Data on prepaid US service?

[andrewag]

Hi

I coming to the US for Macworld from Australia and rather than get slugged with roaming costs, does AT&T have any prepaid SIM's with data included that I could put in my iPhone 3G while i'm there. I'm expecting Google Maps / iPhone GPS to be my best friend.

Thanks

 

[fireshot91]

Yes, but your phone has to be unlocked to use non-Aussie SIM's

 

[aethelbert]

There used to be a $19.95/month option for unlimited data, but that ended last week. Now you're stuck on 1mb for $4.95 or 5mb for 9.95. Using maps would kill you, especially if you went a bit over the limit with one cent/kilobyte.

 

[Airforcekid]

Maybe you can get the sidekick deal with tmobile IDK about that but other than that theres big charges better off signing up month by month!

 

[Bitgod]

So you can't use a GoPhone plan and just pay the .01/kb data useage on the iphone? I used to do that on my unlocked 8125 on Cingular and I was thinking of just "buying" my phone and going prepay, with my useage it'd save me money in the long run.

 

[retroneo]

Google Transit in iPhone 2.2 will be useful too.

AT&T just axed their unlimited data option on prepaid.

T-mobile' sidekick prepaid with unlimited data only works with the Sidekick IMEI range.

 

[goosnarrggh]

So you can't use a GoPhone plan and just pay the .01/kb data useage on the iphone? I used to do that on my unlocked 8125 on Cingular and I was thinking of just "buying" my phone and going prepay, with my useage it'd save me money in the long run.

If you purchase a brand new iPhone from any AT&T or Apple-affiliated reseller, your only option will be to sign up for a 2-year contract.

Officially, if you bring a second-hand iPhone to an AT&T store to start a new account, they will also only hook you up if you sign up for their designated iPhone contract.

If you already have an active AT&T PayGo SIM (say, from another cheap throw away phone, or one that you bought stand-alone and activated online) and you transfer it to either an AT&T-locked iPhone, or to an unlocked international iPhone, it has been demonstrated that it will function. Then you can pay the $0.01 per kilobyte data rate to your heart's content.

Buyer beware: viewing a single fair sized web page of around 2 MB is going to cost you $20.