Ask Slashdot: Best Smartphone Plan For a US Vacation?

SJrX writes "I am planning on visiting the Pacific Northwest for several weeks, and was looking for the best smartphone option available. Roaming data rates and SMS rates are ridiculously high (best plans are $0.80 / MB, and $0.75 / message). Beyond AT&T and Verizon Prepaid, are there any other options? (I'm on an iPhone 4 so GSM is a must.) I assume in the US, I have no credit history for which to qualify for a plan, and a contract is obviously out of the question. Data and SMS are the only important things, with a few hundred minutes being plenty. I'm only planning on being in the US for 2 or 3 weeks, but mainly in rural areas (US Route 101) so large (3G) coverage is important."

Comments

AT&T

[Moderator]

Hello,

Normally, I would recommend Simple Mobile which is contract-free using the T-Mobile network. $60 will get you unlimited everything. Since you have an iPhone though, and 3G is a must, you are probably stuck using AT&T's 3G network. That probably means getting a SIM card and then paying $75/mo for a whopping 200MB on the Pay as you Go plan. But hey, at least you will get 4G.

Welcome to America.

Re:AT&T

[Hal_Porter]

When I was in the US I got a GoPhone pay as you go SIM card and 100MB data for $20. Which is a terrible deal by the standards of most places but it did the job if I needed net access. AT&T seemed like a good option as I was travelling a lot.

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/prepaid-feature-packages.jsp

Actually if you get one of those coupon magazines (e.g. http://www.roomsaver.com/ or http://www.travelcouponguide.com/) you can easily get a discount on an already cheap hotel (e.g. Best Western) which has wifi and do your emailing there. The coupons work during the week when the hotels are empty but the hotel has an option to refuse them if they are busy during the weekend. It's best to call ahead before you check in. Incidentally expensive hotels - the sort your company will check you into - will often charge an outrageous amount for Wifi if you walk in off the street in addition to an already outrageous non discounted (aka Rack) room rate.

Incidentally if you go to the UK get a Tesco Mobile Pay As You go Card. They have a £2 (i.e US$3) per week unlimited data option. You sign up by SMS - they charge you the £2 and subscribe you. It will auto renew each week and charge you another £2 but you can opt out at any time, in which case it will run to the end of the week and then not renew.

http://phone-shop.tesco.com/tesco-mobile/help-and-support/bundles.aspx

So you get unlimited data for about US$14 per month. You can pick up the SIM card from any Tesco store. Tesco is a ubiquitous supermarket, so it's not hard to find one anywhere in the UK.

It's not always HSDPA - you'll drop down to GPRS if you're not near a base station. Still it is unlimited (well subject to an ill defined fair use policy). I.e. it's a much better deal than the AT&T one in the US. Tesco is an MVNO using the O2 network, so the coverage isn't too bad. In fact I've travelled around the UK quite a bit and apart from dropping down to GPRS it seems like it works almost everywhere.

It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

Leave your iPhone behind and buy a local prepaid.

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Border guards have a hardon for smartphones. Leave your laptop behind too. What I'm trying to figure out is why anyone in their right mind would cross our border willingly, for a vacation no less.

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of us don't.....

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

Never again! US has lost my tourist dollars (and they would have been significant). Americans, get your heads out your collective arses,

Re:It's not a must

[anexkahn]

you could buy a phone on metro PCS, then sell it on ebay when you are done with your vacation. Metro PCS has unlimited everything plans for $45/month http://www.metropcs.com/plans/default.aspx?tab=family

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm many of us do have our collective heads out of our asses. Problem is our politicians do not answer to us anymore, they answer to our corporate overlords. We can voice our displeasure at the ballot box, but it does no good. Apparently not enough of us are unhappy enough to violently revolt. And I doubt anyone will violently revolt until forced to do so, by some serious dysfunction, say starvation... Seems to me that the only people who will revolt BEFORE things get too bad are the French.

Re:It's not a must

[syousef]

This. Border guards have a hardon for smartphones. Leave your laptop behind too. What I'm trying to figure out is why anyone in their right mind would cross our border willingly, for a vacation no less.

There are some things in the U.S. and Canada I'd have like to have seen (and photographed!) before I died. Niagra falls, The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, The Canadian Rockies. But I am very much put off by the idea of being finger-printed and possibly having some TSA agent's bad day turn into my bad lifetime or having my things seized and not returned. And now that I have a family it's not just me that I have to think of. I can imagine entering into some twilight reality where my 3 year old talking back to a TSA agent results in him being injured or us all being held indefinitely. So though I'm only in my mid 30s, and my children will grow up, I doubt that I will ever be able to justify a trip to the US to see these things. I'm not the only one. C'est la vie.

Re:It's not a must

[Dzimas]

Uh, Canada is a separate country. We don't have the TSA. We don't require fingerprinting, photographs or genital groping to enter the country.

Re:It's not a must

[kimvette]

Americans, get your heads out your collective arses,

A lot of us see Homeland Stupidity, er, Homeland Security Theater for what is is: an opportunity to get rich on the backs of taxpayers, and gain power in the process with little to nothing in return. Some of us prefer to go with Israeli-style security which actually works (you know, actually TALK to people and observe their reactions, and apply this scientific principle called PROFILING) which would preserve our freedoms.

However, many more of us have been suckered and buy into the idea that the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method won't work because it would "offend" possible terrorists since it requires profiling, so instead we require sexual assault of babies and adolescents, kiddy pornographic pictures, and humiliating parapelegics and mentally challenged by forcing them to leave their wheelchairs if they want to fly, and we have bought into the idea that it needs to cost hundreds of billions of dollars for the kiddy pron machines which flood passengers with ionizing radiation levels far higher than that of the Fukushima reactor leaks. Those same people think it is acceptable to exchange essential liberties for a little temporary apparent safety.

Not all of us have our heads up our asses- we're simply out-voted on election days.

Re:It's not a must

[zuperduperman]

Depending where you're coming from it can be highly likely that your flight to Canada will involve a connection through the US - in which case, yep, you're getting fingerprinted and anything else they want to do with you.

(Yes, with enough effort / expense one can certainly get flights that enter direct ... I just want to point out that the US system is perverse enough to capture even people who are just transiting through and treat them like criminals too.)

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

Vacations are nicer when you turn off the phone. Keep one for emergencies but don't plan on using it.

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah you just taser people to death instead.

Re:It's not a must

[Jesse_vd]

Ah yes, the biggest, most violent Canadian gang, the RCMP.
There's asshole cops everywhere, man.

Re:It's not a must

[Sassinak]

I beg to differ, as someone that flys through Canada, I can most assuredly tell you that if you are not a Canadian citizen you get everything you get on the US side. Personally speaking north america is an off-limits place as far as myself, my family, my businesses, and my money (directly) are concerned.

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that bad at all. We've just come to Vegas for a week and rented car to go to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.

Absolutely no problem with airport security. Fingerprinting's not bad. What do you think they're going to do with 100s of thousands of prints? They'll just delete them, same as your arrival cards.

Re:It's not a must

[davester666]

It's not even if you stop over in the US. If a wingtip of your plane enters US airspace, they demand the privilege of gripping your package and going through your laptop [or vice versa].

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Border guards have a hardon for smartphones. Leave your laptop behind too. What I'm trying to figure out is why anyone in their right mind would cross our border willingly, for a vacation no less.

There are some things in the U.S. and Canada I'd have like to have seen (and photographed!) before I died. Niagra falls, The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, The Canadian Rockies. But I am very much put off by the idea of being finger-printed and possibly having some TSA agent's bad day turn into my bad lifetime or having my things seized and not returned. And now that I have a family it's not just me that I have to think of. I can imagine entering into some twilight reality where my 3 year old talking back to a TSA agent results in him being injured or us all being held indefinitely. So though I'm only in my mid 30s, and my children will grow up, I doubt that I will ever be able to justify a trip to the US to see these things. I'm not the only one. C'est la vie.

Fly in to Canada, rent a car and cross the US border in northern Montana. Head over to Glacier National Park, then swing down through Yellowstone, hit up the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, and then head back North and cross back to Canada in Washington State. Or alternately, come down through British Columbia into Washington State, hit Yosemite and the Canyon then swing up through the Tetons and Yellowstone Park, and you can either head up to Glacier in Montana or cut over to the Dakotas.
The big thing is to avoid the Airport in the US itself. Canada does have security, but it's on par with other countries and you don't have to worry about being Gate-Raped by some Gorilla in a TSA uniform. Sure, you expose yourself to border laptop searches, but honestly if you use the smaller crossings (like in MT) they aren't going to bother you nearly as much as if you use the ones over by New York, or the Mexican border.

Re:It's not a must

[Anonymous Coward]

You can see Niagara Falls and the The Rockies without entering the US. In fact the view of the falls is considerably better from the Canadian side. Of course Canada is a BIG country, and Niagara and The Rockies are separated by a significant proportion of it. I think Via Rail has Vancouver to Toronto vacation packages where you stop at interesting points across the way though.

