Prepaid Data sim for someone visiting the US from Germany

[Anubis]

Hey all, A friend of mine asked me about what he woudl need to get data on his phone when he is here this summer visiting. He woudl need some sort of prepaid data sim I assume (if the US even does that)

i know absoutly nothing about this so im asking you people


He said he needs a micro sim for a Nokia Lumia 800. Where might he aquire one?

 

[paperwastage]

he needs to make sure the phone is unlocked

then when you insert the sim in, you might need to configure the APN. Just google "provider + APN" and use those settings

If friend is traveling within USA, best bet is go with a prepaid provider on AT&T's network. StraightTalk or AIOWireless (go to their website, look at their plans... ST has $45/month for 3GB data, AIOWireless has different tiers of data starting at $40/month

 

[Anubis]

he said his phone was unlocked

 

[cronos]

How long is he going to be here, and what kind of usage he's expecting?

For temporary international visitors, mostly their needs are 90% data and 10% voice/txt, so plans like T-Mobile $30/month ('walmart plan') that gives 100 minutes voice/unlimited text/ 5 GB of 4G data (and then unlimited throttled) are ideal.

I don't think there's any prepaid 'data only' SIM card available in the US right now, except for these plans from RedPocket ($10/1GB, $30/3GB, $50/5GB). Note that these plans are data only and don't give any minutes or text, on the same T-Mobile network as the 'walmart plan' above, so if he needs more than 1 GB/month might as well just get the T-Mobile plan.

 

[rsutoratosu]

i'm on the walmart plan, if you're in a big city with lte it works great. i drive from ny to ct and I get EDGE a lot on certain parts of i95.. so check map before buying.

 

[Anubis]

he said hes going on a road trip. i have no idea where to, but if hes stopping at my place its in western NY, id assume hes gonna be here for a few weeks at least

i passed him the info from this thread so far

 

[amdhunter]

How long is he going to be here, and what kind of usage he's expecting?

For temporary international visitors, mostly their needs are 90% data and 10% voice/txt, so plans like T-Mobile $30/month ('walmart plan') that gives 100 minutes voice/unlimited text/ 5 GB of 4G data (and then unlimited throttled) are ideal.

I don't think there's any prepaid 'data only' SIM card available in the US right now, except for these plans from RedPocket ($10/1GB, $30/3GB, $50/5GB). Note that these plans are data only and don't give any minutes or text, on the same T-Mobile network as the 'walmart plan' above, so if he needs more than 1 GB/month might as well just get the T-Mobile plan.

Do those RedPocket plans work in any tablet? That $30 unlimited plan (even if it's reduced speed) is an awesome bargain if it does.

 

[pm]

I'd advise StraightTalk using an AT&T sim - because if it's a road trip, T-Mobile's coverage is iffy and most of their network is on a band 1700MHz AWS and so your friend will be stuck on EDGE instead of 3G for a good chunk of the US.

You can buy a StraightTalk AT&T Sim online or at Walmart when he's here.

I would really advise avoiding T-Mobile (and thus Redpocket as well) unless the phone happens to support 1700MHz 3G.

 

[paperwastage]

Do those RedPocket plans work in any tablet? That $30 unlimited plan (even if it's reduced speed) is an awesome bargain if it does.

just a note, RedPocket uses t-mobile's network

and AFAIK, they don't have access to t-mobile's LTE network... not sure what their throttle speed is, but T-mobile's 5GB $30/month plan throttles you to about 0.1 mbits/s after 5GB of data. can't use the t-mobile's 5GB $30/month plan on a tablet though unlike RedPocket

 

[amdhunter]

just a note, RedPocket uses t-mobile's network

and AFAIK, they don't have access to t-mobile's LTE network... not sure what their throttle speed is, but T-mobile's $30/month plan throttles you to about 0.1 mbits/s after 5GB of data. can't use the $30/month plan on a tablet though

I had the $30 plan for a long time before I got rid of my Nexus. The HSPA network isn't that bad at all and covers everywhere I would ever be. Sucks no LTE though, that would have been awesome.

 

[cronos]

just a note, RedPocket uses t-mobile's network

and AFAIK, they don't have access to t-mobile's LTE network... not sure what their throttle speed is, but T-mobile's 5GB $30/month plan throttles you to about 0.1 mbits/s after 5GB of data.

If he's bringing a device from another country, it likely won't have T-Mobile's 3G frequencies anyway, so it's going to be EDGE all the way through even on T-Mobile prepaid.

can't use the t-mobile's 5GB $30/month plan on a tablet though unlike RedPocket

I thought this was the case on absolutely any kinds of tablets, until last week. So a friend was visiting the US for a couple of weeks and wanted to activate a cheap voice/txt/data for her phone while she was here. I've been stocking T-Mobile SIM cards with their free offer so I thought I'd just activate $30 plan and send her the SIM card through the mail. A few days passed until I heard from her and she said "Hey thanks for the SIM card, it worked really well on my iPad!". And I was like . I never bothered to tell her that it won't work on a tablet, because she said she'd be using it on her phone, so she didn't think twice before inserting it into her iPad, and it worked!

Of course, it's an iPad she brought with her from home, and apparently not recognized by T-Mobile as a tablet. So the lesson here is that T-Mobile $30 prepaid 'walmart plan' (100 min/unlimited txt/5 GB 4G data) *might* work on an imported tablet.

 

[Anubis]

figured id update this, He's coming the first week of June and is goanna be here for ~3 weeks he and some friends are road tripping it from the east toast to at least Vegas, maybe even all the way to cali not sure. driving old rt 66 I beleive

I think the straight talk ATT plan is prob best for him

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Is there anything short term like 3 day, 7 day sims in the US? I feel like you have to jump through a lot of hoops to even get a SIM. I stop by the airport store in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and you're good to go, but int he US it seems like that concept doesn't exist.

 

[Anubis]

speaking of Taiwan, im going there for 2-3 weeks at the start of june. As my phone is unlocked can i just stick a sim in it and have it work?

its a VZW GS4