Mint Mobile, Republic Wireless, and Canada

General
1

I went to Canada recently, and my experiences with these carriers were‚Ķ…interesting.

Both carriers malfunctioned the minute I crossed the border. Mint Mobile would do text and calls, but no data. Republic Wireless was completely inoperable the entire time I was in Canada.

I was able to get data working on Mint Mobile with instructions that I had not received the last time I was in Canada. First, the APN settings:

Name: Mint
APN: Wholesale
Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set
Username: Not set
Password: Not set
Server: Not set
MMSC: http://wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc
MMS Proxy: Not set
MMS Port: 8080
MCC: 310
MNC: 260
Authentication type: Not set
APN Type: default,supl,mms,ia
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN Roaming protocol: IPv4
Bearer: Unspecified
MVNO type: None

Next, what I’ll probably have to do every time I cross the border:

Make sure phone is set to auto connect when roaming.
Network selection should be automatic.
Once you have crossed the border into Canada:
Turn OFF roaming.
Turn ON Airplane mode.
Wait 20-30 seconds.
Turn OFF Airplane mode.
Turn ON roaming.

You should now have a data connection.

Now as for Republic Wireless, I am on the Everywhere You Go plan, which purports to cover Canada and Mexico with 2GB of roaming data per month.

As I indicated above, Republic Wireless went completely inoperable when I crossed into Canada. As in “No Service” on the display.
I called support, and they were unable to do anything useful. The fourth person I spoke to told me that EYG only covers roaming in Mexico. I am trying to reach someone who can answer questions above average user level to see if this is true.

Starting research here:
Is anyone here on the RW EYG plan and using it in Canada?

If someone is doing this, I’d like to connect and see if I can leverage that to get RW working in Canada.

2

I switched from Republic to Boost Infinite and I found they have a better deal. The base plan is $25 and their North America Connect add-on is only $5 extra per month. That includes 5GB of roaming in Canada and Mexico instead of the 2 GB with RW. I signed up early with Boost Infinite, so most of the benefits of the North America Connect is included with my plan.

From BI FAQs: “If you want to make calls, send texts (both SMS and MMS), or use your phone with 5GB of roaming throughout North America, we‚Äôve got your back with our North America Connect Add-On for just $5/mo.”

3

@mwgardiner said:
I went to Canada recently, and my experiences with these carriers were‚Ķ…interesting.

As I indicated above, Republic Wireless went completely inoperable when I crossed into Canada. As in “No Service” on the display.
I called support, and they were unable to do anything useful. The fourth person I spoke to told me that EYG only covers roaming in Mexico. I am trying to reach someone who can answer questions above average user level to see if this is true.

RW by DISH’s plans page clearly states roaming in both Canada and Mexico, so either that’s inaccurate or the last agent you spoke with is misinformed. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some back-end switch that needs to be flipped for your line for roaming to work.

@mwgardiner said:
Starting research here:
Is anyone here on the RW EYG plan and using it in Canada?

If someone is doing this, I’d like to connect and see if I can leverage that to get RW working in Canada.

In case no one else here is using “Go” in Canada, you might consider sending email to executivecustomerservice@dish.com. That’s DISH’s executive escalations team.

4

I contacted another agent. Apart from having AT&T check the settings, there’s not a lot they can do if I’m not in Canada My next trip is in two or three months (waiting for an event to settle). I’ll try again then. They did say something about having to clear network settings. I hate that as it wipes out months of building a list of WiFi points. I have yet to find a way of backing up the WiFi list.

I’m disinclined to push too hard on things given that I’m on a special rate as an original RW ambassador. I consider even the legacy RW customer rate to be a mite steep. I wouldn’t want to annoy them into deciding I’m more trouble than honoring the special rate is worth. A second line on a different carrier is very handy when geocaching in remote locations with spotty cellular coverage. I will keep that address in mind if things remain broken after the next trip.

5

Your service is supposed to include roaming in Canada. When my daughter went, her phone stopped working as soon as she crossed the border and an engineer (not a technician) had to fix it. It has something to do with being a legacy account. You’re going to need to ask support to escalate the issue of a legacy service line on the “Go” plan not working in Canada to engineering.

6

@southpaw said:
Your service is supposed to include roaming in Canada. When my daughter went, her phone stopped working as soon as she crossed the border and an engineer (not a technician) had to fix it. It has something to do with being a legacy account. You’re going to need to ask support to escalate the issue of a legacy service line on the “Go” plan not working in Canada to engineering.

Noted for the next time around. Or can I escalate now and and have the adjustments made proactively?
It would be preferable to sitting at an OnRoute center using Skype to talk to RW support.

7

I think you could do it prior to going back. It would definitely be worth trying.

8

@southpaw said:
I think you could do it prior to going back. It would definitely be worth trying.

I’ve got them on the line now. I get the feeling that it might be more productive to bash my head on the wall.

So far they’ve told me to try the same thing that didn’t work last year, which is clearing network settings. I’ve told them that didn’t work last year, they are talking to AT&T now.

9

It’s not an AT&T issue. Please stress to them that it’s a legacy line and the issue must be resolved by their own engineers.

1 Like
10

Thanks everyone for the good information regarding travel in Canada. We are still RW customers – We were in Canada (touristy stuff) for just a couple of days back in June, and imagine our surprise to find that we had no signal from the minute we crossed over the border until we got back to the US. Interestingly, our GPS said we had no signal, and yet Waze still was able to give us pretty accurate driving instructions. (I imagine there must be some level of built-in off-line functionality, but it’s beyond me to figure it out).

Next trip to Canada we will try to call RW support ahead of time to see if they can fix it for us, so the information provided on what needs to be done for legacy customers like us is much appreciated!

11

Hi @herbie and thanks for making your way to our new platform!

You mention no cellular coverage when in Canada. Have you moved to a Republic 5.0 plan or are you still using My Choice?

I ask because My Choice does not offer cellular coverage in Canada or anywhere else outside the U.S. Republic only offers coverage in Canada if one is using the 5.0 plan called “Everywhere You Go”, which isn’t cheap at $40/month.

If interested in other options, please advise us of your phone’s brand, model and (if applicable) generation?

12

Thanks for the prompt reply @rolandh - I am enjoying the new platform, and appreciate everyone who worked to make the transition to it. I have no doubt that it was a lot of work, stress, sleepless nights…

Re: Canada cellular coverage. Maybe if I had read the small print when we signed up for the “Only What You Need” 5.0 plan, we wouldn’t need to have this discussion . Regardless, thanks for the clarification. This was our first trip to Canada in several years, so it’s not like we go there very often. However, we do plan to travel there occasionally for sightseeing/touristy-type things.

And to answer your question, my wife and I both have Motorola G Power 2022 cellphones.

13

Waze handles pathing in an interesting way. I suspect you probably had Waze guide you from your US start to your Canadian endpoint. When you start a trip, Waze downloads your whole trip into the phone, with a couple of miles of map to either side of your path. If you lose signal, it can’t get traffic and obstacle updates, but it can still use GPS to guide you to your destination. I suspect that when you asked it go back to your starting point, it was able to use the cached maps to get you there. You can use this to advantage if you have no coverage somewhere. Start your trip on WiFi to cache the maps, then go.

14

This is good information, and I think was exactly what happened. I was not a fan of Waze in the past, but they have improved their app over the years, and I have just learned to totally ignore their ads which pop up at traffic lights. In addition, the fact that it can be set to “beep” when a driver goes a certain speed over the posted speed limit can be helpful when there may be speed traps along the route.