You also don't have to deal with the TSA if you fly to and from Canada and make a land crossing to the US to do the tourist thing. From what I've heard, long distance passenger trains in the US are not the greatest so getting from Canada to Yosemite or the Grand Canyon and back might be worse than the TSA goons.

Re:It's not a must

[Belial6]

Mine are not. I like finding the cool out of the way places that are really good in cities I am passing through. I like not getting lost in the worst parts of town. I like being able to take month long vacations traveling around the country that wouldn't happen at all if I kept my work bound to a desk instead of working from the back seat while traveling between sites.

Re:It's not a must

[dmatos]

Come to Canada soon, then. King Stephen Harper has a majority government, thanks to our idiotic First Past the Post voting system, and he's got a real hard-on for US-style politics. He's already announced some plans for a North American security perimeter in conjunction with the States.

Ugh. I need to move somewhere further north and more socialist.

Re:It's not a must

[mcvos]

What I'm trying to figure out is why anyone in their right mind would cross our border willingly, for a vacation no less.

While I love travelling and have never been to the US so far, I've accepted that I probably won't be going there for the foreseeable future. Not with their policies and politics being the way they are, unless I have a really, really compelling reason to go there. It's a shame, because there are a lot of really cool places and people in the US that I'd love to see and meet, but that will have to wait until the country becomes somewhat sane again (I'm not holding my breath).

Re:It's not a must

[sincewhen]

I feel the same way.

Funny thing is, it used to be that if you were making a border crossing in some "uncivilised" countries in Africa or the Middle East say, you would be taking a chance on being detained and hassled for no good reason. Now you can get that kind of service from the good ol' USA!.

no luck

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have an European GSM it probably can only work on T-Mobile's 3G network, where the coverage is spotty. They do have prepaid cards, but prices won't be cheap.

Re:no luck

[Macrat]

A T-Mobile prepay "Pay as you Go" SIM isn't expensive...

Unless you are a chatter box and use a ton of minutes.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx

Re:no luck

[realityimpaired]

If you give up on using data, a European phone will work on ATT's network as a GSM phone. As long as it's a quad-band phone you're fine. Their pay-as-you-go option is $2/day for unlimited nationwide long distance, local talk, and nationwide texting, and you only get billed on days you use it. Obscenely expensive by European standards, but fairly reasonable by NA standards.

But there are better options out there. Depending on the length of the trip, you may want to get a monthly plan, or look into other providers. Where you're going also has a significant impact on which carrier you choose, as I understand that some carriers have non-existant coverage in some areas and that none of the US carriers have truly nationwide coverage.

Plan to put down your smartphone

[sackvillian]

You did say vacation, right?

Re:Plan to put down your smartphone

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you suggesting that he carry around a stack of guide books, maps, and a GPS instead?

dom

Re:Plan to put down your smartphone

[Anonymous Coward]

a nokia n8 would do the trick. gmobile xt with maps downloaded (no data needed), 48GB of storage for everything, mine works fine on at&t voice only prepaid, 12 mpx camera, wifi for web browsing everywhere.

Re:Plan to put down your smartphone

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Plan to put down your smartphone. You did say vacation, right?

Yes, all the more reason to bring a smart phone along. Try thinking about how phone+GPS+Internet would be useful while traveling. I bet you're creative enough to find at least one good reason why it could be worthwhile.

Re:Plan to put down your smartphone

[pasv]

Does anyone remember how to plan ahead before we had smartphones? Bring a netbook, connect to a local hotspot and search from there. If really need be use your cellphone to access said searched data by sending it over via bluetooth. The point of a vacation is disconnection for most people you will be doing yourself a great disservice complicating your time there.

Re:Plan to put down your smartphone

[Belial6]

No, he is suggesting that the guy not take the vacation at all, because if he has to do a few hours of work right in the middle of the week, he feels that the OP should just stay sitting at his desk.

waste of time

[Anonymous Coward]

smart phone isn't going to work where you are going. get a tmobile prepaid sim in a GSM phone and call it good. you will have no datas.

Re:waste of time

[Macrat]

The T-Mobile "Pay as you Go" pre pay has data for $1.49 per 24 hour period. When you want data, you just fire up the web browser which redirects to an acceptance page to deduct $1.49 from you account and you have data access for the next 24 hours.

Re:waste of time

[zuperduperman]

I think his point was that T-Mobile uses the non-standard AWS band for 3G data. So sure, you can subscribe to T-Mobile's data plan, you still aren't getting any data on a standard international GSM phone (except for edge, which is actually good enough for minimal purposes - keeping your maps working, etc.)

Re:waste of time

[Macrat]

I use a factory unlocked iPhone 3GS on T-Mobile and the 200Kbs EDGE speed is quite more useful than "minimal" purposes.

Re:waste of time

[Andy Dodd]

AWS is slightly more standard for 3G use than the AT&T 3G bands.

2-3 other countries use AWS for 3G.

No other country uses the U.S. 2G bands to also provide 3G service.

However, an iPhone 3G purchased in Europe is more likely to support the AT&T 3G bands than the AWS 3G bands simply due to hardware commonality with the U.S. iPhones.

So your best best, if you NEED 3G, is AT&T or one of their MVNOs. I know at least one AT&T MVNO exists (my parents use it), I thought it was U.S. Cellular but I seem to be wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_MVNO

Oregon/Washington Coast coverage

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who lives and travels to the coast often I would reccomend the att prepaid over verizon, they have the most towers and strongest signal. I have friends on verizon and others who have many issues when we go out.

Re:Oregon/Washington Coast coverage

[Anonymous Coward]

Verizon has the best rural coverage, yes hwy 101 is rural...

Good Luck!

[chill]

If you insist on GSM, that means AT&T or T-Mobile. If you want rural coverage of 3G, that pretty much leaves out T-Mobile.

So...AT&T it is. (I'd say "We have a winner!", but I'd be lying.)

Buy a pre-paid SIM and be done with it. The smartphone plan is like $2 / day on days used for unlimited talk and text. 3 Gb of data for a month will run you $35. The SIM itself should be free.

Re:Good Luck!

[EvanED]

If you want rural coverage of 3G, that pretty much leaves out T-Mobile.

If you want any 3G with an iPhone, that leaves out T-mobile, at least if your iPhone works on the same frequencies as the US one.

Re:Good Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you insist on GSM, that means AT&T or T-Mobile. If you want rural coverage of 3G, that pretty much leaves out T-Mobile.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, and was a T-Mobile customer until recently. I liked their company, but their rural coverage - even phone coverage - is terrible. IIRC they still have some sort of cross-network roaming agreement with AT&T, but you have to have a phone that can handle those frequencies (I guess an iPhone qualifies).

But what's really odd is - T-Mobile's data rates have been higher than AT&T's, despite the lousy network!

Having said all that... I'm not sure how AT&T's 3G coverage is around highway 101. The Oregon and Washington coasts get pretty hilly and mountainous in many spots, and their coverage map is not encouraging. I think you may need to take sackvillian's advice and put the phone down, whether you like it or not. Your friends can live without constant posts of bad photos on Facebook.

(Sorry for the anonymous post - I'm 93 Escort Wagon)

Re:Good Luck!

[ColdWetDog]

If you want any rural 3G with an iphone, it leaves out everybody.

You get Edge (if you're lucky) and you will like it!

Have you considered leaving your phone at home and going on a real vacation?

Re:Good Luck!

[frisket]

You can actually get prepaid SIMs in the USA? I thought this was a European thing. You have to pay to receive calls and texts in the USA, don't you? What's the position with using it again on another trip the following year? I got a UK prepaid Three SIM last year, worked fine for two weeks. Came home, went back to the UK six months later and bought credit I couldn't use because I "hadn't used the phone at least once every month" in the meantime. Does this happen in the USA too?

Re:Good Luck!

[metageek]

> Does this happen in the USA too?

yes, if you don't use it for 3 months (usually), they even cancel your credit (= eat the money you had already paid). This is waived if you have spent more than $100 (at least with T-Mobile, maybe the others are different)

Re:Good Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

ATT uses non-std. spectrum for 3G. You are more likely to get 3G on T-Mobile with a std. GSM phone that was not built for ATT's network. My N900 works with T-Mobile 3G, but not ATT. Not sure if the iPhone sold in other countries is identical to the one in the US, but I would suspect not since the US one has no 3G on T-Mobile which would mean no 3G anywhere else in the world either.

Besides, ATT is the devil. Part of their business plan appears to be intentional over-billing.

T-Mobile has some of the best prepaid plans in the U.S. e.g. 1500 voice minutes or texts (each text counts as a minute) for $30, + $1.40 extra for unlimited data in any 24 hour period that you want to use data.

 

Re:Good Luck!

[Macrat]

The T-Mobile "Pay as you Go" option is good for 12 months after each time you fill up your account with credit.

So if you visit the US at least once per year and fill up your account, your number will continue to work.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx

Re:Good Luck!

[number11]

The T-Mobile "Pay as you Go" option is good for 12 months after each time you fill up your account with credit.

If you buy $100 worth of time. And if AT&T hasn't swallowed up T-Mobile by the time you come again.

