Brief visit to US

[PhotoJim]

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.)

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by alect

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.

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.

[dennism3]

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.

[alect]

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?

[inquisitor]

@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.

[alect]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

@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?

[inquisitor]

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.

[alect]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

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 should absolutely be no 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?

[inquisitor]

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.

[alect]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

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.