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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."
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.
The World is Yours.
Leave your iPhone behind and buy a local prepaid.
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.
You did say vacation, right?
Hey mate, spare a sig?
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.
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.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
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.
...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.
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.
- "If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create."
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.
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.
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.
HWY 101 rocks, don't ruin it w/ a damn phone!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
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.
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
This is all just my personal opinion.
Go to walmart and buy one of their pre-paid smartphones. It will also add to the American experience.
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."
And if where you work requires it, this isnt an option.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
There's Simple Mobile as well; which has nationwide service and is pretty much everywhere AT&T is.
Furries make the internet go.
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.
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?
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.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
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.
If where you work requires you to be on duty during your vacation, it's time to think about a change of careers.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.
Je ne parle pas francais.
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.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
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)
You can definitely get a prepaid account without a contract.
Hosting and Domain name coupons
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.
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.
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.
wha'? where am i?
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?
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.)
I use a factory unlocked iPhone 3GS on T-Mobile and the 200Kbs EDGE speed is quite more useful than "minimal" purposes.
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.
Have one. Live in Portland. Coverage along the coast is feeble. Fuggedaboudit.
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
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.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
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
While I was able to get the Internet access I required, the trouble and expense involved was not worth it for me.
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....
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.
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,
You are welcome on my lawn.
Get one that has good roaming rates in Cuba.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Cricket is CDMA 1X and 1xEV-DO, not GSM. Which rules out using an iPhone.
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.
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.
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
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.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
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
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
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