Re:Good Luck!

[Macrat]

And if AT&T hasn't swallowed up T-Mobile by the time you come again.

Very true.

It will be a dark time of control by monopolies.

All praise the "free market" economy.

Re:Good Luck!

[h4rr4r]

The European one uses the T-mobile freq. Only At&T puts GSM on that stretch of spectrum.

Re:Good Luck!

[guruevi]

I think these days you need a valid US mailing address and credit card to activate even the pre-paid devices. And the cost for pre-paid data is $5 for 10 MB, $15 for 100 MB, $25 for 500 MB.

Re:Good Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the OP is using a GSM iPhone, 3G won't work anywhere on T-Mobile. T-Mobile's 3G frequencies are 1700Mhz HSDPA, 2100Mhz HSUPA, and 1900Mhz GSM/EDGE while the GSM iPhone 4 only supports UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz) and GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz). Since the iPhone doesn't support the 1700Mhz frequency that T-Mobile (and almost no one else) uses for receiving 3G data, you're stuck on voice and EDGE data speeds via 1900Mhz.

That said, I've used my original iPhone on T-Mobile since it was released and GSM/EDGE has been fast enough for my purposes.

Re:Good Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

> If you buy $100 worth of time

I should point out, this means "cumulatively." Once you've reached $100, even the $10 minimum extends it for a year.

Re:Good Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well,

Not if you want to use your iPhone as a with data access, you can't use a 3-party iPhone on AT&T with their pre paid data plan. Found that out the hard way, like after I payed for it as the store clerk told me it was going to work, but called AT&T support when it didn't work and was told it was a no go from start. Tried to get a refund, but no luck. So your best bet is T-mobile, however you will be limited to EDGE for data as T-mobile is using a frequency, think it's 1700Mhz, for 3G data.

Re:Good Luck!

[Max Romantschuk]

I think these days you need a valid US mailing address and credit card to activate even the pre-paid devices. And the cost for pre-paid data is $5 for 10 MB, $15 for 100 MB, $25 for 500 MB.

We had this experience when visiting the US as while back. For whatever reason we couldn't buy prepaid cards with European credit cards. Ironically we were told that we could buy a US prepaid credit card and use that to pay the prepaid SIM... Argh. Can't remember if we just gave up at that point.

Re:Good Luck!

[Bill_the_Engineer]

I thought you'd suggest a prepay plan like Boost, Virgin Mobile, TracFone, Net10, or others.

You can get a prepaid GSM phone from a third party carrier. I would recommend sticking with GSM and making sure you get a quad band phone. This way you can get rural local carriers like Prairie Wireless on the 800Mhzish band in states like New Mexico, and have the added bonus of being able to use the phone at home.

Re:Good Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

You won't get 3G on a foreign iPhone ... T-Mo in US uses 1700 MHz for 3G

Re:Good Luck!

[Belial6]

Putting the phone down only works if his vacation isn't predicated on him being available to connect into the network for morning reports, or to handle an emergency. My personal experience last summer was that because of my smartphone, I was able to take a six week road trip around the country with my wife and child. If I could not have worked during the boring parts of the drive, and could not have been available for the periodic 'emergency', I simply could not have gone. Right now, I am planning a road trip to Canada. Again, I could not do this without a smartphone. The extra big bonus of bringing my smartphone on vacation was that at the end of the six week trip, I proposed to my boss in a joking manner to feel him out that I would like to eventually spend a year or two traveling the country in an RV working from the road. He was clear that the idea was not off the table. While some people have a hard time balancing work and home. For those that can, being always connected can give them huge advantages in both their work and home life. Dedicating 8 hours to work when they only need 1 because you are worried that they might need 2 is not more productive for work, and is detrimental to your home life.

Re:Good Luck!

[Belial6]

Get a prepaid phone that tethers on T-mobile. Take voice calls on the T-mobile, and use the iPhone as an iPodTouch during the trip data connected via wifi on the T-mobile.

T-mobile pay as you go

[godIsaDJ]

Just came back from a coast-2-coast. Faced the same problem. Get a T-mobile pay as you go. You have unlimited internet for $1.5/day with a web day pass that you purchase using your PAYG balance.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[Anonymous Coward]

T-mobile are really good for this in the EU as well, £5 I think for 20mb of data for a week.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[hockeyrink]

I concur. Just back from a 2 week trip to San Francisco from Canada, and my Canadian Bell (unlocked; rooted) Galaxy S connected on EDGE speeds for pretty much the whole time (darn mountain ranges...).It was supposed to be only 2Gig of data, but I got an SMS mid way through the trip that informed me that my plan was updated to unlimited data. It was the "Prepaid Unlimited Talk, Text, 2GB data plan" for $70. We got 2 SIMS with this plan (a T-Mobile G1 on HSPA fast speed, and my Canadian Bell Galaxy S maxing out on EDGE), and one with just talk/text (for daughter) for $30.

Although the G1 is a slow phone, I found the GPS unit superior, and it made an excellent Google GPS navigator. Also worked well as portable wifi hotspot with the rooted "Open Garden" application. And don't forget to load up GasBuddy too.

Just make sure to add the $10 "International SMS" option if you plan to message out of the USA. Frustrating to get SMS from home, but not to be able to reply!

FYI, both my G1 and my Canadian Galaxy S both get HSPA speeds in Hong Kong!

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[SoftwareArtist]

Note that T-mobile has two different types of prepaid plans. With "pay as you go" plans, you put in an amount of money that can be used for voice, SMS, or data. With "pay by the month" plans, you pay a fixed amount per month, but with no multi-month commitment. Either one might end up best for you, depending on how much you plan to use the phone.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[frisket]

Can you do this if you only have a credit card with a European address? Most American companies won't accept a credit card unless you have a US or Canadian billing address (unlike in stores where it seems they don't care).

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure your canadian galaxy S supports AWS bands? If not, you won't get 3G on t-mobile. Most phones don't support the bands.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[godIsaDJ]

Sure you can. You just walk in a store and pay cash. That's what I did... It's pay as you go after all... Make sure you get the APN details when you buy the card.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[im_thatoneguy]

I like the Pay by the Month plans because I decided to buy my phone and I get a discount.

The only problem with the T-Mobile plan is that he wants roaming 3G on an iPhone and the iPhone will only be edge on T-Mobile.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[santiam]

Actually I have T-Mobile and live in the Northwest and I would recommend NOT going with T-Mobile if you expect consistent 3G coverage, especially along the coast. I just got back from the Oregon coast and while I can't speak for ATT's coverage, my coverage with T-Mobile was very spotty, and it was there it was usually EDGE.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[Anonymous Coward]

I concur with this, also did this recently. Did it with my Nexus S, was even able to tether my Canadian iPhone through the Nexus S for skype calls. $1.50/day for unlimited is very inexpensive compared to the alternative.

Re:T-mobile pay as you go

[Belial6]

If he gets a T-Mobile phone, he only need to be sure that it tethers, and his iPhone will work for data, and he can receive voice calls on the T-Mobile phone. This has the added benefit of being able to talk on the phone while looking at the iPhone at the cost of having to carry an second (small) device.

not a lot of options

[Anonymous Coward]

along 101, verizon is the only company that will give you consistent service

If GSM only...

[Dahamma]

...then you can throw out Verizon, they are CDMA.

Of the majors, that leaves you with AT&T or T-Mobile. There are a lot of smaller GSM carriers, but many of them are regional and/or will end up roaming in areas they don't have coverage, so I'm not sure if it's worth looking to hard at them.

Re:If GSM only...

[Albanach]

Will the iPhone 4 do 3G on T-mobile? I don't think it does.

So AT&T is then the only option. There, that makes things easy.

Buy a go-phone SIM at an AT&T store, and you can pay $25 for 500GB of data. Calls (in the US) are10 cents per minute.

Re:If GSM only...

[Albanach]

That should, of course, say 500MB not GB!

Re:If GSM only...

[rrossman2]

A iPhone from over seas may as they use different frequencies for 3G... it's the reason some people who flash a European modem on a Galaxy S loose 3G on AT&T here in the states.

Re:If GSM only...

[Macrat]

Will the iPhone 4 do 3G on T-mobile? I don't think it does.

ATT has a monopoly on the 3G frequencies in the US.

But the iPhone will connect via T-Mobile's EDGE frequencies just fine.

May T-Mobile stores also have a SIM cutter for the iPhone 4 micro sim slot.

Re:If GSM only...

[ShakaUVM]

Verizon also doesn't have data service north of Seattle. I just got back from a trip to Vancouver and Alaska, and it is all "extended network" which means voice-only even though you're in-network with a US-and-Canadia plan.

Re:If GSM only...

[zach_the_lizard]

T-Mobile has 3G too; in fact, they use the same frequencies as overseas, IIRC. The US GSM iPhone won't get 3G, but a foreign one should get in, in theory.

Re:If GSM only...

[Macrat]

in theory.

In reality, all GSM iPhones have the same frequency support.

Re:If GSM only...

