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Foreign mSims to avoid roaming charges

For the UK buy a three pre paid data sim from bay and cut it down.

3gb costs c£8 / $12 and lasts until you use it / 3 months. No need for credit card / activation etc. Cutting down is easy too.., just need a real micro sim as a template.

If anyone has similar advice for USA AND Canada it would be much appreciated!

Tom
 
Carrier Update

I'm currently visiting the UK and using a 3G iPad on O2's network. The process of purchasing the micro-sim went fine, but after inserting it, the option to create and use an account wasn't there. It turned out to need a carrier update, so I had to go to an Apple Store and they eventually got it updated. I'm not sure about other locations, but it's something to keep in mind.
 
What a palaver it seems to be to get cheap browsing abroad!

I visited Australia for six weeks back in 2006 and, whilst there, I purchased a pay as you go SIM for my phone (obviousy in 2006, not an iPhone). I was able to call home and text at leisure for a fraction of the cost of roaming on my UK SIM. There was absolutely no need for ID, addresses or anything else, just paid cash for the SIM and used it, and purchased top-ups as required. You can also purchase SIM cards for phones in the UK without the need for ID, addresses etc.

Why then is it necessary to make things so much more difficult with the iPad???? I'm off to the US in September for a month and if there were a way of getting a PAYG SIM for my iPad there, it'd be good news!
 
CXsjr said:
What a palaver it seems to be to get cheap browsing abroad!

I visited Australia for six weeks back in 2006 and, whilst there, I purchased a pay as you go SIM for my phone (obviousy in 2006, not an iPhone). I was able to call home and text at leisure for a fraction of the cost of roaming on my UK SIM. There was absolutely no need for ID, addresses or anything else, just paid cash for the SIM and used it, and purchased top-ups as required. You can also purchase SIM cards for phones in the UK without the need for ID, addresses etc.

Why then is it necessary to make things so much more difficult with the iPad???? I'm off to the US in September for a month and if there were a way of getting a PAYG SIM for my iPad there, it'd be good news!
Click to expand...

Honestly (though I don't know for certain), in the US I think there are two reasons you need to give your address in order to get a prepaid micro SIM:

PATRIOT ACT
They want to make it harder for terrorists or criminals to use anonymous pre-paid SIM cards, so they make you prove your identity so you're more traceable by law enforcement. Same deal with opening a bank account.

SALES TAX
I have a prepaid AT&T GoPhone SIM for when I travel to the US, and whenever I top it up (which is always online), I get charged sales tax for the state that I originally gave as my US address. I am, however, able to use my UK AMEX to top it up (even though I think I have to use an erroneous US address as that card's billing address, because AT&Ts system won't accept a non-US billing credit card address).
 
I'm very curious about this thread. I'm going to be touring europe, Australia, japan, and the US over the next 3 months and am trying to figure out how to stay online. The problem I have is I'll be in a new country every day or two. It probably isn't very realistic to try getting a new sim everyday. Are there multi country carriers in Europe? i.e. can I buy a sim from orange that works throughout Europe or roam at a more reasonable rate that ATT?
 
I'm also interested in this because I'm off to the UK for a week at the end of august. The hotel I'm staying at costs £30 per day for wired internet (I was wanting to bring my airport express) but if I can find a deal where I can use a different sim to access a UK cell provider - that would be fantastic. I have no experience with sim cards and have no idea where to start. What are some of y'alls best advice regarding this?

I think AT&T is too expensive to use abroad. I'm not needing much internet access... Just enough to check email, facebook and stuff each day. Maybe 30 mins total for 5 days. What are my best options?
 
I am currently traveling in Norway. Here's my story: the AT&T international plans @ c. $1.25/mb got old very quickly. I could buy a local prepaid plan for about 1/4 that price, but still much too expensive. The only way for me to buy a reasonably priced plan was to have a Norwegian relative purchase it for me. I now have an unlimited Netcom plan for about $40 per month which I can cancel any time.

I'm hoping that the situation improves here after Apple releases the iPad for sale in this country.
 
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