Need USA SIM card for quad band phone in Calif

[randulo]

Hi,

(This is my first post here so the usual OT paranoia makes me note that I hope the question is posted in the right place.)

We visit California usually once per year from Europe. I would like to use my quad-band phone for these visits. The visits never last more than a month and we typically will visit a few areas of the state.

What are your suggestions for solutions? I assume local (prepaid) SIM cards are available from at least one provider in which case I'd need to buy one just before leaving of upon arrival.

Does anyone have specific company recomendations or tips?

thanks in advance,

randulo

[ZaphodB]

Your choices are Cingular or T-Mobile -- one may be cheaper than the other depending on your particular needs, so check both websites (cingular.com and T-Mobile.com).

Be aware that as with the usual paranœia around these parts, you may have to go to some lengths to prove that you are not a terrorist who should be kept unplugged... bring your passport and know the address of the hotel where you're staying (but don't tell them it's a hotel).

[randulo]

Your choices are Cingular or T-Mobile -- one may be cheaper than the other depending on your particular needs, so check both websites (cingular.com and T-Mobile.com).

Thanks for that info.

Yes, the websites. Is there some law that forbids having site where you can actually find what your looking for?

Now the secondary questions I'd forgotten: does either do GPRS (my phone does email) and can I just walk in a store and buy a SIM?

I saw on one site, I think Cingular, that while GPRS is NOT available, they give you free email reception using your own your_phone_number@cingular.com (?) That might even be better.

Anyway, I'm getting closer to getting a handle on all this. Glad to have found the forum, looks really interesting.

[Andy]

Another thing you should watch out for is expiration on prepay cards here in the States. Unlike in most of Europe where prepay cards usually stay active for 12 to 15 months after reloading, many U.S. Prepay SIM cards expire within 3 months. T-Mobile at least used to have a pretty good deal on 1 year expiration cards, not sure if they still have them.
Both carriers will allow you to send email messages to the phone using your number@thecarrier.com

[randulo]

Both carriers will allow you to send email messages to the phone using your number@thecarrier.com

How are the messages delivered? By tesxt message, GPRS or ?

As it happens I know a lot about Orange prepaid. I really do not trust phone companies with a contract

I pay exactly 10€ a month (incoming are free remember) and call very little. Interestingly, the 30€ (35€ credit actually) is good for 3 months, smaller amounts are good for shorter times.

I noticed a pretty good deal on T-Mobile for one year with 1100 minutes for $130. It's about what I'd pay here, but it might be overkill for what we need.

I'm considering trying to hook up my 800 number to our Orange prepaid. Technically I have an easy way to do this. That would solve the reachability problem but kick up the price considerably

[budney]

randulo, Here are the pre-paid sites for Cingular & T-Mobile. If you have any more questions plaese ask. Both carriers have text mesaging, but only Cingular has full GRPS access. T-Mobile limits you to their home page only.

Cingular Pre-Paid

T-Mobile To Go Pre-Paid

[randulo]

Although I've gone through these sites for a long time, I still do not see any reference to buying the SIM card. I do not need a phone, so I'd like a card. They really want to sell you the (probably locked) phone even with prepaid.

[budney]

Although I've gone through these sites for a long time, I still do not see any reference to buying the SIM card. I do not need a phone, so I'd like a card. They really want to sell you the (probably locked) phone even with prepaid.

You can get just the SIM card. If you want to get it before your trip you can check out eBay. If you want to pick it up when you first arrive to the states you can go to a Cingular or T-Mobile corporate store and pick one up. As you can see it can't be done when ordering online directly from the companies.

[randulo]

You can get just the SIM card. If you want to get it before your trip you can check out eBay. If you want to pick it up when you first arrive to the states you can go to a Cingular or T-Mobile corporate store and pick one up.

Great, thanks for confirming that! I really wasn't sure.

Why the heck can't they just have one sentence somewhere on that page saying what you just did?

[budney]

Great, thanks for confirming that! I really wasn't sure.

Why the heck can't they just have one sentence somewhere on that page saying what you just did?

I don't really know, but many people that are looking for pre-pay service probably don't know what a SIM is.

[randulo]

I don't really know, but many people that are looking for pre-pay service probably don't know what a SIM is.

Heh, I had to look around to find out.

But the point is, how about something like this in consumerese?

"Already have a phone and no current service? Buy a new number from us!"

Oh well, they make enough money without my free advice

[ZaphodB]

I've had to buy GSM pre-paid in the US and Canada and they're generally totally confused by the concept. "But there's a free phone [with a zillion strings attached]!"

"I don't care. I just want the SIM card."

"But the phone is free!"

"I like my phone. Can I please just buy the SIM card?"

"I'm not sure if your European phone will work on our network, you should just get the free phone."

"It's quad-band. It works on any GSM network in the world. SIM card, please."

"You don't want the free phone?"

"No. I don't want the free phone. If you offer me the free phone again, I will accept it and place it in an anatomically-illogical position on your person. NO PHONE. ONLY SIM CARD."

"Oh... I'm gonna have to call the central office to see how to handle that."

Let me help you out here -- both companies DO sell pre-paid SIMs, you DO need to show ID, you DO NOT need a social-security number no matter what they tell you, you DO need a US address, they DO send you crap in the mail to said US address, and the SIM costs $25, which generally includes a truly piddling number of included minutes. Unlike Europe, your phone number, PIN and PUK codes are generally not included in the package; you have to get these when calling to activate (this may have changed). Also unlike Europe, incoming calls are not free, incoming SMS messages are usually not free, and there are no dedicated "mobile number" area codes, with the exception of 917 in New York.

You can top-up at the corporate stores, over the Internet, or by calling 611. Unlike Europe, you cannot top-up by direct bank draught, by SMS, or by using an ATM (aka a guichet, a cajero, or a Bancomat). Your minutes will expire in 90 days if you do not top-up within the same period.