[jmauro]

No. GSM just specifies the protocol and security stacks, it does not specify the frequencies. As such, GSM supports a number of different frequencies bands and it's up the phone manufacture on how many of those bands are actually implemented in the phone. Most phones nowadays are quad-band so they can roam, but you can implement a perfectly fine GSM phone that only connects to one band or two bands

You will sometimes see phones implement just the domainant ones in your area (850MHz/1900MHz for North America and parts of South America, 1700MHz/2100MHz for Japan, and 900 MHz/1800 MHz for everywhere else) in order to save money on the cost of creating the phone.

Re:If GSM only...

[Macrat]

No. GSM just specifies the protocol and security stacks, it does not specify the frequencies.

And Apple makes ONE GSM based iPhone sold globally.

The only difference being the ones locked for non-free corporate controlled countries.

Re:If GSM only...

[Anonymous Coward]

By overseas you mean what exactly? It' s a big world out here.

My phone here in SE Asia uses the same 3G bands as AT&T...

Re:If GSM only...

[Anonymous Coward]

in theory.

In reality, all GSM iPhones have the same frequency support.

Not 3G frequencies in the US.

Re:If GSM only...

[Cimexus]

You have it backwards. ATT uses 'standard' 3G frequencies (i.e. frequencies that are used by at least some other countries/providers). T-Mobile is the weird one, using the 1700 Mhz UMTS band that I don't think is used by any other provider on earth. Virtually no 3GSM/UMTS/HSDPA phones support this band, other than ones specifically manufactured for, and sold by, T-Mobile USA.

The iPhone 4 will work fine on ATT (after all, ATT is ~the~ GSM iPhone carrier in the US). However, their prepaid options are ... expensive and annoying to setup compared to the process of getting a temporary SIM almost anywhere else in the world. T-Mobile has better prepaid options but you'll obviously only get EDGE data rather than 3G/HSDPA (due to their 3G bands being 'weird').

Having said that, I'd still go for T-Mobile. I do it quite regularly (using my Australian iPhone 4, visiting the US). The prepaid plans are cheaper, and the EDGE data rates are still adequate for basic email and the occasional webpage or two. If you're a bit patient it's OK for maps too - though what I would do if I were you would be to grab an app that allows you to pre-cache maps so that they loaded quickly and didn't consume data. MotionX GPS is a good one - only a few bucks and allows you to download and store maps of any arbitrarily sized areas you choose in advance.

Oh and BTW all iPhone 4s are completely identical in terms of what bands they support. It's a single model worldwide. The only difference is the US ones are network-locked to ATT (which has nothing to do with frequency support).

Re:If GSM only...

[Hal_Porter]

The only difference being the ones locked for non-free corporate controlled countries.

Don't bait the septics!

Re:If GSM only...

[Dahamma]

Oh and BTW all iPhone 4s are completely identical in terms of what bands they support. It's a single model worldwide. The only difference is the US ones are network-locked to ATT (which has nothing to do with frequency support).

Not "all iPhone 4s" - the iPhone 4 released for Verizon is CDMA (actually uses a Qualcomm dual GSM/CDMA chip, but only CDMA is enabled). The original iPhone 4 is GSM-only. Though the switch to the Qualcomm chip does mean it's possible/likely that Apple will support both GCM and CDMA with one device with the "iPhone 5"...

Re:If GSM only...

[Cimexus]

I knew someone would pick me up on that. I am aware of the Verizon CDMA iPhone but I wasn't including that since the whole conversation was about GSM, and the CDMA iPhone is a bit of an oddity and only sold in one market globally. "Completely identical in what bands they support" should have really read "completely identical in what GSM bands they support, if a GSM phone".

Interesting that it's actually a dual mode chip with the GSM disabled. Does make sense though from a manufacturing perspective if from the iPhone 5 onwards they can just make a single model though. Might also open up some interesting roaming opportunities (GSM at home, but roam on CDMA in the US - that'd be nice since by and large the CDMA networks in the US have better coverage than the GSM ones).

Get a cheap phone

[slackzilly]

I never bring my expensive smart phone abroad, in case of theft.
I realize that I can just as well lose my phone when I am in my own country, it is just a precaution I take.

Re:Get a cheap phone

[zuperduperman]

The nice thing is that these days "get a cheap phone" can mean a full featured Android smart phone for ~$120 which will give you the full smart phone experience while being cheap enough that if you lose it you can just write it off. (you might think that is a lot, but in the context of a whole trip and considering how much benefit it can be ... I think it's worth it).

T-mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

Go for t-mobile. As they have a prepaid unlimited plan for $50/mo. This will net you 100mb/mo.

If you really want to go unlimited. T-mobile has a flexpay option. Same as prepaid basically. For $79.99/mo you get everything unlimited.

Re:T-mobile

[Albanach]

Go for t-mobile. As they have a prepaid unlimited plan for $50/mo. This will net you 100mb/mo.

Assuming they will be making mostly international calls, these won't be included in the 'unlimited' bundle. T-Mobile won't offer them 3G service on their iPhone which was a requirement, and AT&T will offer 500MB of data for $25.

Why exactly is t-mobile a better choice?

Re:T-mobile

[Macrat]

Why exactly is t-mobile a better choice?

Because they are cheaper than ATT and if you go with the "Pay as you Go" option, you aren't signing up for anything monthly.

Re:T-mobile

[Albanach]

Nor are you signing up for anything monthly with an AT&T go-phone. So, T-mobile is more expensive, with poorer coverage and probably no 3G.

Leave the phone at home

[countertrolling]

They won't let you use the thing in prison anyway...

Virgin Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

You will want to check Sprints coverage in the area you will be visiting but I would suggest going with Virgin Mobile. You can get a decent Android (LG Otimus V) for $200 cash price and unlimited data and SMS for $25\ month - it "only" includes 300 minutes of talk time, but since that doesn't matter... and of course no contract.

They have another Android phone with a slide out keyboard but it's shit so heads up on that.

Further, you can tether and the Android installation is absolutely generic so no bloatware. One thing though, you will want to remove the Facebook app that comes installed. It has a habit of popping up in the background and can reduce the battery time from not that bad at all down to 5 hours when idling. In fact, keep everything you can killed when your not using that particular app, Google Maps and all.

Re:Virgin Mobile

[LandGator]

Have one. Live in Portland. Coverage along the coast is feeble. Fuggedaboudit.

Remember to wipe data from it before leaving home

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd better fully expect to be treated like a criminal upon arrival with all data on your phone cloned. So, do a factory reset before getting off the plane and don't have anything on the SIM card.

Why ask us?

[camperdave]

Why ask us? Talk to your current carrier. They may have plans for vacationers.

Re:Why ask us?

[Anne Thwacks]

They may have plans for vacationers.

I think that is what he is expecting - a plan that is best described as "total stitch-up".

"Roaming" is the telecoms industry's jargon for "ripping you off". ,b>Just say no!

Anyway, have you tried talking to a UK carrier? It involves paying $2 a minute to talk to a badly paid parrot called Philip in Pakistan, and is extremely unlikely to reveal anything resembling a fact. Furthermore, since they are forbidden to use the word "no", or any phase that has a negative connotation, it is impossible to confirm or deny anything you might suspect of being a fact.

ATT Is your best bet

[Anonymous Coward]

Enough said!

There are

[Osgeld]

Thousands of websites that compare current celphone plans and your on slashdot asking?

mysimplemobile

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-Plan.aspx

$40/mo unlimited talk/text

$60/mo unlimited talk/text/data as long as unlimited means under 1GB/mo

Bring your own unlocked phone. Pay cash for just the SIM with no ID, credit check, etc etc

I don't know why they haven't been shutdown yet, since you can be relatively anonymous on the service.

They ride on T-Mobiles service.

Re:mysimplemobile

[Macrat]

They ride on T-Mobiles service.

Or you just just get a T-Mobile "pay as you go" account with no monthly cost.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx

Re:mysimplemobile

[LuxuryYacht]

Or you just just get a T-Mobile "pay as you go" account with no monthly cost.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx

The my-simple-mobile service is far lower cost and is only by the month without any contract.

TAKE YOUR VACATION!

[DRAGONWEEZEL]

HWY 101 rocks, don't ruin it w/ a damn phone!

Re:TAKE YOUR VACATION!

[ColdWetDog]

HWY 101 rocks, don't ruin it w/ a damn phone!

Why not, everyone else does.

Re:TAKE YOUR VACATION!

[DRAGONWEEZEL]

/cry

It's true...

O.K. so there may be some caveat's... Truth be told, I use data on my phone to pump Pandora through my car stereo, but out there, it's pretty choppy, so I usually switch to something else.

Even Verizon doesn't cover the whole 101 stretch though, there are many parts in WA & OR that don't get 3G coverage, so data will be slower than snail mail. Between Forks and Ocean Shores for sure.

Really, if you're responding a few quick texts... fine, but if an "emergency" happened, what could you REALLY do about it? You'd have to hunt down a library, or drive to a coverage area to do anything productive.

Otherwise, there are plenty of hotspots along the way to dump data, Forks, Ocean Shores, Astoria, Long beach, Pacific beach, etc... I'd use free wifi...
Again, those pay as you go plans won't help, even if you find a resonably priced one, if you don't have coverage, or have limited coverage.

