Prepaid GSM SIM for USA? - Page 2

wisniak · 10-06-2011, 14:18

Thank you.

RTuesday · 10-06-2011, 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by wisniak

I agree 3G is not essential, he's going to use the phone mostly for emails & browsing.

I'd still recommend using wi-fi for that, emails and browsing would normally be done at a coffee shop, hotel, etc. Much cheaper. It's nice to have always-on data, but across two countries for a short period of time it really does get expensive, an unneeded luxury.

adam917 · 11-06-2011, 00:36

About the T-Mobile option, it works on their prepaid SIMs & costs 1.49 for 24 hours which would be deducted out of the account's available balance. You would purchase a day pass every day when you are ready to use it that day. The data is claimed to work only on the native T-Mobile network. This is likely the cheapest form of temporary prepaid data available in the US at this time, especially if y7ou plan to use it a lo during each day.

weekilter · 11-06-2011, 02:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by wisniak

Hi,

My friend is about to travel to Canada and the US.

Is there any prepaid GSM SIM prepaid plan available that will cover both countries?
Are there plans that enable voice AND data?

Thanks.

T-Mobile prepaid works in both countries. However, if you use T-Mobile in Canada it will cost you 69¢/minute. Fido/Rogers roams in the US at $2.00 per minute (ouch!)

inquisitor · 11-06-2011, 14:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by wisniak

I agree 3G is not essential, he's going to use the phone mostly for emails & browsing.

If you are browsing mobile websites, 2G (EDGE) may be acceptable, but if you go to regular (desktop-designated) websites, 2G is a pain. E.g. opening cnn.com generates a data volume of 1.1MB. With full EDGE-speed (236 KBit/s) this would take half a minute to load. However if you realistically consider average bandwidth to reach not more than 100 KBit/s this would mean at least a whole minute of waiting until the opened page has been completely downloaded.

PhotoJim · 11-06-2011, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by inquisitor

If you are browsing mobile websites, 2G (EDGE) may be acceptable, but if you go to regular (desktop-designated) websites, 2G is a pain. E.g. opening cnn.com generates a data volume of 1.1MB. With full EDGE-speed (236 KBit/s) this would take half a minute to load. However if you realistically consider average bandwidth to reach not more than 100 KBit/s this would mean at least a whole minute of waiting until the opened page has been completely downloaded.

And to think that not that many years ago, I was thrilled to be able to do my web surfing via GPRS, and I didn't find the speed to be unacceptable.

Of course, those were the days when dialup Internet was still reasonably usable, too.

Website bloat sucks if you ask me - sites could be a lot smaller than they are and no less useful.

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	(#11 (permalink))
wisniak (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 71 Join Date: 12 May 2009 Country:	10-06-2011, 14:18 Thank you.

	(#13 (permalink))
adam917 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 188 Join Date: 14 Sep 2008 Location: North America Country:	11-06-2011, 00:36 About the T-Mobile option, it works on their prepaid SIMs & costs 1.49 for 24 hours which would be deducted out of the account's available balance. You would purchase a day pass every day when you are ready to use it that day. The data is claimed to work only on the native T-Mobile network. This is likely the cheapest form of temporary prepaid data available in the US at this time, especially if y7ou plan to use it a lo during each day. Active SIMs: 2007-05-14: T-Mobile post-paid (USA: 267) 2007-12: T-Mobile pre-paid (USA: 857) 2009-01-21: Mobal World (UK) 2010-06-08: TracFone (USA: 215) 2011-03-12: Tru (USA: 305) 2011-08-01: AT&T pre-paid (USA: 212) 2011-08-22: Spot Mobile (USA: 603)