[randulo]

Let me help you out here -- both companies DO sell pre-paid SIMs, you DO need to show ID, you DO NOT need a social-security number no matter what they tell you, you DO need a US address, they DO send you crap in the mail to said US address, and the SIM costs $25, which generally includes a truly piddling number of included minutes. Unlike Europe, your phone number, PIN and PUK codes are generally not included in the package

Excellent reply and thanks for that info and very funny but totally imaginable scenario

"Final" question: so, upon expiration, you lose any remaining credit, but how long is the SIM good for? Here's it's one year, IIRC.

I have no problem with ID, SS number, address etc.

Here SIM is around 20€, and I think there's a few minutes to call to activate it. For 30€ recharge you get about 70 minutes valid three months and, yes, incoming is free so there is a compelling advantage of having an advanced pager for 10€/month in my opinion, and SMS is dirt cheap as well, even international ones.

Thanks all for your help!

[Charlyee]

"Final" question: so, upon expiration, you lose any remaining credit, but how long is the SIM good for?

Hello again, For Cingular, if you don't renew it, you get a grace period of 2 months within which you can still reactivate the same SIM and keep the same number.

My phone no. was included in the activation fee of, as I mentioned in my other post but I am not sure if that was some special deal or not.

The one annoying part of Cingular PrePay over T-Mobile's is I get a text after every use telling me how much I used & how much is left & then lots of reminders for refills when the expiry is within a week. T-Mobile only does the later. I suppose it could be useful, but annoying none the less. Oh and the grace period for T-Mobile is 3 months. Also for both if you renew before expiry, the minutes get carried over as in Europe.

HTH

[randulo]

The one annoying part of Cingular PrePay over T-Mobile's is I get a text after every use telling me how much I used & how much is left & then lots of reminders for refills when the expiry is within a week. T-Mobile only does the later. I suppose it could be useful, but annoying none the less. Oh and the grace period for T-Mobile is 3 months.

HTH

Definitely helped, thanks!

Yeah it'd be nice to be able to turn the alerts on and off. Hopefully you can dial a *free* number to check credit as well. Or maybe not

[Charlyee]

Definitely helped, thanks!

Yeah it'd be nice to be able to turn the alerts on and off. Hopefully you can dial a *free* number to check credit as well. Or maybe not

On Cingular you can dial *777# free to get the balance. You can also check your balance and the entire call history and associated details on their website, so the notifications are kind of redundant and really should be optional....

Have fun in California ..

[kvngwynth]

Okay I am just gonna try to make it simple for you to choose which carrier you will want to go with.

NOW BOTH T-Mobile and Cingular expire in 365 days (a year) when you refill with $100.

Prepaid for T-Mobile is bad with their VERY limited T-Zones if you want to use GPRS. Cingular is great for that.

With Cingular even if you are only a prepaid customer you can register online, and refill online. If you have problems you can also chat in their forums, the usual or the life ones. Great help there. You also get detailed information of all inconing and outgoing calls, sms and gprs connections. With T-Mobile? Forget about being able to register online if you are only prepaid. Details? Dream on.

Some areas T-Mobile reception will be good, some areas Cingular will be better. A simple sample with T-Mobile I would have to try to find a good spot in the apartment, sometimes it would be so bad that I would have to remember not to move, with Cingular I can be on the floor on the couch in the livingroom, on the bed in the bedroom, in the bathroom... you name it... I have GREAT reception there. Haven't gotten a blank spot anywhere yet with Cingular. With T-Mobile? Please don't ask, too long a list it would be. But probably in some other areas T-Mobile might and could very well outdo Cingular. I live in Phoenix, AZ.

My phone? Panasonic X800. My hubby has the Panasonic X700. Both are tri-bands phones. So no we don't have the 850 frequency that Cingular sometimes in some areas uses... yet it is that good already. So imagine how great our reception would be if we had quad bands phones?

As for their websites just go to Google then enter T-Mobile USA and on another page enter Cingular USA. All information will be there.
Also check with your own hometown carrier who their roaming partners are, might just come in handy.

I too came from another land far away and T-Mobile's adds were so very promising in that land but when I got here I was so dissapointed...
Customer Service are great to me, both T-Mobile and Cingular. No problems ever getting a helping hand. Lots of stories going around about bad CS on either on of them but I believe that it depends on ourselves and how we approach the CS also. 99% of the time you get kindness if you give kindness right?

Am I telling you to go with Cingular? Nope. Go on eBay. Buy the sim cards for cheap there, both for Cingular and T-Mobile, remember to get the latest ones 'tho. Activate them for free (at least Cingular lets you do that) and voila you will be able to test out your phone with the both of them and decide for yourself. If one of them you truly don't like then at least it is a waste of around $20 at the most. (The cards usually come with $10 for around that price on eBay).
Research some more on both their websites, go into their forums, that will help too.

Good luck! Safe trip back and forth.

Sincerely, Gwyneth

[randulo]

First off, thanks Ms.Paltrow for taking time off your busy schedule to answer my query! Well, a guy can dream, can't he? My wife can't see this, she's in the other room.

Anyway, seriously, that was useful stuff. I'd do the same for someone coming over here, but then these offers constantly change as consumers "outwit" the providers, the providers find new ways to scr... present their "produucts". So many gotchas! Sure you pay more for prepaid, but they can't keep charging you for six months after you've told them you've moved to another country. (This actually happened to a friend of mine. Until his bank account was closed, they refused to stop charging even though he did all the steps to quit at the proper time.)

I know everyone is keen on eBay but I'm not. I will see how my Orange roaming works and then dish out a few bucks for a local CIngular SIM.

Thanks again for your input.