(Coverage may have changed since I've been out there, but I doubt it)

Re:TAKE YOUR VACATION!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nokia Maps/GPS at least requires a data connection to find satellites in under 10 mins. Whilst I don't want to make calls, I do want GPS, and I do want to be able to search for nearby restaurants.

Re:TAKE YOUR VACATION!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're reasonably correct. I head out along 101 (at least on the WA and OR coasts) every once in a while, and as recently as last weekend I had spotty 3G service south of Aberdeen, WA. You get a little more 3G service as you get down to OR and hit places like Lincoln City or Seaside, IIRC (been a few months since I was last down there).

Virgin Mobile $25.00 300 minutes unlimited txt/3g

[Anonymous Coward]

Radioshack is offering a deal for the LG Optimus V right now for $149.00 at http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11231368#
You have to purchase from within a store, but it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to get a u.s. friend/relative to pick one up.

Their lowest priced no-contract plan for the phone is $25.00 and includes 300 minutes with unlimited texting, and internet usage. Along with the widely available free wifi in the Pacific NW, you should be set for talking over Google Voice so as to not even use your 300 minutes at all.

Then you can always resell the phone over craigslist/ebay/amazon for it's usual price of $200.00, and you'll be making a profit of $25.00 while still receiving full usage of the item for a month, or so.

hwy 101 in spotty for 3g

[murphtall]

hwy 101 in spotty for 3g at best in WA and OR. at&t will work for coverage, its what i have and it works fine in hwy 101 in WA, i would imagine in Oregon that the coverage is similar. rest areas in washington state have free wifi, so that will help too. HTH ~KM (Washington resident)

Try to find a local carrier

[rrossman2]

Try to find a local carrier in the area. You may be able to find US Cellular, Metro PCS, or something along those lines.

The reason I recommend looking into them is with a lot of those companies you'll get better coverage if they are a local provider as they'll have their own towers in the area (much the same way Immix Wireless does in central and eastern PA). Plus, with a lot of them (just like with AT&T and Verizon) you can get either a pre-paid plan or sign up for a plan without contract since you'll have your own phone. Just get a SIM card from them and go. The other issue you may have is doesn't the iPhones (or at least the newer ones) use the smaller SIM cards? It may mean you'd have to try to trim the card to fit like others have done in the past.

Still your best option is a pre-paid phone, but with a lot of those the "data internet" is really more of a Mobile Web (cut back version)... so keeping your own phone may not be a bad idea. I haven't tried, so I don't know if you stick a Pre-Paid SIM into a regular phone, if it works right. (I know at least on Verizon the "pre-paid" phones have custom firmware that includes the prepaid options).

You could also just do a TracPhone or something along those lines and just stick to calling and texting and forget about the data... save that for uploading pictures/facebook/etc when you're home, or send them over bluetooth to a laptop and upload on a WiFi signal at a coffee shop or some open network you find while you're out there.

Re:Try to find a local carrier

[BigIrv]

Sorry, MetroPCS, Cricket, and US Cellular are CDMA carriers. They do not have SIMs. The only big GSM networks in the US are AT&T and T-Mobile.

Re:Try to find a local carrier

[rrossman2]

Sorry, forgot that yes US Cellular and Metro are CDMA (but I have to say I never mentioned Cricket as that I did remember off of the top of my head.. I listed Immix instead as an example which is GSM)

But there are others (though some may now be acquired or closed up.. no clue) including GCI Wireless, Westlink, and others. The other issue is some of them just have towers they rent to the bigger carriers and get $$ that way, as in not all actually have their own subscribers so it's hard to say :)

Re:Try to find a local carrier

[Vegeta99]

I have AT&T and I can roam on Immix's junk network. Thank god I don't live in the area anymore, and my hometown is now covered by native AT&T 3G.

When I roam on Immix, data rarely functions faster than 56k or so, and I'm lucky to get calls. Texts usually come through with a 2-3 hour delay.

They're junk and they've been junk since they were Conestoga Wireless.

Re:Try to find a local carrier

[R3d M3rcury]

On the other hand, here is a list of GSM networks in the US. I can't speak for the quality of them, but here it is nonetheless.

Does anybody have a useful response?

[Anonymous Coward]

AT&T and Tmobile both want you to sign contracts with them for pay as you go if you didn't buy the phones from them directly. At least this is what I was told by both companies when I tried to get a prepaid account for my Huawei Ideos.

Re:Does anybody have a useful response?

[lothos]

You can definitely get a prepaid account without a contract.

Re:Does anybody have a useful response?

[Hal_Porter]

If you get a GoPhone SIM card you can buy 100MB data for $19.99. And if you add $100 credit the SIM will stay valid for a year. So long as you go to the US once every twelve months the number will stay valid.

Cricket

[Jane Q. Public]

I am really surprised nobody so far has mentioned Cricket. They have unlimited plans, cover all 50 states, and NO CONTRACT. You pay month-to-month.

I used Cricket for several years and they were probably the least-hassle mobile phone company I ever dealt with. The only reason I switched away from them is that I needed data and at the time (this was about 5 years ago or so) they didn't have it.

Check them out.

Re:Cricket

[Jane Q. Public]

And if you need 3G, their "broadband" plans start at $40 / month. Again: no contracts.

Re:Cricket

[demonlapin]

They have roaming agreements to cover all the US, but you can't buy their service from everywhere. And if you look at their data map, the 101 is pretty barren.

Re:Cricket

[nicodem]

Correct me if I am wrong but, cricket is CDMA/EVDO so this is not an option :p

Re:Cricket

[lothos]

Cricket's coverage map shows coverage, but I can't sign up with them in Minnesota (for example) because their coverage here is provided by a roaming partner.

Re:Cricket

[Cimexus]

Er...

They are CDMA/EVDO, not GSM. That rules them out for anyone bringing a phone from outside the US, where CDMA is unheard of.*

(* Yes I know there are ~some~ CDMA networks outside of the US ... Korea and China spring to mind ... but the vast majority of the world is GSM/UMTS/HSDPA-only).

Re:Cricket

[Jane Q. Public]

But Cricket's own coverage doesn't matter, because with their unlimited plans there is no roaming charge.

Re:Cricket

[Jane Q. Public]

OP was asking about the best phone/service to use, not what is the best carrier for his existing phone.

Don't bother planning ahead

[multipartmixed]

Just show up and see what the locals are doing. Do that. They'll have already figured out which carrier works best where you are.

You're looking for Simple Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple Mobile offers unlimited, pre-paid GSM plans for $60/month. But note that their "unlimited" data has been known to cut off at 1GB in a month. Also note that they are built on top of T-Mobile's network so there's not a large amount of 3G coverage. In the rural areas, you'll be limited to EDGE.

http://www.mysimplemobile.com

break the rusty cage

[PopeRatzo]

I'm telling you this as a friend: If this is really a vacation, then turn off the smartphone. Or get a cheap prepaid phone at the drugstore in case of emergency.

Life is too short. Try a few weeks off the web just to see what it's like. You may never get another chance to do so. You may think that words like "roaming data plan" mean freedom, but the opposite is true. Freedom is not having to be connected. It's exhilarating.

-

Re:break the rusty cage

[nurb432]

And if where you work requires it, this isnt an option.

Re:break the rusty cage

[PopeRatzo]

And if where you work requires it, this isnt an option

If where you work requires you to be on duty during your vacation, it's time to think about a change of careers.

Re:break the rusty cage

[nurb432]

That's easy for you to say. You don't know the details of the compensation package you get from said job that requires you to be available 24/7 in emergencies.

But then again, if you are happy with flipping burgers for a living, by all means, have your untethered vacations.

Re:break the rusty cage

[Cimexus]

Sorry but I take my smartphone with me on holidays ~because I enjoy it~. Work doesn't call me. But I sure do like to be able to get emails from my family, search for nearby restaurants in foreign countries, check directions using GPS while driving on unfamiliar streets, play games on it to pass the time while sitting on planes or trains, etc etc. Not all of us use a smartphone exclusively for work.

Re:break the rusty cage

[tlhIngan]

And if where you work requires it, this isnt an option.

Obviously work isn't requiring it. Because if they did, it would be an Ask Slashdot now will it?

If work wants me to carry a smartphone, they're not only paying for it, but if they require me to keep it with me on vacation, they're paying roaming. I don't care they're paying $2/minute for roaming or sending me 200kB emails (at $0.05/kB, that's $10) - it's their responsibility.

If the company doesn't want to pay roaming, they either get me a SIM already, or the phone stays at home.

It's not my job to minimize company expenses on my vacation. That's the price they'll have to eat if they want me to always be in contact.

Re:break the rusty cage

[PopeRatzo]

Sorry but I take my smartphone with me on holidays ~because I enjoy it~

That's the right answer. I was only suggesting that for most of us, used to ubiquitous connectivity, that a few weeks off the grid is a very exotic and rewarding experience. I tried it a while back and it changed the way I think about being connected and about technology generally. I suggested it as something of a challenge.

