Google Project Fi roaming in Vancouver, B.C. Canada

Project Fi in Canada
Project Fi in Canada

I waited until after I was past Canadian Immigration and Customs in the Vancouver airport before I powered on my Nexus 6 cellphone.  I am running the latest Marshmallow release which at this time was 6.0.1  I wait for two reasons.  The first is to avoid the temptation of using my phone where they ask you to not use your phone.  The second reason is that I think it’s more likely to find the best signal once you are outside of the airport building.

It took many minutes and my phone didn’t indicate service while I was wanting to pull up Google Maps and verify my mass transit routing to my hotel.  I got frustrated and power cycled my phone.  After waiting again without luck, I decided to take the escalators up to the train platform and simply figure out my way without using my phone.  I also thought that there would be a better signal up there than down in the arrivals area.
By the time I had purchased a ticket and spoken with a transit authority to confirm the stop I would get off the train, my phone had found roaming service and was working fine.

Bell Mobility
LTE connection to Bell Mobility

My phone was on Bell Mobility and while it started with a GSM signal at first it quickly switched to LTE. I never got a Welcome to Canada SMS or message in Hangouts but I did capture the screen in the Fi app. The data speed seems to be the capped at 256 kbps that Fi provides when roaming, which is obviously much less than a LTE connection can provide, but still works decent enough for most things. I use the Signal Check app to know which carrier I connect to. Otherwise my just indicates the Fi Network.

Once I got to my hotel in downtown Vancouver, I powered on my Nexus 9 tablet which uses a data only SIM from Project Fi.   It found a Bell Mobility signal quickly and connected for data just fine.  One small difference between the data only SIM and the one in my phone, is that the tablet indicates it is roaming with a small R next to the signal icon, which does not appear on my phone’s display.  The speed in my tablet is also capped at 256 kbps even though the LTE connection is capable of faster speeds.  This is a contractual limitation with the international roaming agreements that Project Fi has with other carriers.  In the past I had used T-Mobile’s similar worldwide roaming which was half as fast, limited to 128 kbps.

I make a point of saving any tasks which require much data for when I am connected to a WiFi signal.  There were many WiFi access points in downtown Vancouver all though most were password protected.  I found it easy to get the password and connect while in my hotel, or at any of the places where I was drinking or eating.

Cell and WiFi data
Cellular and WiFi connections

Having phone and data service that easily roams at reasonable rates and speeds is important to me.  I don’t need to be able to stream video or require unlimited international roaming data.  Checking email, Google searches and maps, and a little bit of social media is all I really want to work well.  I previously found the T-Mobile service which was capped at 128 kbps was a bit slow but workable.  Using Project Fi now at 256 kbps there are less times when you notice it’s slower loading images in web pages or emails, but unlike the T-Mobile international data which was included at the slow speed without charge, the Project Fi international roaming data is charged at the same $10 per GB as your fast data when you are back in the US.  I just remind myself to defer uploading or posting pictures and videos until I have a WiFi connection, and everything works well within my expectations.

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