recommendations for FL/USA | cheap int'l calling and data required

[PopEddie]

Has anyone used Tuyo or Red Pocket? Are they any good?

Do anyone know if there is anywhere to buy SIMs for Tuyo or Red Pocket in the UK?


Thanks for your help.

[inquisitor]

I've used tuyo and except of the bad English of the Hispanic customer care agents and the inability to disable the mailbox I was happy with them.
As you might have read on the previous pages, Tuyo uses T-Mobile's GSM1900 network, so coverage is generally inferior to those carriers owning GSM850-spectrum. But that's only relevant if you are travelling to distant rural areas.
On eBay.com you'll find a lot of American sellers that sell tuyo SIMs including shipping to Europe for $10 or less.
Btw you can activate the SIM by calling customer care already from the UK, so you'll know your American phone number even before you travel and so you can set up an announcement on your British mailbox.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by PopEddie

Has anyone used Tuyo or Red Pocket? Are they any good?

I have used TuYo for over 18 months. I am happy with them. Two of their features are especially useful for the traveler:
1. Good international rates.

2. The ability to use your prepaid phone balance as a calling card. If you search their website you can find out the rates and phone numbers you can call from a landline or pay phone [watch out for the surcharge!] to call overseas with rates that are quite good.

[PhotoJim]

Red Pocket is fine. The rates are great, particularly for calling many international countries (to which no surcharge applies much of the time, or a minimal one e.g. 1 cent a minute to UK landlines). There is a message you hear when calling out, advising you that your call is being connected, which is mildly annoying but tolerable.

[MobileMan]

I'm taking a trip to Florida next week and planning to use Locus GSM for calls, 15ct/min for the first 5 minutes then 9c/min. For data on my HTC Touch Diamond I'm planning on using 3 UK at £3/mb (apx $4.70/mb at todays rate) unless anyone has a better recommendation.

[mileageman]

If you are a higher volume user, you might consider using O2 Wireless, also owned by Locus. 500 minute refills can be had for 29.99 or .06 a minute making it perhaps the cheapest prepaid GSM, although expiration is short. Also AT&T prepaid now offers unlimited calling for $3 per day.

http://www.o2wirelessservice.com/

[MobileMan]

Thanks mileageman, O2 Wireless does look like a better option.
The AT&T unlimited calling for $3 a day also seems a good deal, but does not include international calls back to the UK like Locus and O2 Wireless do.

[adam917]

Originally Posted by MobileMan

I'm taking a trip to Florida next week and planning to use Locus GSM for calls, 15ct/min for the first 5 minutes then 9c/min. For data on my HTC Touch Diamond I'm planning on using 3 UK at £3/mb (apx $4.70/mb at todays rate) unless anyone has a better recommendation.

AT&T PAYG has a package that is 19.99 USD/100 MB (102400 KB) & lasts 29 days. That works out to ~20 cents/MB if you use it all. Surprisingly, their only other offer is a 4.99 package for ONE megabyte (1024 KB). A la carte is 0.01/KB which is an even crazier price. It has worked fine for me for surfing but streaming & any applications that require a constant connection but don't constantly transfer data will get you disconnected after 5 minutes of inactivity. Also, after every disconnection, even if you are on a package, you get this annoying USSD pop-up saying you have spent 0.00, (blah blah). You can press *777*3# then send to see how many KB you have remaining (so if you use Windows Mobile, you may still not want to suppress USSD via registry).

As far as anything else, you may be able to get away with using T-Mobile's Sidekick option on a standard pre-paid account for 1 USD (automatic deduction every day) every single day (even if you don't use it) and manually entering the Hiptop APN. Included is unlimited SMS, MMS, IM, & EDGE/GPRS data. It has been working fine for a friend of mine for a month and me for about 6 months and counting now. Many iPhone users seem to be using this. Hopefully this is not some loophole that will eventually be shut. This actually is the most affordable prepaid plan per byte as it's unlimited.

Besides these options, your Three UK deal isn't terrible if you don't plan on doing more than light occasional use, and it might even be cheaper than these other options depending on how much you need to use. It is funny that AT&T offers such a small package of 1 MB alongside their 100 MB one and has the nerve for charge 4.99 for that 1 MB!

Good luck!

[MobileMan]

Thanks adam917, I think I will stick with the Three UK option for this trip, along with wifi access where I can get it. The T-Mobile Sidekick option looks good, I will try to set it up for my next trip. I have an AT&T sim so that would have been ideal if they had a decent plan between 1 MB & 100 MB.

[adam917]

Originally Posted by MobileMan

Thanks adam917, I think I will stick with the Three UK option for this trip, along with wifi access where I can get it. The T-Mobile Sidekick option looks good, I will try to set it up for my next trip. I have an AT&T sim so that would have been ideal if they had a decent plan between 1 MB & 100 MB.

Right. That and the disconnection issues are why I may forego AT&T for data (after I run out of course) on my secondary device (Nokia N95-3) & just use T-Mobile's Sidekick option for data on that device. Nokia's browser & Opera Mobile (let alone Skyfire!) use too much data even for the 100 MB option to be viable for my purposes.