iOS devices roaming in America (US)

culabula

I have a friend shortly heading off to the U.S. for a short tour. He will be armed with an iPad and an iPhone (unlocked).

Sometime back, someone mentioned in this forum the PAYG options that there are available over there in terms of both voice and data (but especially data) that roamers could avail of.

Is anyone knowledgeable about short-term plans available on microSIM?

culabula

BUMP!

whiterebel

Hang on Culabula, YOU'RE normally the one we go to with that sort of query...:eek:

kellsred

culabula wrote: »

I have a friend shortly heading off to the U.S. for a short tour. He will be armed with an iPad and an iPhone (unlocked).

Sometime back, someone mentioned in this forum the PAYG options that there are available over there in terms of both voice and data (but especially data) that roamers could avail of.

Is anyone knowledgeable about short-term plans available on microSIM?

Got this from a thread from last week.....

Type 17 wrote: »

Yes, tape it to your hand and you'll be fine

Seriously though, how long are you going for, and is your iPhone unlocked? - would it make sense to buy a local US prepaid SIM online?

I went to Chicago for two weeks last year and ordered a T-Mobile SIM from www.mrsimcard.com. It cost about €70, but gave me free data and local calls for the duration. The way the US travel apps, maps, restaurant finders etc work so well made it worthwhile, and it was a great aid to the trip.

Roaming on my Irish network and using the data I did would have cost over €200

The Big Gig

Just a bit of advice if you go with foreign sim is that when you put the sim in you may get the connect to itunes message on the iphone because its a new sim. even on factory unlocked iphones. Not nice if you are not near a computer.

Kensington

Thing to watch out for though is T-Mobile's USA 3G network is at 1700MHz, which is not supported by either the iPhone or the iPad. While you'll get calls and texts fine, you will only receive GPRS/EDGE for data service, not 3G. EDGE is grand for checking your e-mails and light browsing but for youtube, streaming radio, skype, Viber etc. over EDGE, forget it!

If you want/need 3G, then you're going to have to go with AT&T, as Verizon use CDMA-2000 and EV-DO network technology (instead of GSM and UMTS) and do not use SIM cards so are completely out of the question.

culabula

The Big Gig wrote: »

Just a bit of advice if you go with foreign sim is that when you put the sim in you may get the connect to itunes message on the iphone because its a new sim. even on factory unlocked iphones. Not nice if you are not near a computer.

Has never happened in my experience and I sim-swap all the time.

dar83

If it's any use to you, I was over there (New Jersey/NYC) early last year and I just walked into an AT&T store and got a PAYG sim card without any hassle. The guy in the shop just used the stores zip code when the system asked for it.
Think I paid ~$27 inc. tax for something like $20 credit and an additional $5 for 1000 texts at the time. The plan it was worked that if I used the phone at all in any day it cost me $1 of the Credit, but then calls to local numbers were something like 15c a minute and to other AT&T numbers were free I think.

I was just honest with the guy when I went in. Told him I was only there for a week and only needed a sim card for that long, he didn't seem to have any problem with it.

The Big Gig

culabula wrote: »

Has never happened in my experience and I sim-swap all the time.

Weird,
happened to me last month going to US, my phone wasnt jailbroken and wanted to put my sim into wifes phone that was jailbroken to do facetime over 3g. we are on same network. actually come to think of it her phone wasnt unlocked,so maybe that was why it did it.