It's like the story of the lumberjack who took his vacation in the woods. He died young, as lumberjacks tend.

Finally,

search for nearby restaurants in foreign countries

It might be more enriching to speak to some of the locals. The same goes for the GPS.

I was trying to find a specific Mayan pyramid and my GPS crapped out between the airport and the first hotel. The events arising from my non-digitally assisted search made the trip much more memorable, if less predictable.

$500 bucks and golden, but see Canada instead.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you give AT&T $500 (for a year) they will make you a *regular* client with no-contract. This works for Canadians, not sure about people from Europe. Vacation? Fly in Vancouver Canada instead, drive to Baniff, fly out of Calgary, then you won't get your cell phone and laptop vacuumed by Uncle Sam.

In Canada, couple of twenties to Rogers for a 3G pay as you go sim.

Ovi maps preloaded will save money - get the N8

[thaig]

The N8's prime advantages on holiday are:

Preloaded maps so you don't need to eat up bandwidth to look up how to get places.
A 12MP camera that justifies the megapixel numbr by being fantastic and better if you get the panorama app.
Longer battery life than most of them and certainly longer than a lot of cameras.
Pentaband Radio - if it's GSM you can connect.
Built like a brick shithouse. Sorry, that saying might be local to where I'm from but basically it's tough.
The HDMI output is very nice for looking at photos you took that day or with the USB on the go feature you can use the phone to show the pictures off a camera which doesn't have a video output.

I have taken it on holiday and it's the one to have IMO. I am very biased, BTW so you should know that and I admit that many things might not seem great about its GUI etc but I just don't think they counted much when I was out there using it.

Here is an example of a Panorama I took with it of Table Mountain:

http://www.panogio.com/south-africa/3751101061399

Regards,

Tim

Re:Ovi maps preloaded will save money - get the N8

[Baloo Uriza]

Those preloaded maps...is that NAVTEQ data? If so, it's going to be rubbish in the Pacific Northwest. OpenStreetMap will be substantially less useless.

Re:Ovi maps preloaded will save money - get the N8

[thaig]

If this is ok for you then the maps should be ok too:

http://maps.ovi.com/#|47.7023446|-122.2419395|11|0|0|hybrid.day?

It doesn't seem too bad to me. It's not great in Argentina or my part of Africa. It's also quite a lot better than not having a map at all because you've run out of credit or can't get a signal.

Regards,

Tim

Re:Ovi maps preloaded will save money - get the N8

[Baloo Uriza]

I've used the NAVTEQ data extensively in the northwest, it's just plain useless, especially if you're leaving a major city, or go someplace in a major city that has been rebuilt in the last five years (thanks to Californication and a tendency for demolishing blight and disaster-damaged areas and rebuilding it from scratch, this represents a major usability issue in the Puget Sound and Portland-Vancouver areas). NAVTEQ is more likely to get you thoroughly lost in Seattle than just winging it without a map.

Turn the iPhone to WiFi and use a local phone

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Seattle and we were in a similar situation a few weeks back in Thailand. We found that using a pair of local pay as you go phones solved the phone issue and we set our iPhones to Airplane mode with WiFi turned on. Just about every coffee shop will have free wifi, including the ubiquitous starbucks.

walmart

[ThurstonMoore]

Go to walmart and buy one of their pre-paid smartphones. It will also add to the American experience.

Re:walmart

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you referring to this http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/ as the "American experience"?

Re:walmart

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to second this! If I had points, I'd mark the parent-post up!

I *live* in the US. I use a $20 TracFone that you can get at any walmart. Just buy some minutes, and it winds up being like $100 per year. For a few weeks, it would be considerably cheaper. (Unless you burn through minutes like a teenage girl.)

In contrast, most smartphone plans I've see wind up costing over $1000/year. And you're getting all sorts of crap about overage fees and bandwidth limitations and whatnot. Yeah, smartphones are really nice. But I'd rather put the money towards a new computer.

Seriously, man. Check out TracFones. You can buy a minutes card right next to where the phones are sold. You don't even have to give them your name or anything. (You can. They ask. But it's not required.)

Re:walmart

[TrevorB]

I'm actually planning on this. I'm also taking a "vacation" to the states, where the only way I could get away for 3 weeks was to be tied to a cellphone.

Apparently Tracfones are ludicrously cheap ($10) and call call anywhere in the US at 20 cents/min. I'm planning on tying this to a VoIP line, so I can use the cell to call outside the US for only another couple cents per minute.

Re:walmart

[Anonymous Coward]

Tracfone actually has a decent international system you can use:

http://www.tracfoneild.com/

Re:walmart

[salesgeek]

Virgin Mobile's got phones for $15-$20 and ludicrously cheap plans: $30 gets 1500 minutes, $60 gets unlimited everything.

Re:walmart

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah.. prepaid phones in US are cheap, but don't underestimate activation fee... Mobile business in US is so screwed.

Re:walmart

[Anonymous Coward]

TracFone: $10 for the cheap one. $20 for one that folds up to avoid butt-dialing. $30 for, well, I don't know what the $30 one adds... All of them handles SMS messaging and web browsing. (Try to avoid the latter -- it gets expensive.) Most include customizable ringtones, bindable to individual phone numbers, and a cheap camera. (You may need bluetooth to download pictures, or email them.) (Though emailing them costs minutes...)

No activation fee. Minutes sold in like 60/120/200/400 minute packages. Minute packages include so many days connected, usually 60/90/365. Also, depending on the phone (or you can buy it separately), you can get "double" minutes. (Meaning if you buy 60 minutes, you get 120. That's good for the life of the phone.) Last TracFone I bought included coupons, good at a rate of like 1 per month, that give bonus minutes on top of that.

Long story short: No activation fee. Phone + 400 minute card is like $100 and actually gives closer to 1000 minutes. (Give or take depending on coupons.)

You can also google for TracPhone coupons.

Btw: If you are traveling in the US, many sites (starbucks, McDonalds, Panara, public libraries, airports, hotels, etc) offer free wireless. It should go without saying that you should assume any such internet access points are "tapped", and someone is listening in. (Use caution, ssh, https, or a VPN!)

And, ahh, if you get a new phone number with any carrier, you have a chance of getting someone's old number. Meaning lots of wrong calls. Especially if they owed some bill collectors... (Actually had to change my phone because of this. Got literally thousands of calls over one year.)

AT&T GoPhone plans

[Anonymous Coward]

For an iPhone and no contract, AT&T's GoPhone prepaid plans are suitable, but without data service, unless you pay extra for that. Then it runs 10/min, or, if you prefer, $2 for any day when it's in use, with unlimited usage for that day.

Check out Virgin Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know if your Apple phone will work on their network but http://www.virginmobileusa.com/ have nice prepaid options that include data and start at $25 per month.

Check with the carrier.

FlyerTalk.com

[CohibaVancouver]

You'll do well if you repost your question to this forum - Lots of good info there:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology-169/

Start with the "stickies."

Advice from Seattle

[Anonymous Coward]

No one likes to upset their CEO. Metro Seattle is the US headquarters for T-Mobile, so their coverage is good here, as well as along major highways and medium-sized cities. If that's where you'll be, an unlocked iPhone with T-Mobile pre-pay would be you best deal. That's what I have and I'm happy with it. Just keep in mind that iPhones don't match well with T-Mobile's data plans. You can only get slow EDGE service, I believe. But free Wifi is easy to find here at any public library and many cafes and coffee shops.

If not, try either AT&T or see if there's a reseller that suits you needs. If you get here without a plan, check out the cell booth at discounters such as Sam's Club and Costco. I believe if you tell them you're going to the cellular booth, you can get in without a membership. Unfortunately, they usually want to sign you up for a plan with a 'free' phone.

Roaming costs in USA coming from Argentina

[Anonymous Coward]

Somebody asked why should someone get a new simcard... Well... I live in Argentina and have a phone from a local company called Personal, and if I travel to the US I would be charged USD 3.30 per MB (source: http://www.personal.com.ar/roaming/enelexterior/factura.html ).

Does that price sound reasonable?

Simple Mobile

[Baloo Uriza]

There's Simple Mobile as well; which has nationwide service and is pretty much everywhere AT&T is.

Why do you need net access?

[timbos]

Why do you need smartphone access for a 2 week holiday? Surely you can reduce your phonecalls to keep the cost down and spend 2 weeks enjoying your vacation rather than having your nose stuck in your phone. Free WiFi is common in hotels, restaurants, pubs, and coffeeshops.

Re:Why do you need net access?

[profplump]

Why do you need clothes for a 2 week holiday? Surely you can reduce your time in public to keep your exposure down and spend 2 weeks enjoying your vacation rather than having your arms stuck in your clothes.

Or any other ridiculous variation. We all have different preferences and desires -- why are you trying to force yours on others?

Re:Why do you need net access?

[91degrees]

Nobody's trying to force anyone to do anything.

This looks like it's a suggestion that the submitter appears not to have considered.

Re:Remember to wipe data from it before leaving ho

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd better fully expect to be treated like a criminal upon arrival with all data on your phone cloned. So, do a factory reset before getting off the plane and don't have anything on the SIM card.

