Skype-to-go and Online Number

Question

Hi,
I am an American graduate student who will be living in Canada for a year.  I plan on purchasing a Canadian cell phone plan but would still like to be able to call and be called easily by my family and friends in the states.  I was considering purchasing both a skype-to-go plan to call people in the US and getting an online number so that people in the US could call me for free (as well as an unlimited us/Canada plan).  Would this work, as long as I get a mobile plan with a lot of minutes, or would there be additional/roaming fees? I know that Skype-to-Skype would also be possible but, I'm not sure that I'll have a data plan.
Thanks!

Answer 1

daw75 wrote:
Hi,
I am an American graduate student who will be living in Canada for a year.  I plan on purchasing a Canadian cell phone plan but would still like to be able to call and be called easily by my family and friends in the states.  I was considering purchasing both a skype-to-go plan to call people in the US and getting an online number so that people in the US could call me for free (as well as an unlimited us/Canada plan).  Would this work, as long as I get a mobile plan with a lot of minutes, or would there be additional/roaming fees? I know that Skype-to-Skype would also be possible but, I'm not sure that I'll have a data plan.
Thanks!
What you outline is good, stuff you can use Skype for. There is a sequence you would want to follow, which will help you save a little $$$ in the process.
First thing you should probably do is get your Unlimited USA & Canada subscription.  This covers calling to landlines and mobile phones in both countries at US$ 2.99/month.  If purchased on a yearly basis, you get a 15% discount, knocking the price down to just over US$ 30/year.  Once you have this, you will be able to make calls from Skype to landline and mobile phones in both countries, and use this to cover the calls forwarded from Skype to your Canadian number.
Once you have the subscription, purchase the US Online Number.  Ideally, you should get it in the same city as the people who would call you most, trying to make the call for them a free local call.  Skype does not have Online Numbers in all 50 US states and not in all US area codes, so take a look at what's there.  Even if you can't get a number in the same city as your friends and family, at least it would be a domestic long-distance call instead of making them call a Canadian number at international rates from the USA.  With the subscription, you can get a 50% discount on the price of the Online Number.  For a year, that makes the Online Number US$ 30.  Not a bad deal. You would not be charged by Skype to receive calls on the Online Number.  With the subscription as outlined above, you can forward calls to any number covered by your subscription (in Canada or the USA) for no additional charges from Skype.
Then get the Skype To Go number.  You may be able to get the number so it is a local call for you wherever you are going to be in Canada.  Be very careful about the city and area code/prefix combination for the Skype To Go number, as this could be a long-distance call for you.  Using the mobile phone, those calls may be covered by your mobile plan.  Not all calls to all area codes for a particular Canadian city may be considered as free local calls. You can then set up Skype To Go to remember your Canadian number, so you don't have to enter a PIN code every time you call the Skype To Go number to make calls.  These calls would either be covered by your subscription (free calling to US and Canadian numbers), or require Skype Credit if calling somewhere not covered by the subscription. 
You will have to consult with your mobile carrier on the particulars for receiving calls.  Some plans may give you unlimited incoming calls, where others will allow you a specified number of minutes per month.  The cheapest monthly plans will probably charge you some amount per minute for incoming calls.  All of this is outside of Skype's control, so make sure you're set up for this and know what you're getting from the mobile carrier. 
As you stated, you will need to have some sort of data plan if you intended to use the Skype app on your mobile phone in Canada, and use the mobile network as your Internet connection.  If you have access to WiFi, that would take care of the Internet access, but do make sure of what you get from the mobile carrier.  Chances are good that you won't have an "unlimited" data plan option from the Canadian carrier, just like how the US mobile carriers are going now, so make sure of whatever you are getting in this regard. 
On a past trip to western Canada a couple of years ago, I did a similar thing as you are going to do. I already had a US Online Number and a subscription covering calls to the US, and obtained a Vancouver Skype To Go number so I could access Skype from Canada when not on the Internet.  I purchased a Rogers Wireless prepaid SIM in Vancouver with a Vancouver number which had an optional data plan (paid per day), so I could avoid roaming charges from my US mobile carrier.  I set up Skype to forward calls to the Canadian number while I was in Canada, so callers to my US Online Number didn't have to change anything they did to reach me.  Whenever I called back to the US, I rang my Vancouver Skype To Go number, then made the cross-border calls using Skype (covered by my subscription).  I saved a lot of $$$, compared to using my US mobile number in Canada and getting clobbered by roaming fees.  I ended up only using Skype when on WiFi, instead of paying for that optional data plan on the prepaid Canadian SIM. It takes some thought and work to set up, but it was worth it.
Good luck!
Patrick
Location/Ubicacion: Arizona USA
Time Zone/Hora Local: UTC/GMT -7
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