Hello Bradut,
Welcome to the community!
Unfortunately, I don't think that is a service Fido offers. In fact, I'm not aware of any providers providing that service. They used to offer an email-to-text service, however, as far as I am aware, that feature has been discontinued.
I do understand not wishing to use Fido Roam for only a few SMS. If you did not wish to use Fido Roam, you might consider opting-out of the feature. In doing so, any usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. You can view those rates here. If you wished to opt-out of Fido Roam, you would need to contact customer service. In addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
That said, the Fido Roam charges will only incur if your phone uses services -- make or receive a call, send a text message or use data abroad. Merely receiving SMS does not incur roaming charges. It should be mentioned that while receiving SMS would not incur the roaming charge, any data contained within MMS (incoming or outgoing) would be considered roaming data and charged accordingly. You should note that MMS are not solely restricted to pictures or video messages. Messages with subject headers or group messages etc are also considered MMS. It should further be noted that iMessages and RCS messages are sent (and received) as data and not as text messages (SMS).
In order to prevent unintended roaming charges, it is generally recommended to disable data and roaming data. However, you should note that disabling those settings does not prevent roaming for voice and messaging. In addition, some manufacturers might allow some data usage to occur despite those settings (see here). That's why it is also generally recommended to enable Airplane and/or Flight modes in order to prevent unintended roaming usage. You could then manually enable Wifi when required. However, enabling Airplane / Flight mode would also prevent your device from receiving SMS using the local cellular networks. You would need to ensure your device does not use other services when connected to receive the SMS.
Alternatively, if your plan and device are supported for Wifi-calling, that feature could be an option. Rather than connecting to the cellular towers, your device would be connected to the network via their internet gateway (see image here). As such, using Wifi-calling is technically using Fido services. However, they have allowed certain usage to be free from additional charges. All the messages and calls you receive (from anywhere in the world) will be taken from your plan's voice minutes and messaging limits. As well, all Wifi-calling messages and calls you make to a Canadian phone number while abroad won't incur long-distance or roaming charges (see link above).
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello again,
If roaming is disabled on your account, you would not be able to use any services outside of Canada.
@bradut wrote:
...I was thinking that maybe I should try with voicemail, but didn't know how to call Fido's voicemail services from abroad, so I gave up....
Checking your voicemail from your device would entail calling the voicemail access number. As such, accessing your voicemail while connected to the cellular networks would incur roaming charges. That said, since checking your voicemail entails calling a Canadian phone number, you should not incur roaming charges for checking your voicemail with Wifi-calling. You would need to ensure your device is connected via Wifi-calling, though. However, I don't think either method would work if roaming is disabled on your account.
If you have access to a different phone capable of making International or long-distance calls, you might be able to access your voicemail by calling your own phone number to access the voicemail system (see here). However, that would likely be a long-distance call for that other phone line.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
