Brief visit to US
 

My wife is visiting the US for approx 16 days in Sep/Oct.

We have unlocked HTC Desires in Australia.

I have looked and seems like the AT&T GoPhone pay as you go plans are the go - probably the $2 daily plan with a data package.

https://www.paygonline.com/websc/rat...ateplan_en.jsp

So can she walk into any AT&T store and sign up and get a SIM? She has a SSN if that's important.

Yes, she can walk into an AT&T store and get a sim no need for SSN or anything. Better yet, she can get a sim/cheap phone package at one of the many stores, walmart, kmart, radioshack, target, etc. Same thing with Tmobile. Also, tmobile has the $1.49/day unlimited data package.

You should be able to get the SIMs at lots of places besides AT&T stores, such as Walmart and Target.

One thing to watch: if you buy the cheap phone + SIM package with AT&T, the SIM is locked to that phone for awhile (six months?). I understand you can activate them in a different phone but then it will be locked to that phone for the six months. (If the SIM gets locked to a phone, it simply won't work with any other phones until the lock expires.)

I think you'll find in the US that it's not that simple to get just a SIM starter pack and that you'll most likely not be able to get one at Walmart or Target. If you want a starter pack you'll need to go to a corporate store. Walmart and Target do sell prepaid phones with starter kits in the package, but not just a starter pack by itself. It's not like Europe where you can go to any corner store and buy a starter pack.

As 'Telekom' says. You will NOT find SIM starter kits at non cell phone stores.

You might have to buy the cheapest phone to get a SIM at a Walmart or a Target type store. Best Buy might have SIMs available. But unless you are right next to one you have better things to do with your time.

Have you considered Tru? They have 'home' rates for US and Austrailia [and the UK] without a monthly charge [now] and can be kept alive for future use by using it every 90 days.

Thanks - seems the data plans are new - no $25 data plan for mobiles. Any reason an "iPad" data plan won't work for a smartphone (I don't understand data plans specific to devices????).

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-pho...nect-plans.jsp

It might work in a smartphone, but it won't support voice calls. Don't think of it as an iPad plan, think of it as a plan for tablet devices that don't need voice access.

(I've not tried it in a phone - I can't right now since I'm in Canada - but Rogers' iPad plan doesn't work at all in phones so it wouldn't surprise me if AT&T's doesn't either.)

So what are the options for a data plan add on to a smart phone? I don't see a $25 pack ...... is 5gb for $60 the only option?

True, but as the SIM-plus-phone packs can cost as little as $15 in retail stores, it might be a quicker and easier option to do this.

There is a 100 or 200 MB option for about $25. I used it in Boca Raton, Florida last May.

One other option for you is T-Mobile USA, although its 3G frequency is incompatible with most 3G phones. They have a day pass for Internet access that is quite attractive.

What we were saying was:: "Good luck finding one!"

They have a lot of better things to do with their time than finding a 'SIM only pack'. Stores may or may not have them. In my experience they do not--almost never.

You might get $30 .... 4g t-mobile plan and get 30MB web. Speed may slow after 30MB rather than unavailable. I would check that out. If just email this may do it.

So my wife went into a AT&T store and they told her it won't work - apprently they even tested it and it didn't work.

Not sure why - HTC Desire is:

HSPA/WCDMA: 850/2100 MHz
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Isn't the above compatible with AT&T GSM?

@alect
AT&T runs GSM and UMTS at 850 and 1900 MHz, so your HTC Desire is definitely AT&T compatible. Since it supports GSM at 850 and 1900 MHz it will work on their 2G network and as you obviously own the version sold by Telstra (Model A8183), which also supports UMTS at 850 MHz it will even work on most of AT&T's 3G network. Only those 3G cells running at 1900 MHz will be inaccessible to your phone, but these places will surely be covered by 2G. So the only effect of the lacking UMTS1900-support is that at some places you won't get 3G and thus no broadband speed. But that's not an issue for voice calls at all.

So what is their problem? Is there a data issue? HSDPA?

They are just incompetent I guess. AT&T use exactly the same network standards as the rest of the GSM/UMTS-world including HSPA. Even if your phone wasn't compatible with their 3G network (e.g. if you had a European HTC Desire which supports UMTS only at 900 and 2100 MHz), it would still work on AT&T's 2G network.
There shouldn't be any issue except for a slightly inferior 3G coverage due to your phone not supporting UMTS at 1900 MHz.

