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Ask Slashdot: SIM-Card Solutions In North America?

Posted by timothy on from the not-our-strong-suit dept.

An anonymous reader writes I'll be returning to North America for July for the first time in a few years, and I'm curious how the phone carrier market compares with the rest of the world. My last time in the U.S., I had to pick up a disposable phone with all kinds of unnecessary environmental waste (charger, packaging, etc.), and *still* had to register it with another domestic (!) phone number and credit card. I don't think I could get a SIM card there without a contract. Anywhere else I travel, picking up a new SIM card with pre-loaded credit is trivially easy. In my last trip to the UK, I just put GBP 10 into a vending machine at the airport and picked up a loaded SIM card for my phone which aldready has my contacts and settings. No ID, no name, no hassle. What are the best options for me in North America (U.S. *and* Canada)?

26 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by sconeu · · Score: 5, Informative

    T-Mobile has a pay-as-you go SIM. I think AT&T does, too.

    T-Mobile's is cheaper, but they have coverage issues (may not be a problem, depending on where you go).

    See also this story.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by scream+at+the+sky · · Score: 5, Informative

      Prepaid service in Canada sucks ass.

      Services like Wind and Mobilicity are dirt cheap, offering unlimited voice and data, but stop working as soon as you leave your major urban areas. They also use AWS frequencies, so unless you have a phone that works on 1700 HSPA you're SOL. If you are going to Canada first, look at Wind because they also have an offer where you can get unlimited US Roaming on your account for $15, this would save the need to pick up a second SIM while in the US.

      The big 3 (Rogers, Telus, Bell) frankly don't give a crap about prepaid service, and charge so much for it that it makes more sense to go onto a contract plan and cancel service the same day you leave the country (no more 30 day notice required thanks to the CRTC and the WCOC. Rogers gives the best compatibility with hardware (GSM 850,1900, a fist full of HSPA and LTE Frequencies as well) where Telus and Bell only support HSPA (850, 1900) or LTE on a handful of frequencies.

      If you are just going to be in major urban areas Chat-R Wireless (which is just a Rogers Wireless sub brand) has the best rates, but as soon as you are outside of a major urban area your pay through the nose in domestic roaming charges, and the biggest data plan they offer is 200MB for a month (if this matters to you). I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Chat-R offers a nano sim, so if you have an iPhone 5/5S/5C or an HTC One M* you're SOL as well,

      Expect the SIM to cost you between $10 and $20, as well as your first month service upfront.

      Disclosure: Industry pro, I've worked in the Canuck retail telecom industry since '99. I've worked for every provider in the country in one aspect or another, and they all suck, I'm cynical and jaded about it, so take advice with a grain of salt, the size of a Buick.

      --
      I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off...
    2. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Informative

      Prepaid service in Canada sucks ass.

      Depends on your needs. In Canada I tend to go with Koodo mobile; pay $15 for the month as a base charge, then buy however much data or voice I'll need. I conserve my data usage so 1 gig of 4G data can cost me for 4-5 months. And both data and voice with them are "Canada wide", so no roaming or long distance charges, plus they never expire. I had my phone with them for a full year, and on average it's cost me about $25 / month, total.

      In the US, on the other hand, I tend to shell out the $60 per month so I can have unlimited data and calling. Unfortunately you're right about Canada not really having any decent offerings for "unlimited use".

      I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Chat-R offers a nano sim, so if you have an iPhone 5/5S/5C or an HTC One M* you're SOL as well,

      You can walk into any cellphone repair shop and have them punch your existing sim to a nano.

    3. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by Michalson · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you are only going to use it in Canada either 7-Eleven's "Speakout" or Petro Canada Gas Station's "Petro Canada Mobility" provide a cheap way of getting onto Roger's Canada wide network without any of the restrictions they slap on their in-house brands Chatr and Fido. There used to be a nice cheap way to get data but since they starting offering Android phones you'll get the same insane fee (10$ for 100mb) as the other Canadian carriers but without any unlimited option. SIM cards are $5-$15 dollars depending on current promotions and you can purchase a SIM card, airtime or phone over the counter in 30 seconds (just make sure you say clearly which provider you want airtime for, these are gas station/convience store clerks, not telecom pros). Speakout tends to be slightly cheaper/better package deals but 7-Eleven locations in Canada are few and far between.

