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Anyone in US, some help with cell phone carriers?

olliea95

olliea95

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 10, 2009
102
0
Surrey, UK
Is anyone here in the US?

I am going away to the US for a week, and it is important the I have internet access with me. I am wondering if any of the US cell phone carriers have any Pay as You Go mobile SIMs that have data access? Also, will need to be one that is okay with me tethering the data over wifi.

I really don't know anything about the US Mobile services, as I am in the UK, but I know I need one of the GSM networks, instead of CDMA.

Anyone clued up on this? If it helps, I will be staying in Vermont for 5 days and then New York for two days.

Thanks to any help you can give,
Ollie
 
AT&T and T-Mobile are the two GSM carriers in the US, I don't know what they offer in terms of PAYG data but you can check their websites for more details.

If you have an iPhone, it will be compatible with AT&T's 3G network. If you have another smartphone, it might be compatible with AT&T's 3G network - see if it supports UMTS on 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. Your phone probably isn't compatible with T-Mobile's 3G network as they use the AWS bands which aren't widely used.

Depending on where you are in Vermont, coverage may be a problem. If you're in a larger city or town, you should be fine, if you're up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, you might not have coverage.
 
I have an HTC Hero (GSM), will check on if it will work on AT&T's network. I will be in Rutland most of the time, but I think ATT have a coverage checker so I will use that.

Thanks for the info, looks like AT&T is how I'm doing this.
 
The Iphone's exclusive US carrier, AT&T has a pay as you go plan (Go Phone.

Also, Virgin Mobile USA (.com) and Boost Mobile tend to specialize in the no-contract services, you might want to peruse their sites.
 
Personally when I have been over in the States I have used T-Mobile, although I didn't get 3G roaming so if 3G is important AT&T is the company to go with plus with that $2 day thing it looks a lot better than T-Mobile :)
 
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