USA Sim Cards

Bah

I'm going to the US for the summer, so I'm looking to get a prepaid US sim-card before I go, so I can give people my number before I leave. I've had a look on EBay.com, but there seems to be a lot of bulk-purchase cards, with a $30 "registration fee".
Can anybody tell me how prepaid sims work over there? Is it just a case of buying the card, putting it in the phone, topping up and then you can use it? Anybody know of somewhere to buy a Sim pack (*cheaply*) on the internet? I've seen the www.fonepool.com site, they offer a T-Mobile sim for €39. Good deal?

declanoneill

Not all the mobile companies over there use sim cards, I know T-mobile do (I was with them) but you need to top up before the exirpy date on the previous top up or you won't be able to make OR receive calls. I think I paid something like $80 with $60 worth of credit (or maybe it was the other way around?), that was in Boston. I'd say just buy it when you get over there and use webtext to text everyone back home

Bah

If they don't use sim cards, what do they use?

Fonepool are offering $60 with $30 worth of credit, on T-Mobile. After looking into it a bit, it seems that Irish networks aren't the worst when it comes to pricing...

declanoneill

Prepaid isn't popular over there at all because bill pay is such good value (1000 anytime minutes, and free weekend and evening for something like $40 per month) but there minutes get used when someone calls them too. anyway $60 with $30 of credit is probably as good a deal as you'll get, plus you'll know people will be able to text you. Some networks over there don't use GSM (can't remember what they're called). Hense (I assume) no removeable sim card.

elderlemon

Actually there's now quite a lot of prepay in the US. T-Mobile, Virgin, Cingular/ATT all have pre pay plans. You may also find some local operators with similiar plans. Bear in mind that any pre pay card in the US has to be activiated - this can usually be done in store but you need to have your phone with you. Also beaware that the US uses different frequencies depending on its market so Cingular frequencies in NY may be different from Cingular Chicago. You can check the required band by checking the web site for the carrier.

bp_me

Only the gsm networks use sim cards. The CDMA ones dont. GSM is becoming more popular over there now anyway. Best bet is probably to get one over there.

Bah

I ended up just buying one from the FonePool website, for €49 including $30 credit and no T-Mobile activation fee (which everywhere else was saying would cost another 430, on top of the 420 to buy the sim card, plus postage). Postage with FonePool is free, and they offer top-up by text facilities with your credit card. Sounds handy enough.

They're doing a referrer deal now, whereby if you enter a customers e-mail address when you're buying one, they give both of you free credit. Mine's mci.col[at]gmail.com if anybody's thinking of buying one soon.

byrnefm

To answer an earlier question about SIM cards, TDMA and CDMA don't use any type of card at all - the phone itself has to be programmed. Of course, this means that when you upgrade your phone, it's not a trivial task to move over your phone book... And similarly your phone number doesn't move as easily as if it were on a SIM card.

There was talk of CDMA operators coming out with their own version of a SIM card, though I don't know how far it got.

As to the network frequencies, most have a 1900 MHz band but not all. 1900 was the first band available, 850 didn't come out until much later - and really only (some of) Motorola's handsets support quad-band. Since 1900 was first available and tribands use 1900, this band gets crowded easily, so having a quad band can mean the difference of getting a non-busy tone!

kasintahan

The US is a mess of mobile phone standards.

If you move from city to city you can expect
different standards - old analogue AMPS, CDMA, GSM
different frequencies (1900/850 (some 900/1800?)

If you travel outside the cities you can expect to lose the signal in more remote places.

sgske

Also USA uses a different band so you need to have a tri/quad band phone.
You can do roaming in the usa.

declanoneill

Bah wrote:

they offer top-up by text facilities with your credit card. Sounds handy enough.

How does this work? Do you have to do something like text topup 20 xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx where the x's are your credit card number? I don't think I'd be comfortable sending the number over text

kaimera

iirc, the pre-pay in the US is more costly that ours.

As said already, the bill phones are such solid value :: I wish that we'd have the same here.

lomb

wel i dont. i am happy getting 2 'free' prepay phone on o2 and always being on off peak paying no more than 15 cent to landlines a minute , never having to top it up if i dont use it and not paying to recieve call. the states is a rip off for mobile telephony.

kaimera

$40/month == 1000 daytime mins :: freeoff peak and weekend calls [depending on plan it could incl. national calls also (off peak starts at 9.00pm tho)]

I'd rate that better than anything onver here tbh.

anyway : it's a wee bit OT....

lomb

thats great if u want to spend ur day taking crap. that system wants 500 out of u and basically will give u calls for 'free' as long as they get 500. anyone who doesnt talk crap all day would be very happy with the european system, where they only extract money out of u if u use it. i note o2 is the only network in ireland where u dont have to top up every 6 months and they wont cut u off.

in the US if u want an emergency phone for each of ur family members budget crazy money for it, here it costs 'nothing'

Saruman

Very few use sim cards in the states.. Also the prepay.. ALL of them are like pre-way was here years ago.. you know you loose your account if you dont top up in a month or whatever. Virgin has the longest time which is 90 days.

Sparky

I got a cingular sim in NY to use in my Nokia 6230 and topped up with a $25 card, but whatever system they have they say it gives you certain minutes, also i noticed they charge you to receive calls, not too much on cost but if someone rings you while you have low credit as we call it, its inconvienent.

Bah

Saruman wrote:

you know you loose your account if you dont top up in a month or whatever. Virgin has the longest time which is 90 days.

T-Mobile has a system where if you top up by more than $100 (not too sure about the exact figure - might be a little higher) you can keep your account active for a year - which means you'll be able to use it the following year if you go over. Although it'd probably be just as easy to buy a new one the next year, if you're going to a different area.

Ruu_Old

Correct its $100, im on t-mobile over here.