US phone US roaming and int'l calls
 

Hi,

I am in the UK and currrently use an iphone for calls and data. I travel a lot to the US and would like a phone to use there which I can use generally for US stuff but making quite a few calls back to UK.

Can anyone tell me what would be my best solution?

My 02 bill when I get back home, even with careful usage takes a massive hit!!

Thanks :)

You may want to search the forum. This has been touched on several times. Bottom line, if you have a phone that has the 1900 band, get a preactivated tmobile sim card on ebay, put it in your phone when you get here and start talking. Add $100 to it and that extends the life of the sime for 1 year. Any additional topup after that also extends it fo another year. If you have a phone with 850/1900 bands and you need data you can try AT&T. You can get the sims on ebay also.

T-Mobile is really expensive for international calls.

The other US GSM carrier, AT&T is less expensive, howevever, if you don't mind going with an MVNO then Tuyo is your best bet.

Testing may come in handy, both Tuyo (uses Tmobile's network) and Tmobile charge the same $0.10 for all txt, International and local. Yes, as mentioned, Tuyo has very good international rates.

Agree on Tuyo as a good solution because you can call back to the UK for only US ten cents a minute airtime plus a ten cent connect charge and either 1.5 cents (yes, under 2 cents a minute) international long distance to a land line or 26 cents/minute to most UK mobile phones. You can get a prepaid sim on ebay for about US$4 plus US$3 airmail to the UK. Can be refilled over the internet if you don't travel to the US for a while. Very professional and curteous customer service. Welcome to TúYo.com

Also suggest Jolt mobile for an AT&T prepaid reseller with cheap international long distance (airtime of 10 to 15 cents a minute plus 5 cents international long distance to the UK). I have an unactivated spare sim card you can have for free if you need one (PM me). Interesting thing on them is they has a US$50 card for one year of service plus some airtime if you don't want to worry about expiration dates on refills. Jolt! MOBILE |

What locations do you visit and how often are you here?

There are "dial-around" services where you can call lst world landlines for around 3 cents/min. (you would, of course, be paying for airtime if calling from your cell. You can dial them free from a landline.

...mike

Thanks for the responses guys, will check them out!

We are in Texas generally when in US, for 2-4 weeks per visit, every 4 to 6 weeks.

I don't know if you would use it enough - but there is a CDMA prepaid carrier (licensed, not an MVNO) called metropcs. (go to metropcs.com) They do cover Dallas, Houston, San Antonio. Cost is $40/mo for unlimited calling. Their intl rates are low. They are nationwide, but their coverage areas aren't nearly as broad as the main carrierrs. They only do prepaid.
If it costs 5 cents to call the UK, that's the total cost since "minutes" are unlimited.

There is a similar CDMA carrier that covers Texas called "Cricket" (mycricket.com) They also only do unlimited for the about the same price. Calls to UK landlines are 10 cents (30 to mobile). I think that is a few cents more than Metro (that part of Metro's site isn't working right now. Of course, since incoming would be "free", you could simply have people call you back from the UK at only a couple pence.

...mike

I use T-Mobile USA, and the long validity is a big plus. As others have mentioned, you can use a callthrough service - cheapphonecards.com has a couple of cards that don't cost very much to call the UK (Mega Clean Pinless being one), and once you set it up you don't have to enter a PIN any more. It states an expiration of 365 days, but I've been able to use them a long time after this.

You might also consider getting a T-Mobile UMA (Wi-Fi) phone, which allows you to use your US phone from any wireless router you have access to. That's pretty useful if you want to call the US from outside, as there's no roaming available.

Red Pocket is good for this, too. Normal rates, plus one cent per minute, to call the UK except for mobiles. I think it's 17 additional cents (instead) for UK mobiles.