      I'll agree that Wind does offer a good deal if you want to go outside of Canada, not just in the US but their roaming rates are far more competitive then other Canadian carriers.

      But you might want to look into what roaming rates you can get from a carrier in your own country first, they might be better.

    4. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by scream+at+the+sky · · Score: 2

      Mini SIM to Micro SIM can be punched no problem, but I sell a lot of nano sims because someone tried to punch their existing sim down to a Nano, only to find that the entire nano sim (plastic frame included) is smaller than the cut out area, and their sim is now ruined.

      --
      I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off...
    5. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by Macrat · · Score: 2

      Yeah, I had a similar problem with a friend visiting the US again and forgot to bring his currently active prepay T-Mobile SIM.

      He stopped in a mall near the airport to have his prepay account switched to a new SIM and they tried to sell him a phone. That's when I had to explain to him that the mall kiosks are 3rd parties reselling T-Mobile services and are not actual T-Mobile stores.

      I took him to an actual T-Mobile store and they had him set up in a few minutes.

    6. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by TrevorB · · Score: 2

      Virgin Mobile has a semi-decent pay-as-you-go option for Canada: $0.35/min for phone calls, with a 100MB/mo Data Addon for $10, or 500MB/mo for $20. or 1GB/mo for $30. It's better than having a recurring data plan, you can just walk in and get a SIM card, and it works well enough for me, I end up paying about $22-23/mo. Works great in my unlocked Nexus 4.

    7. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you're going to Canada first then the US, you're in luck because there's a really easy SIM to get for Canadians heading South.

      It's called Roam Mobility and they're a US MVNO that sells their SIMs in Canada (if you're on the west coast, head into a London Drugs store, go to the cell department and ask to buy a Roam Mobility SIM.

      If not, they do sell the SIMs online. It's a fairly nice option for Canadians heading to the US for days, weeks or a month. And it's pretty much no-questions-asked - you just buy the SIM and activate it online for however long you need.

      In Canada, well, prepaid generally is a bigger bother - while you can buy SIMs by heading to a store, they aren't too happy about selling them (less money for them). As an earlier poster said, you probably want to use Wind or Mobilicity if you can (if you do Wind, pay for the US package and you can roam in the US as well, which isn't too bad a deal)., but you will need a phone that can do AWS (e.g., the iPhone 5/5s can, last I checked, as well as the other regular bands). They can sell you one, but beware that unlocked ones like Nexus phones are WILDLY overpriced (I've seen a Nexus 4 be almost $600 - yes, you could walk into an Apple Store and get the iPhone 5. The Nexus 4 sold for around $250 or so off Google Play). But that's only if your current phone doesn't do AWS (I mention the iPhone 5 because it does, as well as regular bands from other carriers. I do know that there often are special AWS models of popular Android flagships like the SGS3 (a friend tried to activate one and couldn't because it didn't do AWS), and I think the Nexus 4 couldn't either unless you got the special one.)

      Oh, and no carrier, despite having the "no contract price" on the phone will ever sell you a handset for that price unless you actually were in a contract and wanted an out-of-sync upgrade. Other than Wind or Mobilicity, who are prepaid services, that is. (As I'm no longer in a contract, well, it means my phone options in Canada are limited to Apple if I wanted in-store service, or Google if I wanted to put up with Google Play (bleh - I got burned badly with the Nexus 7 when I could buy it retail for cheaper, and have it sooner than when Google finally fulfilled my order! I mean, I could walk into a store and buy one, or order it online for free shipping and have it in my hand a couple of weeks sooner (stupid UPS)).

    8. Re:You'll want either AT&T or T-Mobile. by j-beda · · Score: 2

      7-11 has a "fan-constructed" website with lots of good info at http://www.speakoutwireless.ca... and their "official" one is at http://speakout7eleven.ca/

      You can order a SIM online for postal delivery (maybe only to Canada?) or walk into a 7-11 and pick one up directly. I think they only do regular or mini-SIMs, so you'll need to cut it for a micro-SIM size. https://www.google.ca/search?q...