That's BAD advice. Nothing dodgier looking than a phone that you wiped as you got off the plane. Wipe it a few days before you leave and then make some calls to sex lines, download some fairly racey pictures but nothing too extreme. This gives the border guys something to giggle about instead of raising any red flags. Oh, and don't raise a red flag, they're a bit funny about Communism over there. Consider a Swastika instead - a swastika is free speech precisely because it's so repugnant. They'll be falling over themselves to not be prejudiced against your right to fly a swastika. Just no communism, okay?

GSM? Try Simple Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

GSM? Try Simple Mobile (T-Mobile reseller).

http://www.mysimplemobile.com/

Order your sim card now!

T-Mobile

[Omnifarious]

They have unlimited data, unlimited SMS and a fairly reasonable number of minutes. And the price isn't so bad either.

The coverage could use a little work, but it's pretty good in cities and on the freeways between them.

I will be quite unhappy if they are swallowed by AT&T. They are the least bad of all the cell phone operators.

www.prepaidgsm.net

[agw]

Usually a link to www.prepaidgsm.net settles this question for all your vacation destinations.

It's really a great site.

My personal choice is always to put a prepaid GSM card with some cheap data plan into my primary smart phone and then use an older phone with my home country SIM to receive calls or make calls where my caller id is important. Others work around that by forwarding calls and using special services like skype's caller id function.

don't bother

[Dionysus]

I visited the US last year for two weeks (and going back this summer for three weeks), and I say, don't bother. You won't be using the phone as much as you think. If you are disciplined.

I try not to use my phone browsing unless I was on a wireless, which meant at the hotel or other hotspots. Fine, so sms cost $0.75, but I didn't send that many messages anyway (send email while at the hotel where you are going to meet your friends, then one sms if they were late). Probably didn't send more than 10 during my stay last year. Only thing was the map, maybe. But I got a Nokia, which meant I just pre-downloaded the map when I was on the wireless, and then tried to only use gps (no gsm). Not sure if iPhone has something similar.

Local Contact

[phoenix182]

I dunno what to tell you about phones, but if you need a local contact (a guide, a rescue, information, whatever), you can contact me. Phoenix182@gmail.com (email for phone # if wanted)

UMTS/3G Frequencies

[dingram17]

There is also the Australian 'Next G' combo of frequencies for Telstra: 850MHz and 2100MHz. A Telstra iPhone 3 or HTC Desire will work fine on AT&T.

The iPhone 4 is actually UMTS 850/900/1900/2100, so even a European iPhone 4 will work with AT&T's 3G. The 2100MHz might give T-Mobile coverage too, but they also use 1700MHz.

Go for VirginMobile

[Anonymous Coward]

They are NOT GSM, but they are contract free for $25/mo with 300 mins and unlimited text/web/data. The only thing is that you need to buy your own smartphone from them for under $200.

Coverage

[guttentag]

Since you mentioned US Route 101...

I've been up and down the entire length 101 from Silicon Valley to the Washington/Oregon border about a half dozen times in the last three years. If you like driving and scenery, this is a good place to go (get some ice cream from the Tillamook Creamery Assn if you pass through). And bring a real camera (don't be that guy standing by the road taking pictures of the sunset with your iPhone). I can't advise on pricing, but i can tell you about coverage. My AT&T iPhone has gotten reception just fine throughout most of it... You only go without reception when you're not near a town. Even when you're not in a town you're usually ok, unless you're on a really remote stretch of road.

Surprised no one mentioned ekit

[Tobenisstinky]

http://ekit.com/ekit/home/

I used them for a trip to europe, prices were half of what my local carrier wanted for European roaming. It included data. I have an iPhone 3GS but I had to unlock it to use the sim card.

Re:Surprised no one mentioned ekit

[Anonymous Coward]

$15/MB (count them, ONE MB) ?!

Please see prices above, we're talking in the range of 500 MB for $25.

Re:Surprised no one mentioned ekit

[CCarrot]

$15/MB (count them, ONE MB) ?!

Please see prices above, we're talking in the range of 500 MB for $25.

Wow! In which case, Telestial's $1/MB prepaid data rate looks better than I thought...but it's still no mega data plan.

Best option...bring a netbook and just hang out at Starbucks when you want to update your FB photo albums...or do it at night in your hotel room.

Re:It's not a must - but it is

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in Australia. Every time I fly to Canada, I cross US air space, so I'm forced to undergo a US groping, fingerprints, retina scan etc. just to enter Canada.

Once we were made to exit the plane, immigrate to the US, go round the corner (queue up) and depart again because our plane made a stopover in Hawaii on the way to Vancouver. Nobody remembers the term 'In Transit' any more?

It is all about the number of Cell Towers.

[pentrose]

Ahh! I live here in the Pacific Northwest; there is a crucial technology fact people are missing. It is all about the number of Cell Towers! Remember, this is a large area with a lot of ground to cover. Without cell towers there is nothing, no connection, nada. You may have the smartest, fastest smartphone out there - none of this matters if you don't have a cell tower in your area; you have no connection. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile have poor coverage once you get away from the main cities and freeways. And a lot of the beauty is in the mountains, rivers, and ocean beaches. You run the risk of not having a connection in any of these great places. Go to the coverage maps of the major services and only one really stands out in cell tower coverage: That is Verizon. So get an inexpensive Verizon phone and use it for voice calls. Use your IPhone to connect to a local coffee shop's WIFI and do your data there - like checking your email. I think IPHONE will do that? I use WebOS and never have any problems.

Re:It is all about the number of Cell Towers.

[PeterWone]

Big? Not from an Australian perspective it isn't. Our country is the same geographic size as mainland USA for a population one tenth the size. We are used to much bigger distances on much worse roads. Our smallest state is bigger than Texas. Our second smallest state is bigger than France.

Re:It is all about the number of Cell Towers.

[pentrose]

So... how's your cell phone reception?? Probably even worse.

coming from where?

[Anonymous Coward]

OP doesn't say where he's coming from....

I live in Korea and have a Samsung Galaxy S that normally runs on Korean network SKT. I learned that yes, I could run my phone in the
US with a new SIM card for a US network company. But it was vvvveerrryyy slow in any internet use.
I tried lots of tech support, but no one was any help.

Once I got home, I got slammed with a huge bill from SKT - turns out all my internet packets were going back to Korea and then to my
phone in the US. The idiots hardcoded the dang thing to Korean nets. I paid a huge bill in the US AND a huge bill in Korea. Live and learn.

AT&T prepaid sim + unlock iphone

[batkiwi]

I visited the USA for 4 weeks in November. I got my iphone unlocked by my carrier (telstra), flew to the USA, walked into an AT&T store, handed over $50-70 or so, and walked out with a prepaid SIM with a ton of credit and either 250 or 500mb of data (I don't remember).

The only trick is that you need to manually set the APN on the iphone for data to work, but you can do this without jailbreaking if you can get a wifi connection for ~5 minutes.

Coverage wasn't bad, and I didn't use most of my credit apart from data.

Put the phone on the ground and back away ...

[punkin]

Seriously, if you are going hiking or camping, put the phone away. The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place that should be enjoyed
without a phone, TV, WiFi, etc.

Virgin Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

Virgin Mobile US - $25/mo for 300 mins, unlimited TXT, unlimited 3g data

These are prepaid plans, so no contract. Also, depending where you buy the phone you will get 30 days to return it so you can grab their LG Optimus V ($199), use it for 2 weeks ($25 service), return it. So you're out $25 total.

Rather simple I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Download Acrobits and Viber and stand outside a Starbucks. Or even better get a coffee and call home! That what I did on my last visit. :)

This works for me

[George Wang]

You want to consult this Taiwan company, which buys a pre-paid SIM card for you and mail it to your home address so that you can use it upon arrival. I am going to the US for a conference and trip for 2 weeks next month, and I have already purchased one. You need to provide your day of arrival and phone number won't be released until then. Good luck. http://www.aerobile.com/eshop/index.php

International billing can be difficult

[nuckfuts]

I faced a similar problem a couple of years back. I needed the ability to go online with my laptop while travelling south through Washington to California. I found what I needed at an AT&T store, but activating the required data plan involved some significant obstacles:

1. 1. I couldn't open an account without an address with a US zip code. PO boxes are not acceptable. Fortunately I did have a US mailing address.
2. 2. I had to leave a cash deposit of approx. $500.
3. 3. I had to keep the plan active for a minimum number of months before I could claim my deposit back.
4. 4. The monthly bills had to be delivered from my US mailing address to my home address in Canada.
5. 5. AT&T cannot accept a bill payment from a non-US credit card! I had to send payments by mail to the US.
6. 6. When I eventually closed the account and asked for my deposit back, some of it was withheld (for reasons I can't recall), and the remainder was given to me on some kind of prepaid credit card instead of cash. The card wasn't accepted at most places in Canada.

While I was able to get the Internet access I required, the trouble and expense involved was not worth it for me.

