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Ask Slashdot: A Cheap US Cellphone Plan With an Unlocked Phone?
metrix007 writes "I am a recent immigrant to the U.S. I am used to going to countries and paying a small amount, say, $30, for a simcard and using it with my unlocked phone. I can't seem to do that in the U.S., where the only options seem to be to buy a phone and buy minutes as I need them such as with Tracfone, or a contract where I pay an amount per month to pay off a phone and a certain amount of minutes. I have a Google Nexus One, which is better than any phone offered on the basic plans from all the cell providers. Is there any way I can use it as a cell phone in the U.S. for about $30-$50/month? It seems a shame to waste it and have to pay for a lesser phone."
Simple Mobile. Enough said.
I love how long this post has gone without replies (25 minutes, unless there's some sort of database lag I don't see). I guess that's a damning indictment of the US telecom industry and their pricing practices...
get the online/walmart $35 plan which has unlimited data or pay by the minute at 10 cents a minute if you don't use it much. You can also get unlimited text/data/voice on at&t or t-mobile through net10 for $45/month - check their website as the deal is online only. tell it you are using an at&t locked phone if you want at&t otherwise they send t-mobile by default
Get a web developer
Those are pretty much your only options on the GSM front. T-Mob has a 30 USD/month plan for 100 minutes and unlimited text/data, but all of their other plans are more expensive than straighttalk for smartphones (probably featurephones as well).
--- Ãther SPOON!
Go to the T-Mobile web-store and buy a SIM activation kit for $1. When you receive it, follow the activation instructions on the web and when it asks you to choose your plan, select "Monthly 4G $30"
* Unlimited internet*
* Unlimited Text
* 100 minutes talktime
It's basically a prepay deal where the available balance will drop by $30 a month, so you just need to top-up once a month, and make sure you have enough credit to cover any calls you make over the 100 minutes No ongoing contracts.
Deal is web-only.
*Unlimited internet means up to 5GB at HSPDA+ speeds.
Or an indictment of that damn sun, rising and setting, creating this silly "day" that we have to put up with, lots of people being "asleep" when this was posted.
"T-Mobile or AT&T would be happy to sell no commitment service on your existing GSM phone."
At full price. He asked for "CHEAP". and nothing AT&T is cheap.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Sorry, but is this really a Ask Slashdot-worthy story? Better placed to ask on any of a dozen different travel forums, or to raise it in mobile phone forums (of which I hear the kids these days have quite a few).
A quick LMGTFY link to help wrap up the conversation
I'm surprised to see that nobody has mentioned frequency bands yet. It sounds like your phone is a European model. The problem is that different parts of the world use different frequencies for mobile phone service, and now even different technologies, too.
From what I understand, pretty much all of Europe uses the GSM on the same frequency bands, so you can shuffle around SIM cards all day. But in the US, the frequencies are different from Europe. Even more of a problem is that GSM isn't dominant here. And now 3G and 4G are coming.
So sure, you could stick in a SIM card, but can your phone even talk on the right frequencies? If it is a "quad band" phone, you may be in luck.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm I think you'll find something you can use.
I just bought one of their SIM cards with their $45 unli everything plan and popped it into my Nokia N9 when I was back in the States for a few weeks recently.
Process was straightforward enough to set it up. I had decent coverage (AT&T, YMMV), unlimited everything was nice to have. Unsure what experience the previous poster had with their 3G speeds. I found it to be quite speedy. Able to watch YouTube, etc. as fast or faster than my connection at home in the Philippines.
Overall, if I were living in the States, I'd surely go with this company as I like my phones unlocked and without the bloatware of the mobile companies.
Even at that, I'll still use them when I return the US so that I have a mobile number where friends and family can reach me, while I'm there.
T-Mobile's coverage is extremely limited, AND their 3G network is incompatible with most phones sold by them. The only non-TMo phones that work are the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus and AT&T LTE devices running hacked radio firmware.
Straight Talk provides MVNO service on both T-Mo or AT&T networks (you choose when you purchase the SIM).
