Voice Costs | Using a cell phone outside your home area can incur both long distance charges and roaming charges. These costs can be very expensive. Roaming charges in North America are typically $1.45 - $2 a minute, plus the long distance charges. Costs outside North America can be significantly more, between $2 to $3 a minute - just for roaming charges. |
Data Costs | Costs to use smart phone data plans for tasks like checking your email, or browsing the web can be very high, as much as $3 per MB for North America, $25 MB in Europe. |
Texting | Even though you have texting plans, when you roam you pay an additional cost to text. Local carriers may charge in the range of .60 cents to $1 for each text you send while outside your local area. |
We encourage you to consider the provisions of your plan before your travel, and make arrangements in advance with your service provider. Some options include:
- Purchasing a phone card in advance to make calls using a fixed line
- Purchasing a disposable cell phone in area you are travelling (Be sure to recycle your phone responsibly when you are finished using it!)
- Purchase additional data or voice packages that will provide service in the travel area
- Turn off the data package on your smart phone or other device and use WiFi to connect
Information on travel packages for the following plans are available here:
*Note: Due to confidentiality, this information is intended for a UBC audience and can only be viewed on a UBC network.