Prepaid SIM only. USA then Canada
 

Hi,

Please help confused Aussie traveller :confused:

I am travelling to Hawaii (1 week) , San Francisco (1 week), Vancouver Canada (2 weeks).

I have a Nokia 6234 Quad band + 3G unlocked phone.

I am looking for a prepaid SIM only provider that will give me coverage in both of the USA cities and let me roam to Canada. Also I need data (preferably 3G)

Can anyone suggest the provider and name of package/product that would best suit me.

Any help is much appreciated. :)

I am mainly using the phone for incoming calls (international) and to check my emails (hence the need for data)

Cheers!

Getting affordable data on prepaid GSM here is tricky.

For voice: options:

T-Mobile US - cheap in US, 69 cents US a minute in Canada
Cingular - cheapish in US, no service in Canada on prepaid
Rogers - cheapish in Canada, expensive roaming in US
Fido - cheap in Canada, not sure if it roams in US or not

There are some virtual operators, too.

As for data, T-Mobile supports basic data only (you might get full Internet access but it's not officially supported). If it works it's free. It is not 3G.

There is very little 3G coverage in North America yet. In Canada, the Toronto area has it but Vancouver is still being deployed. We do have EDGE and GPRS though.

Note also that North American 3G deployments are so far incompatible with UMTS phones from anywhere else.

Do you mean 1900 vs 2100 band or something else?

Thanks for info. Looks like just GPRS for data.

Also i think getting 2 separate SIMS would be better than 1 then using roaming, if i get a big call (which may happen as I do tech support) then roaming charges will mean big $$.

Can anyone see a problem with this offer by Cellularabroad?

Both SIMS shipped together to my hotel in Hawaii.
USA SIM $59 via JOLT: http://www.cellularabroad.com/usppsc.php
Canada SIM $49 via Rogers: http://www.cellularabroad.com/canadappsc.php

Thanks for this help its great to talk to people who know the industry so well.

Thanks for info.

I think getting 2 separate SIMS would be better than 1 then using roaming, if i get a big call (which may happen as I do tech support) then roaming charges will mean big $$.

Can anyone see a problem with this offer by Cellularabroad?

Both SIMS shipped together to my hotel in Hawaii.
USA SIM $59 via JOLT: http://www.cellularabroad.com/usppsc.php
Canada SIM $49 via Rogers: http://www.cellularabroad.com/canadappsc.php

Thanks for this help its great to talk to people who know the industry so well.

Here ya go:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=824482

This is a list of all prepaid SIMs in the US and Canada.
No US prepaid SIMs work in Canada, and from what I remember with my Fido experience, their prepaid does not roam in the US.

T-Mobile prepaid works in Canada. I have it and I've tried it.

Europe seems to be using 2100 MHz for UMTS.

In North America it's different. Rogers has HSDPA (3.5G) on GSM 850 and 1900. T-Mobile is deploying either UMTS or HSDPA at 1700 MHz as I understand.

They start 3G on the most interestng frequencies over there. Not compatible to the rest of the world as usual ;-)

I cant find any SIM only deals for T-Mobile. All have a phone.

Tmobile prepaids are a dime a dozen on eBay.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...ims&category0=

Thats right, if you are already in the USA.

A lot of sellers will ship abroad, and many will do so even if they don't explicitly say so. Just ask them.

Most will ship to outside of the US - just ask :-)

In the US these are the frequencies:

GSM 850 and GSM 1900
UMTS 850, UMTS 1900, UMTS 1700

Next year with the 700Mhz spectrum on the auction block, we'll probably see more lol

However............
 

Sure, ASK! Email is still free.

I do some selling on Ebay. I have sold and shipped to CANADA; actually, that was a SIM card. Most often I have had ?s from Africa or S America. I have never agreed to ship anywhere else. I RISKED it with CANADA and it turned out that the buyer received the card ok. NORMALLY, I INSIST on insurance and a delivery confirmation and that is always included in my higher than normal shipping.

The USPS is very particular. I could not get a delivery confirmation to CANADA on a regular airmail shipment. For an EXHORBITANT price increase (probably 5 times the value of a US SIM card on eBay), you can ship overseas priority or some other means. I just don't think it would be worth it for the buyer.

A SIM card is thin and weighs only a few grams. Just put it in a first-class airmail letter (tape it to a piece of card slightly smaller than the envelope to keep it from shifting around). This costs 84 cents to most destinations and takes 4-6 days. No need to mess with special delivery/registered mail/etc that costs more than the SIM is worth. http://ircalc.usps.gov/

Tell the buyer to understand and accept any delivery "risks" this involves; it's not like that many letters go missing (between industrialized countries, at least). Another way to guarantee delivery is to make the buy two SIMS and send them in separate envelopes from different places. That's $1.68 and one of them is bound to arrive.

With reasonable international shipping costs, you'll probably sell a lot more of them.

I bought my T-Mobile SIM from an American seller. No problems. It was simply mailed in a first class envelope as Motel75 suggested.

I don't use sellers that force me to use expensive shipping methods if it doesn't make sense for the product. If I am going to spend $15 to get a $10 item shipped, why wouldn't I be willing to pay a dollar and roll the dice on it arriving? It seems silly to pay more than a product cost to make sure I am going to get it when it would be cheaper to just buy another product.

For SIM cards I agree. I only had ONE, an ECO-global, to sell out of the country.

I have sold other items like a laptop shell, Treo 600 among others that don't go for 84 cents. Since the value is usually higher than a SIM card, I want to insure the item AND have confirmation of delivery.

Stan

Aha, I thought you meant you'd sent lots of SIMs with special delivery. Seemed like a bit too much packaging...