Cell Phones

Roamer or RON / Extend?

  • Last Updated:
  • Nov 1st, 2014 9:34 am
Deal Addict
Jan 2, 2013
1640 posts
442 upvotes
Mississauga

Roamer or RON / Extend?

I accepted a job which will have me in Japan (mostly) for 3 out of 4 weeks of the month, with a few odd days in other countries (US, China.); and 1 week spent in Canada every month.

I'd like to keep my current Canadian number, but also have access to my calls (not as important)/ messages and VM (more important) while abroad, and have local access in Japan (mostly data, negligible voice and text) as well. So, the choices are:

1. Get a local Japanese sim, use the Roamer app, and switch to a Canadian carrier which offers unlimited call forwarding. (Although, calls aren't as critical as texts, and as long as I can check VM.)

2. Carry 2 phones, and port my number to Rogers or Telus and use RON or Extend (when it launches.) Japanese sim in 1, Can sim in the other.

3. Anything else?


Which is cheaper, and with less hassle? I'd prefer not to carry 2 phones, but if that translates into significant savings then I just may. Also RON has a Mac app, so that may help with the traveling and availability over Wifi!

Looking for suggestions!
7 replies
Deal Fanatic
May 13, 2005
5147 posts
5847 upvotes
Montreal
Port your phone to Fongo and pay $1.99 / month for unlimited text. You could setup to send voicemail as mp3 to your email.

http://www.fongo.com/features/

As long as you have internet, you will able to use Fongo app to call/receive call from your Canadian phone number. Not sure about China as they might block VOIP.

You could buy tablet data plan when in Canada and use it with Fongo app.

http://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Cell_phone_ ... _plans.tab
http://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Cell_phone_ ... y_Pass.tab
Deal Addict
Jan 2, 2013
1640 posts
442 upvotes
Mississauga
That's an awesome thought.. Fongo didn't even cross my mind. Thanks!

Add: Can I use a tablet data plan in a phone?
Edit: Nevermind. The power of google.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
I'd go to http://voip.ms myself.
I've tried Fongo and haven't been happy with it. voip.ms gives you FAR more flexibility.

You can route your Canadian calls to your Japanese Cell and SMS will function through email.
You can even get a Japanese DID and route calls to your Canadian cell while you're here. I don't know how SMS functions there though.
Japanese DIDs aren't that cheap though ($9) https://www.voip.ms/intldids.php?Countr ... cted=JAPAN
Deal Addict
Jan 2, 2013
1640 posts
442 upvotes
Mississauga
Thanks for that. 9$ a month isn't terrible, but SMS are more important to me than calls so unless someone can offer a review on that..

Why weren't you happy with Fongo?m
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
apoorv wrote: Thanks for that. 9$ a month isn't terrible, but SMS are more important to me than calls so unless someone can offer a review on that..

Why weren't you happy with Fongo?m
I doubt you'll get a review on Japanese SMS here. There's probably a voip provider in Japan that has SMS and might be cheaper. The fun with voip is that there's very few boundaries.

As for Fongo, reliability was terrible. I would constantly get missed SMS.
Calls were equally dumb as I was always restricted to my cell phone. This isn't exactly handy if I'm in an area with crap data.
Compare that to voip where I can have calls routed to where ever I like (eg directly to my cell) and optionally use data when I want to.
Deal Addict
Jan 2, 2013
1640 posts
442 upvotes
Mississauga
Yeah I figured as much. Good to know! I shall definitely focus more on VoIP for now.

Top