That's what I said to my wife. Apparently the guy in the store put in a demo prepaid SIM into the phone and it didn't work so they told her not to buy since there is no refund and it doesn't seem to work.

Is it just a matter of manually rescanning networks to pickup AT&T?

It should find the network even automatically, which may take a bit longer upon the first use. I recently read of AT&T SIMs being tied to the phone, in which they are used for the first time, for six months - if that is true that perhaps is the reason your phone couldn't register with that certain SIM.
Lastly you should rule out that you phone has a SIM lock. But the guy should have seen and told that if that was the case.

Phone definitely doesn't have SIM lock as it was recently used in Italy and Netherlands with local SIMs.

Then your wife should perhaps try it at another AT&T store with more competent staff.

Just buy a SIM - you're only gambling $15. There is no reason why it shouldn't work, as long as your phone is functioning correctly and is unlocked.

Internet access USA?
 

We will be in the US for 6 weeks next year,we're thinking of buying an Android tablet for the lighter weight[than laptop]what is the best way and approxiamate price to access unlimited usuage on a prepaid plan internet for the 6 weeks we are there? What will we need to buy to use this system[stick,simcard for 3G etc?]:confused:

It is not unlimited, but ATT has a 3g plan for $25 a month for 2 gigs of data for tablets. Virgin USA uses CDMA technology, but has an unlimited plan for $50 a month, but you'll be paying $150 for the MiFi.

Forget the poor data offerings in the US, use wi-fi. It's nearly universal in hotels. High end and extreme low-end hotels may charge, but it's generally free. Most vacation rentals (holiday flats) should have free wi-fi. McDonalds, Starbucks, bookshops, libraries etc have free wi-fi.

So unless you have a particular need for internet access on the move, you could save a lot of expense and bother by just using internet in your hotel, or while having a coffee or eating a burger.

Even for navigation there's a variety of android apps that will download the maps in advance (while you have wi-fi) so that you can use them later.

Much simpler to get a tablet that only does wi-fi (rather than some form of 3G) as well.

I travelled for months around the US and Canada this summer and never found a need for GSM/3G data, there's so much free wi-fi around.

There's generally no need to stay at the hotel or buy something at the restaurant. I've gotten good WiFi signals from their parking lots ;)

One annoyance is that almost every hotspot will want you to agree to their terms and conditions every time you're in range. One US hotel that I stayed at a week ago had something like 50 hotspots in the facility [the highest number I saw was hotelname48] and I'd have to re-agree every time my smartphone got handed over to a different hotspot as I walked through the hotel. This gets very annoying very fast.

One bit of good news: Most hotels have fast broadband connections and no apparent data limits. I was able to download several GBs of TV shows as I travelled at speeds faster than I get on DSL at home.


Any suggestions for Android Gingerbread?

I don't have a data plan on my smartphone. The only time I find this to be a real problem is when I'm at the dentist's or lawyer's office and their WiFi is protected. Also some public facilities, e.g. at airports or hospitals, have a paywall on their hotspots at ~$10/day.

All the above info is useful but most of the time we will be travelling in our car,chasing the storms and really need to have access to LIVE coverage of radar pictures,so I assume we would satelite connection?[Hotspot,stick,etc etc]but pay as you go type set up...

Check out the offerings by AT&T and Tmobile (they recently added quite a few more options) and see which one will suit you.

Unless you're in a rural area of the west (which doesn't generally have the type of storms I assume you're chasing) then cellphone (mobile phone) data should be enough, you don't need satellite.

Others have mentioned the payg offers from AT&T and T-Mobile, although you'll probably find they're only at 2G speeds (similar to dial up) in some country areas (so it'll make downloading the animated radars difficult!).

Since your safety depends on it, it's probably worth getting at least two options, from different carriers. There will be holes in the coverage of any network (especially if a storm is just going through...).

If you get a mobile router to plug the stick into you can use more than one device with it.

There's also Truconnect TruConnect Mobile - Contract Free 3G Mobile Internet for Laptop and iPad that uses the Sprint network, I've no idea how good they are (I don't think anybody here's tried them yet).

Don't forget a NWS weather radio of course, low tech but a good backup.