I am traveling to Italy this summer, and have bought some unlocked Motorola V66 tri-band (900 1800 1900) phones on ebay for me and my travel companions to use there, and intend to buy an Italian SIM card in country or on ebay. However, I would like to test the phones here in San Francisco. T-Mobile Cingular and all the usual suspects offer service here. My question: what is the cheapest SIM prepaid card I can get just to place and receive a few calls to test the phones? We won't need the service here except for the test as we have Verizon cell phones already.
thanks, Jim

The cheapest way to to borrow a SIM, but next to that you could buy a T-Mobile SIM on eBay or look into BeyondWireless' SIM-only kits.

I looked there...thanks. However I see a bewildering array of offerings, some are for for less than the face value of the card. Some prepaid with an expiration date for the minutes, some require a reload after the minutes are use up... I'm confused.

Agree with DR....

1. Ask friends or co-workers about their cell phone service. If they have a GSM provider, ask if you can test your phone. USUALLY people will accomodate; I would. Cheapest way. Also, good if you could indeed test T-MO and Cingular/ATT for the UNLOCKED condition. You may even find a cell phone nut that has a SIM from overseas o test for unlocked.

2. Ebay is OK; DO NOT BE INTIMADTED. I do alot of shopping there. Find a good seller, one with > 50 feedbacks. Watch for RECENT negative feedback from BUYERS. Go for something with a low shipping cost, if possible. Man, for $10 - 12 -- maybe less -- you can pick up a T-MO SIM with 150 minutes on it. What did you pay for the phone? NO need to answer, but when you get to Italy, you'll need to buy a SIM for $15 or so. You can always sell both the Ebay SIM and you Italian SIM on Ebay.

Who CARES when the minutes expire unless you want to continue to use the service here; if so, then just buy a refill card shortly before the expiration. For T-MO the local #/area code does not matter FOR TESTING -- all calls within 48 US states are billed at the same rate when you dial or receive.

Good luck.

Stan

Buy a tmobile sim card that's already activated on ebay. I have bought a couple. The last one I bought had 150 minutes and I paid $9.99 and free shipping. Tmobile sims (already activated) are a dime a dozen on ebay.

Thank you Bossman- I just bought a card on ebay for 9.98 including shipping with 159 minutes ($30) credit which will expire in June. I've already changed the area code and phone number to a local one.
Why are these cards so cheap, less than face value? Where are they from?

Good for you jdh449. Yep! All you need to change the area code is the current #. They do not ask any questions. So, the seller emailed you you the number before mailing it to you right? That's neat.

I think they are so cheap because they are sold by dealers who get to activate a lot of these in bulk. Also, the closer the expiration date is the cheaper they are.

Yep... He emailed me the info on the activation. The card should arrive in a few days. ebayer was kirkir02. Very responsive.

All my Motorola V66 phones tested fine, using the T-Mobile SIM I bought on ebay. However, some of these used phones are branded T-Mobile, but are claimed to be unlocked. Is there a way to be sure, short of buying a Cingular SIM and some minutes, that these phones are really unlocked? I read in some of the feedback comments on ebay that people have bought what they thought was an unlocked phone that wasn't.

See if you can BORROW a Cingular or other foreign NON-T-MO SIM. My German D1 (T-MO) SIMs worked fine in several LOCKED US T-MO phones, but other SIMs (Riiing, Voda, etc) required the unlock code.

You MIGHT be able to obtain an EXPIRED Cingular or other SIM from friends, family, work/school colleagues or possibly an indepent cell phone dealer in your area -- somebody is bound to have something you can use. Even an EXPIRED SIM should suffice. Worse comes to worse, then buy a Cingular SIM.

So what was the average price you paid, with shipping and insurance?

Good luck,

Stan