Red Pocket

[one-egg]

I had this same issue (different only in minor details) a few months ago. The best I found was Red Pocket (http://www.redpocketmobile.com). They operate on AT&T's network, so coverage is good. They sell prepaid service at a reasonable price. Cons: you have to get the SIM card ahead of time, and overseas shipping is slow, so if you're leaving soon that's a problem. When I got to the US, only voice worked, and it was impossible to activate data using Firefox & NoScript. IIRC, I eventually had to bring up a VM with Internet Explorer to get data to go. But once I had leapt through the hoops, it was fine.

Same question for three weeks in Iceland....

[RichiH]

Same question for three weeks in Iceland....

Data?!

[Anonymous Coward]

ROFLMAO. You must not be from America. You might be able to squeeze by with voice (if you search really really hard and are willing to deal with extremely crappy coverage) but there is no way on god's green earth that you will get mobile data without paying thousands of dollars. Just give it up. We are 100% handcuffed over here. The telecoms have absolute and total control and there is no way to get what you want.

Welcome to America. Please come again.

Re:It's not a must - but it is

[realityimpaired]

You could book a different route... depending on the time of year, you may even want to do this... it'll be a longer flight, but probably worth it in the end. You can, for example, fly Australia to Vancouver via Tokyo without ever crossing US airspace. It's even easier, though a much longer flight, to fly Australia to Canada via Europe, but in that case I would suggest that you plan for a week to decompress in Europe either way of the trip.

That said, the Rockies are nice but I prefer the Alps, and Niagara is nice, but having seen it several times (it's only an 8h drive from where I live, which is reachable for a 4-day weekend trip or a week-long excursion to see the wineries on the peninsula), I would rather see Victoria Falls.

Do your homework

[Anonymous Coward]

For nationwide GSM in the USA you've AT&T & T-Mobile USA. Check both of their online coverage maps; while they've comparable coverage maps these days they're not the same and one or the other might be a better fit.

As you're only going to need the service for a short time prepaid is the obvious suggestion. Therefore when you do your coverage checks be sure to check prepaid coverage specifically; it often has slightly different coverage, different roaming agreements with other carriers, etc.

AT&T is the native home of your handset so they're the obvious choice. They offer 3G on a frequency your handset supports, T-Mobile USA doesn't so you'll only ever get EDGE data on your handset. On the other hand T-Mobile USA's $50 Monthly4G offers unlimited domestic voice, texting, and data (speed-limited after the first 100MB, which you will barely notice being on EDGE anyhow.)

FWIW I regularly deal with folks visiting the USA happily using T-Mobile prepaid ("Monthly4G") on their iPhones. While it isn't 3G speed for their device it is reliable and economical. Apparently the only change they need to make (aside from having an unlocked handset) is to the SMS/MMS settings, and that is detailed in T-Mobile's online support at forums.t-mobile.com.

My suggestion

[GameboyRMH]

Get one that has good roaming rates in Cuba.

Uhm...

[absurdist]

Cricket is CDMA 1X and 1xEV-DO, not GSM. Which rules out using an iPhone.

Re:Uhm...

[Jane Q. Public]

OP asked about the best phone/service to use, not what is the best carrier for his existing phone.

Re:It's not a must - but it is

[anyGould]

I'm in Australia. Every time I fly to Canada, I cross US air space, so I'm forced to undergo a US groping, fingerprints, retina scan etc. just to enter Canada.

Once we were made to exit the plane, immigrate to the US, go round the corner (queue up) and depart again because our plane made a stopover in Hawaii on the way to Vancouver. Nobody remembers the term 'In Transit' any more?

You might have to dig a bit, but there's a trend towards avoiding the US entirely while flying, for those of us who don't see the need to be groped by the country we didn't want to visit in the first place.

My last trip to the US was about five years ago (we arrived the night before The Bathroom Chemistry Incident), and while there are some reasons I'd like to travel there again in the future, none of them warrant the expected treatment we would endure (much less what *might* happen if we're unlucky and get a TSA agent with a chip on their shoulder)

When the US wants tourism again, they'll get their ducks in a row.

3G on 101

[Anonymous Coward]

Living on the Southern Oregon coast (CB/NB) along 101, I can tell you outside some towns, a lot of 101 is Edge only, no 3G, plenty of places w/o Edge or any cell service.
AT&T Prepaid SIM maybe the only option if you want to keep your phone.

T-Mobile has no stores, and their 3G frequency isn't supported by my iPhone 3G (ancient I know, looking at replacing w/the 4s or 5 or whatever is next)..
Cricket has no coverage on S-OR coast, so that's not an option here at least.

Telestial...but not for data

[CCarrot]

Telestial is the international prepaid phone/plan we used for our recent trip to Oz and NZ, and it was incredible value...but we only used it for voice calls, not data. For teh internets, a netbook served us well, along with a little pre-planning between hotspots.

The nice thing about the Telestial phone is that if you (or your family) plan to travel to many countries, you can generally get an incredible per-minute rate both in the country you're traveling through and for long distance calls back home, all with the same phone and a US or UK phone number. No more buying phones for each country you visit!

Again, though, this is for voice only, and seems to be generally targeted toward travel outside of North America (well, outside Canada at least, since the listed rates in Canada for local calls are highway robbery compared to their rates for other countries) Their prepaid data rates also seems to be slightly criminal (from $1 per MB???) but I suppose if you're stuck and need access, it'd work for you.

It doesn't sound like this is quite what the article submitter is looking for, I just thought the info could be useful for others planning some wider world-hopping tours.

Go Native

[Anonymous Coward]

Go to a Walmart and buy a gun. Use the gun to mug someone with an iPhone. QED.

prepaid data caveats

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been spending enough time commuting between Canada and the States that it made sense to get a number down there, but preferred to keep everything on one phone... my iPhone 3G, limiting me to GSM on AT&T or T-mobile from what I could tell.
I had my phone unlocked by my carrier, bought a sim card when i arrived in the US with some cheap minutes and txts... worked like a charm: still expensive compared to a post-paid plan, but much cheaper (even sending texts back home) than roaming. The caveat: AT&T will not allow you to buy data with a prepaid sim and iPhone. I purchased a 10MB add on to try but it never worked - connection failed. Upon returning to the AT&T store, they said staff should not have sold the add-on, it's not supported on any smartphones and I couldn't get a refund. So beware, and get used to wifi or one of their own dumber prepaid phones that can actually serve you some data if that's what you need.

what kind of drivel is this

[Anonymous Coward]

buy a sim card when you get where you're doing. case closed.

Re:It's not a must - but it is

[pthisis]

You might have to dig a bit, but there's a trend towards avoiding the US entirely [wikitravel.org] while flying, for those of us who don't see the need to be groped by the country we didn't want to visit in the first place.

My last trip to the US was about five years ago (we arrived the night before The Bathroom Chemistry Incident), and while there are some reasons I'd like to travel there again in the future, none of them warrant the expected treatment we would endure (much less what *might* happen if we're unlucky and get a TSA agent with a chip on their shoulder)

When the US wants tourism again, they'll get their ducks in a row.

The "avoid the US entirely" trend is invisible in the grand scheme of things: tourism to the US is up over 30% from 2000 to 2010 (from about 45 million foreign tourists in 2000 to 59 million in 2010). It declined somewhat post-9/11 but has grown steadily for the past 6 years, and is currently at record levels even adjusted per-capita.

Until that trend changes there's no real economic pressure to rethink TSA rules.

Great Service and internet anywhere

[Anonymous Coward]

Straight Talk has plans with unlimited data, minutes, and text for $45, or 1000 min/text for $30. I am not sure how much data you get from that. You can use either GSM or CMDS phones with them, and you can keep your current number. If you are going to be in the north west california I would suggest a CMDS phone (humboldt, and south on the 101) as they get better service in that area. a simple google inquery will take you to straighttalk.com

AT&T review from a visiting Ex-pat.

[maddogcooney]

I live in the Middle East and visit the USA (where I'm from) once or twice a year. I've got an iPhone 3GS and I got an AT&T GoPhone sim card. I pay $75 and get unlimited talk and text and 200Mb of data for a month. As my visits are rarely more than 4 weeks, that works perfect and I've yet to exceed the data limit. If I pay more than $75, they keep my number for a year. If I'm going to be data heavy, I pay a bit more into my plan in advance to carry over the extra data costs. AT&T Doesn't officially support iphone data on their prepaid but going here: http://www.unlockit.co.nz/#_Custom will allow you to change the APN settings of your phone so you can access their data network. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of AT&T. I had a contract plan with them for my iPhone before I moved to the Middle East but, as the previous commenters said, If you want GSM and 3G, they seem to be the best bet. (thought with Verizon's changes of late, they may be worth the look). In short for AT&T GoPhone: Pros(for me): Works with iPhone (After changing APN settings) Unlimited SMS Unlimited Voice Carry my # for a year. Easy to use Web interface to manage account. Free wifi at many places (Starbuck$, etc) Cons: It's AT&T Dropped calls in busy network areas (Always been that way with AT&T) Some folks find it a bit pricey. Good Luck and enjoy your visit! -maddog