USA sim card for non-resident

[canadiense]

I will be travelling down the west coast of the USA in a few days passing through Washington, Oregon and California states. I have just completed a tour in Asia where getting a sim card is easy and inexpensive, allowing free incoming calls. My wife has grown accustomed to speaking to me every day, even in remote areas of Laos and China, so she wants to be able to continue this while I am in the USA.

My research is not bearing fruit so I want to ask this community for guidance. I need a sim card for two months only. Ideally it will have free incoming calls and will allow long distance to Canada but that is not essential. This question may best be answered by non-residents of the USA but all input is gratefully received. Please tell me your experiences.

 

[lazyfatgit]

Don't know about mobiles in the USA, but i have an ex-pat friend in Canada who uses travelex top up card to phone home cheaply when shes in Europe. Also has an access number from thew USA.

 

[bike_the_planet]

I will be travelling down the west coast of the USA in a few days passing through Washington, Oregon and California states. I have just completed a tour in Asia where getting a sim card is easy and inexpensive, allowing free incoming calls. My wife has grown accustomed to speaking to me every day, even in remote areas of Laos and China, so she wants to be able to continue this while I am in the USA.

My research is not bearing fruit so I want to ask this community for guidance. I need a sim card for two months only. Ideally it will have free incoming calls and will allow long distance to Canada but that is not essential. This question may best be answered by non-residents of the USA but all input is gratefully received. Please tell me your experiences.

You might want to check here as to GSM coverage in the United States.

For many years Americans insisted on using their own mobile standard that was different to GSM. This has changed in the last few years and GSM has made some large inroads. Make sure that your phone is tri-band though.

I have used a TravelSim sim card successfully throughout Europe. It is enabled for roaming in over 100 countries and calls are a standard rate regardless of which country you call.

Importantly, you don't pay to receive calls. Something many people don't realise when they enable roaming on their handset. You normally pay the roaming leg for all received calls.

The only disadvantage to TravelSim was that it is a callback service and there is some delay when talking to the other party.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[very-near]

I went into Wal-mart and bought a couple of 'Net10' phones for $30USD each when I went in July. Both came with 300 minutes of talk time and I bought some international 'scratch' phone cards for $5 or $10 and dialled off the mobiles. The phones are cheap motorolas but for that price I put up with them.

 

[Dayvo]

Not sure if it´s available in the US, but I often buy a Lebara sim card and either use it locally, or top it up before I leave and use it abroad. It´s fine for short, long-distance calls.

 

[malfy]

I did the West Coast ride through those states last year, I bought one of the Net 10 phones mentioned above. They do offer really good rates to call other countries, but I found international calls wouldn't work in a lot of areas (you have to dial an access number, then dial the number you want to call - in some areas the access number wouldn't connect). Once I got to San Francisco the phone worked fine for the rest of the trip, but was pretty frustrating before that.

 

[AlanBG]

I write about telecoms so here goes:

If you're using your existing mobile (GSM) phone, make sure it's tri-band, so it will work on US bands. SIM cards from AT&T or T-Mobile USA (which is owned by the same company that owns T-Mobile in the UK -- ie the German company Deutsche Telekom) should work.

The other two big US operators, Verizon and Sprint (+ Virgin Mobile USA, which uses Sprint's network) don't use the international GSM standard.

T-Mobile does do pay as you go http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/cell-phone-plans-detail.aspx?rateplan=Prepaid-minute-cards so that might be worth taking note of.

So does AT&T -- its scheme is called GoPhone http://www.wireless.att.com/global-...one&searchEngine=g&tab=Res&App_ID=WLS&x=0&y=0

Important note -- in the US the mobile owner pays for incoming as well as outgoing calls, so both of those eat into your credit. But that also means that people calling a US mobile from the UK pay the same as if they were calling a US landline -- and on some schemes, that's only a few pence a minute (eg Vonage or Skype)

Hope that helps

Alan