$15 for initial SIM purchase, $45/month thereafter. Plan includes unlimited voice and texts (with no apparent "stealth limits") - the one disadvantage is that they claim "unlimited" data but it's really 2GB.
Personally I only use 500MB or so a month, so I'm going to them when my AT&T contract is up.
ST's BYOD plans are a fairly recent development, not many people are aware of them.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
This really is a topic for mobile phone specific forum. My favourite is HowardForums. Here is a link to the US pre-payed/MVNO forums: http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/325-US-Prepaid-MVNO-Discussion
There are lots of people there who know what's up with pre-paid and low-cost options.
Avoid T-Mobile compatible phones for this service. Straight Talk is an MVNO and T-Mobile is a bunch of dicks. They won't let outside SMS messages thru. AT&T doesn't do that to MVNOs and SMS/MMS works fine.
While you are correct about Straight Talk being a better overall value for a primary phone (and T-Mobile being a bunch of dicks), it is patently false that T-Mobile does not allow SMS from other carriers. They most certainly allow SMS/MMS to and from all major carriers foreign and domestic. They DO block non-mobile SMS short codes for obvious billing reasons (prepaid users racking up huge charges with 3rd parties that they don't have the funds to cover).
The main reason NOT to get T-Mobile for any service in my opinion is because they censor their internet access unless you give them your (valid, verifiable) ID/SSN. That is a complete joke, their WebGuard blocks many perfectly acceptable sites that they deem "unacceptable to minors", whatever that means. Avoid them like the plague if you care about freedom, but their SMS/MMS system actually does work fine.
No, I am not incorrect. However, I might have been unclear. Let me try again.
When using an MVNO like Straight Talk that resells using T-Mobile's network, T-Mobile *does not allow non-network text messages thru*.
If you have standard T-Mobile service from TMO themselves, they do allow those messages.
Using T-Mobile I can get text messages from Google, my bank, and friends on other networks like AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.
Using a Straight Talk account with a T-Mobile SIM I can only receive text messages from other Straight Talk or T-Mobile sources.
For example, using Bank of America's or Google's 2-factor authentication which sends a text message to your phone *does not work* using Straight Talk with a T-Mobile compatible SIM. It did work when I had service from T-Mobile directly. It worked again when I switched SIMs to an AT&T-compatible on Straight Talk.
Interesting about those WebGuard service. I did not know that.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
There is a very useful table of prepaid plans over at Howard Forums. Since you have a GSM phone, you'll want one of the carriers that uses AT&T's or T-Mobile's network.
I'm pretty happy with T-Mobile's $30 monthly prepaid plan, since I rarely need many talk minutes and I'm willing to live with 2G data speeds until they refarm their 1900 MHz spectrum to support 3G later this year.
In the US, there are two major "flavors" of cellphone technology: GSM (also used in Europe) and CDMA (also used in some parts of Asia). There are four major carriers: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. There are also some (very good) regional carriers and a whole bunch of companies who re-sell from the big 4.
CDMA providers (in the US, Verizon and Sprint are the two big ones) don't have removable SIM cards, and they're not particularly friendly or helpful about unlocking existing phones. Verizon has, by far, the best coverage for the more rural parts of the US. So, if you're going to be out in the sticks, you might be stuck buying a shitty Verizon phone.
GSM providers WILL sell you a SIM, just like you're looking for, but they don't talk about it, and they don't offer any sort of commission to their store employees for it, so they won't offer it unless you ask. You walk in and buy a pre-paid SIM card, just like in Europe. The data prices suck if you don't get a data package (AT&T charges $2/MEGAbyte without a plan (or $2048/GB), but you can get $2/day unlimited data or pay $25 for a 1GB block of data), but you can get "Unlimited daily" plans for a few dollars per day. AT&T has better coverage than T-Mobile, but both are usually adequate in bigger cities. Neither's quite as good as Verizon in rural areas, but I've had better luck with AT&T than with T-Mobile.
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Virgin? Nope. I've seen rocky horror picture show thank you.