Electricaly, Canada and the US are the same. Their power "grids" are
interconnected and they use the same plugs, etc.
That would be (nominally) 127 volts, which is often referred to 120 or 115
or in the old days 110 volts 60 Hz (cycles per second).
As for UK mobiles, it depends upon twothings. UK mobile networks are
GSM, using 900 and 1900 mHz and a 3g (third generation network) all of
which are incompatible with the Canada. Many newer high end phones are
multi-band and have 4 band coverage, or work with both 3g networks.
Before you start you need to determine if your mobile is compatible with the
Canadian GSM networks.
The second issue is when you get there, will you have service? Even if your
phone company has the same name as a Canadian one, they are not the same
company, so your company has to have a roaming agreement with a Canadian
company.
Roaming is expensive, and rates of $3 to $5 a minute are not uncommon. If
someone calls you on your mobile, they have to call the UK (at their expense)
and then you pay for the cost of forwarding the call to your mobile in
Canada.
Contact your company and find out what their roaming agreements are, which
networks to roam onto (and which to avoid) and the costs involved. Here
Orange Israel has a call back arrangement which cut the cost of a roaming call
from the EU from $5 a minute to under $2, but it was still expensive.
Once you know what networks to use, look at their coverage maps. You can
find the maps and any other information you need at
www.gsmworld.com.
I have no idea of what you can get in Canada, but I found that you can
buy a reconditioned AT&T phone in the US for $10 and get unlimited incoming
(you pay for them too) and outgoing calls anywhere in the country for $3 a
day. You may be able to find a similar service in Canada.
If you find one, please post a followup or email me, so I can keep a
record of it.
There are companies which rent phones to travellers, if you are going
to be there for several weeks it may be worth it. You should be able to
find one in the UK.
Another option, which is often overlooked is to take a cheap netbook or
wifi phone with you and call people when you have wifi or internet access.
You can buy wifi phones which use the SIP or SKYPE protocol, or just bring
a laptop or netbook with a headset. Netbooks are often better as more
places such as hotels and people's homes have wired access but not Wifi.
SIP is used for VoIP services such as Vonage, SKYPE is obvious. Skype has
a deal where you can get incoming calls and lots of outgoing calls for
around $20. It's slightly over $5 a month, but you have to buy 3 months at
a time to get an incoming number. Or you can get a UK number and forward
your mobile to it. If you are traveling around, it may not be useful, but
if you are spending most of your time at one location and they have broadband
Internet, it may just be what you are looking for.
If you already have Vonage or any other VoIP service contact them and ask
about either taking your "box" with you, or using a laptop.
Geoff.
