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Ask Slashdot: Best Data Provider When Traveling In the US?
An anonymous reader writes: I am visiting USA 3-4 times a year and I need a data service. I also need to keep my cell phone number, so swapping the SIM card in my phone is not an option. I have bought those 19.95$ phones in Best-Buy to get a local number, but those were voice only. So I have been thinking about getting a MiFi hotspot.
I have been looking at pre-paid plans from Verizon(only 700 LTE band for their pre-paid hotspot), AT&T, T-Mobile etc. perhaps to put in a MiFi hotspot or buy a hotspot from a provider, but have no idea which one to use, their reputation, real life coverage etc. It is clear that all data plans in the USA are really expensive, I get 100GB monthly traffic with my Scandinavian provider for the same price as 6-8 GB monthly in the US, which I guess could be a problem with our Apple phones as they do not recognize a metered WiFi hotspot. But that is another issue. I travel all over but most of the time outside the big cities -- and my experience from roaming with my own phone and the cheap local phone so far tells me that coverage fluctuates wildly depending on the operator.
I have been looking at pre-paid plans from Verizon(only 700 LTE band for their pre-paid hotspot), AT&T, T-Mobile etc. perhaps to put in a MiFi hotspot or buy a hotspot from a provider, but have no idea which one to use, their reputation, real life coverage etc. It is clear that all data plans in the USA are really expensive, I get 100GB monthly traffic with my Scandinavian provider for the same price as 6-8 GB monthly in the US, which I guess could be a problem with our Apple phones as they do not recognize a metered WiFi hotspot. But that is another issue. I travel all over but most of the time outside the big cities -- and my experience from roaming with my own phone and the cheap local phone so far tells me that coverage fluctuates wildly depending on the operator.
When I visit the US, I use a Canadian provider known as Roam Mobility. They roam on T-Mobile's network, and the network seems to fall apart any time there are large crowds. Most of the time it worked OK, but when I went to Universal Studios or Anime Expo, I basically had no cell reception the entire time I was at either of those events/places.
My friends who were roaming on AT&T had no issues.
Verizon & AT&T will have the best average coverage throughout the US, especially the more rural areas. T-Mobile, Sprint and the various budget providers who piggyback on T-Mo & Sprint's networks work best in more urban areas, although there are always dead zones here and there too..
Compared to Europe, the US is still pretty empty, population wise, so a lot of rural areas just aren't worth investing in the network spectrum to cover unfortunately.
Port you US number (costs) to Google Voice or get a free number from google voice.
Get a nexus 6 (unlocked). Go to ting and get both a GSM SIM and a a CDME/LTE SIM fo rthe phone (micro SIMS).
Activate both. You will have two numbers, but it does not matter. Forward your GV number to both.
There are some settings changes you will need to make, but once all is done, you can use the nexus 6 on -Tmobile and Sprint depending on coverage. Both are good, but not as good as verizon coverage in rural areas. All you need to do is swap SIMS.
Get it set up in advance, as it can take a while for ports into GV and forwarding to propagate correctly.
In a pinch you can carry two phones one on CDMA and one on GSM and do the same. That is what I used to do. More to carry, but I could keep one charging while burning GPS/battery etc on the other phone. That will also use more data as both phones are doing their thing on Ting at the same time for whatever apps you have running.
Silence is a state of mime.
Coming from Europe, the mobile communications experience in the US is what one would expect from a Third World country, not from the US. Service is slow, expensive, unreliable and not very flexible.
The Karma go uses sprint's 3g and 4g network and offers non expiring data.
Sprint has a bit better coverage than t-mobile imho. (sprint has 4g here t-mobile still 2g only)
This is the best choice for decent coverage with occasional use. But keep in mind they do charge more for the data since it doesn't expire.
Op did not really state how much he used or how much he was willing to pay.
If you need near universal coverage go with verizon or att.
If you need cheap data you have come to the wrong country.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
I traveled the US for a year from 2013 to 2014 and my [unlimited] LTE service from Verizon was better than any WiFi service I got from resorts and hotels except at three locations For the first half of the trip, I tethered through my Galaxy Nexus phone. For the second half, I used a Galaxy S5. My switch to the S5 happened around the time Verizon started rolling out XLTE in major cities and the speed increase was noticeable. I got up to 80 megs down and 40 up near Atlanta. Verizon's expensive but they have the best coverage. I've also used T-Mobile and AT&T but T-Mobile's coverage was miserable and AT&T couldn't reliably deliver data.
I've always used Verizon (for several years now via Straighttalk), because on paper their coverage outside of cities looks better than the rest, including AT&T. But on several recent road trips between Baltimore and West Virginia on I-70 and I-68, I've had zero (as in zilch, none, nada) Verizon coverage from Hagerstown MD west to and including Fairmont WV, while my daughter's AT&T (Straighttalk) has fine coverage almost all the way. So I'm wondering whether the on-line maps I've found are really accurate. http://opensignal.com/ does seem to show Verizon disappearing past Hagerstown, and AT&T continuing, which at least in this case seems to match reality.
How reality is outside of the couple areas I've traveled, I don't know. Along the interstate is usually good, off that...YMMV.