      If you are on the west coast, find someone who uses Shaw for their ISP and get them to give you a Shaw login/email on their account and you'll have access to a whole wack of wifi hotspots mostly in BC and Alberta, but a few farther East. http://www.shaw.ca/wifi/hotspo...

  2. You can just buy a sim by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

    You can pay cash for a SIM at just about any big box vendor.

    But US phones are mostly frequency locked to carriers.

    If you are lucky (or are willing to settle for edge data rates) you can likely find a network that your phone works on. That will lead you to a group of pre-paid SIM vendors.

    It starts with which network your phone will work on and how well. Do your research.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:You can just buy a sim by schnell · · Score: 3, Interesting

      But US phones are mostly frequency locked to carriers.

      Kinda sorta used to be more but not so much now.

      Part of the confusion comes from the fact that, unlike pretty much the rest of the world, US carriers did not standardize on the GSM technology family. Back in the day, AT&T and T-Mobile chose GSM, while Verizon and Sprint chose the CDMA technology family. So right there you had incompatible technologies between carriers that didn't exist most anywhere else in the world (except for Japan and Korea, mainly).

      Phones built to run on the GSM family of technologies use SIM cards and are generally "SIM-swappable." Some phones, typically the ones bought on a contract for a discount, are "SIM-locked" to a carrier meaning that the phone has to be unlocked by the original carrier before the phone can be used with a SIM from another carrier. However, pretty much all cheap/prepaid phones are not SIM locked and can be swapped easily. Phones built to run on CDMA family of technologies do not use SIM cards so are a moot point for "SIM swapping."

      Oh, and don't forget this in your research - there are at least three popular SIM card sizes roaming (no pun intended) in the wild these days, and they are mutually incompatible. So don't expect to take the full-sized SIM out of your feature phone and transfer it to the micro SIM slot of a Galaxy S4 or the nano SIM slot of an iPhone 5s ... although of course you can buy adapters that will make smaller SIMs fit into larger slots.

      In case you're wondering, the fact that all four major US carriers are using LTE nowadays should make the situation less complicated, but it really doesn't. That's because there are virtually no phones out there that use LTE exclusively. Unless your carrier has VoLTE deployed, your "LTE" phone is just using LTE for data but is falling back to 3G CDMA or GSM/HSPA to make your voice calls. So even though every LTE phone has a SIM, phones on legacy CDMA carriers aren't full "SIM-swappable."

      Long story short - SIM swappability these days is far less about carrier locking and more about SIM sizes and which network you're trying to use. Good luck!

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    2. Re:You can just buy a sim by Briareos · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh, and don't forget this in your research - there are at least three popular SIM card sizes roaming (no pun intended) in the wild these days, and they are mutually incompatible. So don't expect to take the full-sized SIM out of your feature phone and transfer it to the micro SIM slot of a Galaxy S4 or the nano SIM slot of an iPhone 5s ... although of course you can buy adapters that will make smaller SIMs fit into larger slots.

      Except of course that SIM cards are mostly plastic, with a smart-card-y bit where the contacts are, so it's perfectly possible to cut a regular SIM card down to whatever size you need as long as you use a template and a pair of scissors or one of the cheap SIM cutters you can get on Amazon or ask the guys in the next phone shop to do it for you...

      I used a mini SIM in my Motorola Milestone until I got a Samsung S3 when it came out and I needed a micro SIM card - converting my SIM was a rather short and simple home crafting project.

      --

      "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole

    3. Re:You can just buy a sim by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2

      You can pay cash for a SIM at just about any big box vendor.

      Sorry old chap, don't get your banter.

      What's a "big box vendor"? Somoeone who sells big boxes? Most sim cards I've seen are rather small.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    4. Re:You can just buy a sim by sparkeyjames · · Score: 2

      Big Box refers to the big boxy buildings that their stores are usually in.

  3. any gas station in the ghetto by steak · · Score: 3, Funny

    go to any gas station in the ghetto and buy all the sim you want.

    --
    lose != loose
  4. Straight Talk GSM or Ting CDMA by Kagato · · Score: 2

    For the most reasonable rates I'd go with Straight Talk (WalMart) for GSM or Ting for CDMA service. Not sure if you can get away with not giving a name, but neither need any form of contract. I would skip the airport Kiosk and go right to a WalMart of Target for the pre-paid cards.

