U.S. sim card when travelling?

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regder said:
Buy a sim online or at Best Buy, I suggest online as BB gouged me for ~$25. Call them up and sign up. Can't remember if I gave them my real address or a fake US one, I think the latter. It's prepaid so it doesn't matter
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i called t mobile today and to set this plan up you have to have a u.s credit card( how they know i have no idea) and has to be shipped to a u.s. address. For this plan I read alot online and people said you could NOT buy this at the store, only online and some walmarts but walmart apparently is spotty with the $30 plan.

Im confused : (
 
Lightcycle said:
Spent 3 months in the US with an AT&T pay as you go SIM card with data. Got speeds of (pseudo) 4G pretty much all over the west coast even where they said service would be spotty. Very happy with the service.

Here is a coverage map for voice/data: http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/?wtLinkName=BroadbandConnectEDGEGPRSCoverage&wtLinkLoc=RN

I've heard bad things about roammobility coverage in non-metropolitan areas. Do your own due diligence.
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See this is what I thought would be good, but when I called them insisted you dont get 4g coverage with the prepaid plans at all! Actually said you will be lucky to get data, but voice would be perfect. Did you bring your own phone wiith you?
 
ajaxguy said:
i called t mobile today and to set this plan up you have to have a u.s credit card( how they know i have no idea) and has to be shipped to a u.s. address. For this plan I read alot online and people said you could NOT buy this at the store, only online and some walmarts but walmart apparently is spotty with the $30 plan.

Im confused : (
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The Walmart rep that I spoke to when I tried to set it up said that they only do new activations if you buy a phone from them, they wouldn't even sell me a sim card. This is fairly consistent with what I read online. If you get your hands on a sim card, you can call in and they will give you the $30 "WalMart" plan.
 
ajaxguy said:
See this is what I thought would be good, but when I called them insisted you dont get 4g coverage with the prepaid plans at all! Actually said you will be lucky to get data, but voice would be perfect. Did you bring your own phone wiith you?
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AT&T reps are told to strongly discourage the use of pre-paid data on 3G+ capable devices like iPhones. When you pick up a SIM chip from a store (they're free of charge), I told them I only wanted voice on it, then activated the data plan online at: http://paygonline.com

You don't need a US credit card, just enter 00000 when asked for a zip code.

We brought our own unlocked iPhones to the US. You have to pay extra to enable tethering if you're using stock iPhones, but if you jailbreak it, there are apps that will get around this restriction. Android tethering apps shouldn't have this issue.

Here's the pricing guide.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/prepaidplans.html

You have to have some kind of voice plan first, so the cheapest for a month was $25. Then we added 1GB for $25. Total $50 for the month.
 
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The only problem with going with the at&t plan is if you're calling back to Canada a lot it will cost a fortune.
 
Lightcycle said:
$6.67/month unlimited Canadian calls.
Skype-to-landline: http://www.skype.com/en/rates/
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If you are going that route voip.ms does unlimited calling for $5 per month. You can even get a toll free number so people can call you long distance for free. You can also forward the number in the event of a no answer.
 
Thats why the t mobile one is golden! $30 a month with 5gb of data and then $10 add on for unlimited calling to canada! $40 all in!
 
regder said:
The Walmart rep that I spoke to when I tried to set it up said that they only do new activations if you buy a phone from them, they wouldn't even sell me a sim card. This is fairly consistent with what I read online. If you get your hands on a sim card, you can call in and they will give you the $30 "WalMart" plan.
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You might also need an activation kit, I can get a sim no problem but then need an activationkey ,but maybe with the plan you wont need it. Maybe I should give a u.s. walmart a call.
 
ajaxguy said:
You might also need an activation kit, I can get a sim no problem but then need an activationkey ,but maybe with the plan you wont need it. Maybe I should give a u.s. walmart a call.
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Whenever you buy a sim, it comes with the activation kit (pretty sure at least)
 
Voip.ms on 3G is very unreliable.

For canadian / international calls originating from US using the ATT SIM card issue, I use the services from Call Select with a US access number. Call Select is a canadian (?) post paid long distance service with reasonable rates and good voice quality. For the phone (an older unlocked Rogers phone) I am using a GoPhone prepaid SIM card from ATT, $100 credit is good for a year, and charges are $2 per day for unlimited nationwide calls (US) paid only for the days when calls are placed. The only major drawback with this service is the poor coverage for the midwest and mountains.
 
I use voip.ms every single day for my business on 3g. No problems here. Maybe it has something to do with your hardware?

Plus the $5/mo is for unlimited calling. There is a $1/mo that keeps your number and it's $0.015 per minute. If you are going to use less than 266 minutes a month go with the $1 plan. If more go with the $5.
 
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I usually just walk into the first Wally World of Best Buy I find and pick up a pay-as-you-go cell. The cheapest that they have. I don't need some fancy whiz-bang smart phone and if I need my own phone book, I still have my original phone with me.
 
Last summer when I went to Florida:
AT&T: buy our phone ($100), put the sim in your iPhone, give us $50 a month plus a $500 deposit.
T-Mobile: Pay us $20 for credit and then get $2/day for unlimited use subtracted each day you use it.

So yeah, just to to T-Mobile. iPhone is only EDGE speeds but for $2/day it's fine.
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