included with the SIM/plan. If you were to get a Rogers prepaid SIM, then you would have access to whatever services their prepaid plan includes.
 
I was looking at getting either the 7 Eleven or Petro Canada prepaid SIM cards while up there. They both use the Rogers network. The 7 Eleven card costs $10 while the Petro Canada costs $15. For both of these it seems I can go with a per minute phone cost and then add unlimited data for around $10/month which is what I really need for the 2 to 3 months we'll be up there. I've already downloaded the APN information just in case I need to try entering it manually. I'm just concerned that I might have the same trouble I had in the UK.

While in Italy I used the TIM network and then in Germany I used T mobile without any problem. Both of these were just using Edge, they didn't have any 4G at all. Both worked reasonably well, not super fast but fast enough to be useful. In the UK with this phone Edge just was completely unusable.

If I got either the 7 Eleven or Petro Canada SIM cards, will these use only Edge or will they use HSDPA.
 
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