    1. Re:Straight Talk GSM or Ting CDMA by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 2

      and by going into WalMart you get to see the amazing weird side of American culture, bonus!

  5. H2O wireless - Sim without Phone by Stonent1 · · Score: 2

    BestBuy sells H2O wireless SIMs that do not come with phones. The card says use with any unlocked GSM phone.

    1. Re:H2O wireless - Sim without Phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      > BestBuy sells H2O wireless SIMs that do not come with phones. The card says use with any unlocked GSM phone.

      I use H2O Wireless. It even works with GSM phones that are carrier locked to AT&T. I know it because that's what I'm using, never even had to register with ATT, just bought the phone at wal-mart and bough the H2O sim at bestbuy. It is a really good deal for very low volume callers, I spend $10 for 100 minutes that last 3 months.

      Another alternative is Lyca - which anyone from Europe will already be familiar with. Their american operations are bare-bones but super cheap and their minutes don't expire as long as you top-up with a couple of bucks every couple of months. You can buy a Lyca sim at Target.

      http://www.lycamobile.us/en/

  6. Question is stupid by kamapuaa · · Score: 5, Informative

    Instead of asking Slashdot such a silly question you could also just google getting a gsm sim card in the us.

    Lo and behold!

    #1) "The best Prepaid SIM Cards"
    #2) "SIM Cards - Best Buy"

    It's been trivial to do this for about a decade and 5 seconds of googling got me the answer. This is one of the stupidest ask slashdots ever, and they are almost all incredibly stupid. I'm not looking and I'm going to guess tImothy put this story up.
    checks the top of the page
    Yup. Fuck timothy.

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    1. Re:Question is stupid by ve3oat · · Score: 3

      "Instead of asking Slashdot such a silly question ..." You are way off base. I am a Canadian who isn't very happy with my mobile phone service and the OP's question is very relevant as I don't know enough about the technical parameters to just google an answer to my concerns. The answers here have been, largely, very informative for me. This is all about what is so very wrong with the Canadian mobile phone market and the regulations governing it, and I expect it extends to the U.S. market as well. I just hope our blessed CRTC is paying attention to this conversation.

  7. Re:T-MOBILE, T-MOBILE, and one more time T-MOBILE by raburton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > Even Africa one gets better and easier SIM offerings than USA
    Some parts of it yes, Kenya was just like here in the UK. In Ethiopia I had to go to a government office with my passport, fill in a form, and provide a passport photo for them to keep just for a pay as you go sim. Although you could buy them unofficially off the street too.

  8. Tourist != terrorist by tepples · · Score: 3, Funny

    My aunt is a drug dealer, you insensitive clod!

    OP is a tourist, and there's a big difference between a tourist and a terrorist.

    1. Re:Tourist != terrorist by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 2

      OP is a tourist, and there's a big difference between a tourist and a terrorist.

      After going through customs a couple times, I'm pretty sure the US government considers them to be the same thing.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  9. Re:Not a problem by Dahan · · Score: 2

    I don't know why you had such a problem. There are many GSM carriers that offer SIM/pre-pay, and have for as long as I can recall.

    Agreed. He doesn't say exactly when his last trip to the US was, but AT&T and T-Mobile had prepaid SIMs "a few years ago". I don't know if there are any airport shops that sell them (seems like there would be), but as you say, they're readily available in various stores outside the airport.

    However, AT&T's prepaid plans suck for tourists... if you have a smartphone (and seeing that this is /., I bet OP does), AT&T will make you get a "smartphone" plan, which starts at $25 for a month of service, and doesn't actually include any data--that's an extra $5 for a measly 50MB. T-Mobile has prepaid plans that I think would work better for a short-term visitor, e.g., perhaps their $3/day unlimited plan.

    But I think the best prepaid plans in the US for visitors come from "MVNO"s--basically companies that resell access to either AT&T's or T-Mobile's network, such as Airvoice or Ultra. Unfortunately, their SIMs tend not to be available in actual physical stores, which makes buying their service impractical for a visitor.

  10. Re:Not a problem by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 2

    Via the IMEI database, which is the "serial number" of the phone, and is unique per phone.