visiting USA, what Sim card

[rumpleforeskin]

Hi all,

I will be visiting California in a few weeks from the UK and am after recommendations for a Sim card.

I am mainly after the data so I can keep on top of my email and use Google maps when I'm about. I figure 2 gig of data at the most and a few texts

What's coverage like? I will be traveling from L.A. To San Fran then to Vegas via Yosemite. is there any providers I should avoid?

 

[santz]

i think on a prepaid contract for tourists, you can only get cdma phones, but i could be wrong

 

[fluffmonster]

US is not like Europe, it is much harder to just buy a SIM card and pop it in. Most carrier's networks are simply not compatible with European devices. If your phone is GSM, I think you are pretty much stuck with AT&T so maybe investigate a sim card from them.

 

[ImDonly1]

AT&T prepaid would be for you. Your phone needs 850/1900 3G bands for it to work. Don't buy direct from att though. Get a sim from their resellers either
1. Straight talk
2. Red pocket mobile
3. Jolt mobile

Straight talk is the cheapest by like $10 but more strict on data. They monitor data use per day and you can't use more than 150/mb day usually. It might be a hassle to deal with them for you.

Buy a sim only from them now or from eBay. I'm not sure which store sells their sims if you were to buy it in person.

Might be nice to have preloaded maps on the phone too? What kind of phone do you have?

 

[kubani1]

i used t-mobile last time i was in the US, it was okay, but my download speeds were always slow as hell, I would give AT&T a try if i were you, those are your only two options really. You can try www.usasims.com, but i have always just gone in store for a sim card once i arrived in the US, its never been an issue, it even works with cash passports, just use whatever address you are staying at in the US, if you are traveling around, use the address of your first destination.

OR, you can try this, www.holidayphone.co.uk. I have never tried this before though, so I cannot vouch for how good it is. I almost used it last time, but for some reason i decided not to, I'm never sure if these companies are to be trusted, but it might be legit.

have fun on your holiday

 

[Dulanic]

i used t-mobile last time i was in the US, it was okay, but my download speeds were always slow as hell, I would give AT&T a try if i were you, those are your only two options really. You can try www.usasims.com, but i have always just gone in store for a sim card once i arrived in the US, its never been an issue, it even works with cash passports, just use whatever address you are staying at in the US, if you are traveling around, use the address of your first destination.

OR, you can try this, www.holidayphone.co.uk. I have never tried this before though, so I cannot vouch for how good it is. I almost used it last time, but for some reason i decided not to, I'm never sure if these companies are to be trusted, but it might be legit.

have fun on your holiday

TMo is faster than AT&T most the time. At least, outside of LTE which you won't be getting.

 

[ImDonly1]

i used t-mobile last time i was in the US, it was okay, but my download speeds were always slow as hell, I would give AT&T a try if i were you, those are your only two options really. You can try www.usasims.com, but i have always just gone in store for a sim card once i arrived in the US, its never been an issue, it even works with cash passports, just use whatever address you are staying at in the US, if you are traveling around, use the address of your first destination.

OR, you can try this, www.holidayphone.co.uk. I have never tried this before though, so I cannot vouch for how good it is. I almost used it last time, but for some reason i decided not to, I'm never sure if these companies are to be trusted, but it might be legit.

have fun on your holiday

T-mobile was slow for you because your phone probably didn't support its 3g freq. That's why it's recommended to use ATT since they use more world friendly 3g bands.
T-mobile usually has faster 3g than ATT.

Also you can get the sims from ebay.co.uk and search for red pocket sim
or direct from the company
http://goredpocket.com/buy/ I think they ship to the UK
http://www.joltmobile.com/
http://straighttalksim.com/shop.php

 

[kubani1]

T-mobile was slow for you because your phone probably didn't support its 3g freq. That's why it's recommended to use ATT since they use more world friendly 3g bands.
T-mobile usually has faster 3g than ATT.

fair enough, but then all the more reason why us overseas visitors should go with AT&T

 

[rumpleforeskin]

AT&T prepaid would be for you. Your phone needs 850/1900 3G bands for it to work. Don't buy direct from att though. Get a sim from their resellers either
1. Straight talk
2. Red pocket mobile
3. Jolt mobile

Straight talk is the cheapest by like $10 but more strict on data. They monitor data use per day and you can't use more than 150/mb day usually. It might be a hassle to deal with them for you.

Buy a sim only from them now or from eBay. I'm not sure which store sells their sims if you were to buy it in person.

Might be nice to have preloaded maps on the phone too? What kind of phone do you have?

Thanks, some good info in this thread.

I will preload the maps for the places i intend to visit, should save me a good bit of data.
I have an unlocked HTC sensation, its quad band and i have used it in the states before but using my my own sim and paying the roaming charges soon adds up.

As i am going to be in the USA for alot longer this time i wanted to get a US sim to reduce my costs.

Looking through the sites you suggested it seems i would have to pay nearly $20 for a sim card that would come with no credit then add another $25 to get me 1gb data.

Do these prices sound representative of costs of using a Mobile (cell phone) in the USA?

 

[themillak]

you said your phone was a HTC Sensation so I'm assuming one of these: http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sQuickSearch=yes&sName=HTC+sensation . If you know which of the 4 (i didn't look that hard at the site) you have it should tell you which bands are available.

my wife and I have a yearly trip to the states, east coast though. Last time we bought a cheap phone through cricket and got unlimited calls and texts for $35 a month but the next time I think we're going to go with T-mobile. I don't know exactly if the phones have the right bands but their monthly plans looked great to us with unlimited but throttled internet: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans .

I left america before smartphones came out but I've been told that data is really expensive in the states. Currently I have options here in Israel for 5 GB for ~$14.40 or 10GB for ~$23.50 as a monthly rate so hearing $10/GB in the states sounds like a lot already to me.

 

[ImDonly1]

Then you can try direct from ATT goPhone
They have $25 for 250mins and unlimited text + $25 for 1 GB of data
SIM cards can be bought for $1 on eBay I think.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...jsp?wtSlotClick=1-007FTV-0-2&_requestid=14496

You won't get anything for less than $45-50 on ATT prepaid for talk, text, and smartphone data.

If you can get a t-mobile compatible phone, then you can get 100 mins, texts, and 5GB of data for $30/mo. You need a pentaband phone (galaxy nexus or some nokia phones) or a t-mobile branded phone (needs both 1700/2100 3g). This is the cheapest option.

Also, not sure if amazon.com will ship to you but... they have redpocket sims for $1
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...cket+sim&ajr=0
So does callingmart.com (i've used them before for refills)
http://sandbox.callingmart.com/call...l.aspx?ID=287&name=Red-Pocket-Mobile-SIM-Card
Lots of ebay sellers have them for $3-5.

 

[sunnysim]

I think visitor's should stuck with At&T only if they are using gsm phone and their purpose is to use the packet data!!!!At&T will be good choice for the Europe visitors!!!!