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15 days USA trip

V

viperjet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 10, 2010
10
0
Hi,

I will be taking a trip to Houston, Texas in mid Oct for about 15days and I required a 3G data plan for my iphone. (Unlocked – can accept all SIM card)

I need 3G for skype,MSN,Emailing,twitter etc ....

What is the most preferred prepaid Card/Plan I should take?

Please advice.

Thanks
 
You are screwed. T-moble is EDGE only for the iPhone and AT&T offers like $20 for 100MB on it's prepaid data plans.
 
IrishVixen said:
You can't. That plan is offered only to contract customers, not as pay as you go. To be a contact customer, you need a US address and US credit card. Contract terms are for two years.

The US does not have a good PAYG GSM option.
Click to expand...

Actually that is payg aka prepaid and it doesn't have a contract so the OP could try it.
 
It's for the iPad, and those require activation in an actual iPad. Others have tried activating them in an iPhone, and haven't been successful.

If there's an iPad available to activate with, hmmm... Haven't looked to see if people have been able to simply swap iPad SIMs once activated.
 
The US is worthless when it comes to prepaid cards. I'd honestly forget about it and stick to free wifi hotspots once in a while. There are no affordable options. Or just get a international data package from your own carrier. That will probably be cheaper and more practical.

Do you seriously need msn and twitter while on vacation :confused:
 
Seem like i have to Use free wifi spot for skype and emailing ...

Thanks for all the advice ...
 
While as what I recall, you don't have to sign up to a contract if you're bringing your own phone, it's still something like $70US for one month with the 2GB data plan, plus there is activation, etc. It's not very practical for a short trip.

You might want to pick up a pay-as-you go sim from them if you think you might really want to use it outside of wifi - but more and more some of the bigger cities tend to have more places offering wifi (free or paid) - last I checked if you encounter a Safeway grocery store, for example, they have free wifi.

The first couple results on the search "free wifi in houston texas" turned up a number of lists of free wifi.
 
viperjet said:
How about this unlimited plan for $60?

http://www.mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-Plan.aspx

Please comment.. Thanks
Click to expand...

I bought their sim on eBay, activated at home (Australia), leaving this thurs - will advise how it goes.
I received an email from them on an enquiry:
" Yes you can use the iPhone on the Simple Mobile, although it is limited to the EDGE (2G) network since the iPhone does not have a 1700/2100 AWS band. Please refer to our FAQs for any other concerns you may have at http://mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-FAQs.aspx.

Thank you for your interest,
Simple Mobile"
 
ibarnett said:
I bought their sim on eBay, activated at home (Australia), leaving this thurs - will advise how it goes.
I received an email from them on an enquiry:
" Yes you can use the iPhone on the Simple Mobile, although it is limited to the EDGE (2G) network since the iPhone does not have a 1700/2100 AWS band. Please refer to our FAQs for any other concerns you may have at http://mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-FAQs.aspx.

Thank you for your interest,
Simple Mobile"
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.. I also bought the sim card at eBay, how did you make the top up? Please update on your experience with this sim card. Thanks
 
viperjet said:
Thanks for the info.. I also bought the sim card at eBay, how did you make the top up? Please update on your experience with this sim card. Thanks
Click to expand...

I found some info to help you and also because I plan on trying out this service later this week.

When you get your sim, you simply goto the website and activate the sim right on the Simplemobile site. Once you choose your plan, the card gets activated and you can insert it in your unlocked iPhone.

If you have the data plan option, you need to add the APN on the phone. If you aren't jailbroken, jailbreak the phone. In Cydia, add the repo http://beta.leimobile.com/repo/ and install the simple mobile 4.0 with MMS fix package. You need this if you plan on sending and receiving MMS.

You should be good to go and enjoy your iPhone. Remember, you will only get edge speeds though but that shouldn't be a problem.

At least we have a choice now for unlimited prepaid data.
 
If your phone is unlocked - no need to jailbreak!
Once you insert the sim card the APN setup is visible in settings - unlike my Virgin sim which hides these settings.
The settings are:
iPhone OS 2.0 or later
1. Select Settings, and then General Settings.
2. Select Network.
3. Select Cellular Data Network.
4. Enter simple as the APN for Cellular Data and MMS.
5. Enter http://smpl.mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc in the MMSC field.
6. Enter 0.0.0.0 as the MMS Proxy.
From: http://www.atgateway.com/forms/simpleconfigurationbbiphone.pdf

I activated from their website:
https://myaccount.mysimplemobile.com/WSC/sm_activation.jsp

When I activated & had my number I called via VOIP & setup my voicemail.

All very easy.

I paid with my Australian credit card, but I had previously changed my address for that particular card to a USA address (with my bank) where I am staying for a while - however I suspect that this is not necessary.
 
Arrived in LAX this morning with sim card ready to go.
Took a couple of minutes to fire up, but working perfectly.
Good reception at the airport & to the south Long Beach, down as far as Laguna. All E but the speeds are perfectly acceptable.
Tried all email, web browsing & Youtube, speeds are better than Virgin/Optus 3G at home.
Very happy "Simple" customer.
 
Sounds good !! Hope you Enjoy your trip in LAX ... Do you need to carried out any setting on the iphone ? did u try SKYPE call back home ?
 
ibarnett said:
Arrived in LAX this morning with sim card ready to go.
Took a couple of minutes to fire up, but working perfectly.
Good reception at the airport & to the south Long Beach, down as far as Laguna. All E but the speeds are perfectly acceptable.
Tried all email, web browsing & Youtube, speeds are better than Virgin/Optus 3G at home.
Very happy "Simple" customer.
Click to expand...

Hi

How's the trip on Simple Mobile SIM ? Anymore updates and stuffs we need to aware ? I just got my Simple Mobile SIM bought from eBay... Call to oversea from USA is free ??
 
viperjet said:
Hi

How's the trip on Simple Mobile SIM ? Anymore updates and stuffs we need to aware ? I just got my Simple Mobile SIM bought from eBay... Call to oversea from USA is free ??
Click to expand...

Still going well!
Now in New York & working fine here. I was on WiFi often & still have managed to use 95MB data so far, about 10 days, so AT&T 100MB @ $20 would not be good.
For oversea using iPhone app (Pennytel), you could also use Skype app.
You can purchase international option from Simple, but I didn't bother as I can use my PennyTel app with VOIP or data.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1060995
 
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