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Good Evening,
I am hoping someone would be able to point me in the direction for getting the most out of my phone, while on holiday in the USA, I will be there for a month so would prefer using a local SIM as opposed to getting abuse on roaming charges.
Basically, wondering if anyone knows of any good deals that would have cheap web access, or international calls, I realise im not being much help. Even if someone could list some Mobile Phone Networks i will be able to check out their websites, and order a SIM as needed.
Thanks
prepaid is not that good in the US. t-mobile might be ur best bit, local voice only. i think about 25 cents a minute. not sure about international and data though
25 cents a min? I don't know about tmobile prepaid. But ATT/Cingular prepaid is much cheaper.
GOVATENT said:
25 cents a min? I don't know about tmobile prepaid. But ATT/Cingular prepaid is much cheaper.
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yeah, but AT&T charges you a dollar for each day you use their your phone. t-mobile doesn't.
Actually, AT&T has two types of prepaid:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/prepaid-cell-phone-plans.jsp
pay as you go:
25¢/min or 10¢/min + $1.00/day*
or
prepaid plans (some w/ rollover and nights/weekends)
200 mins for 29.99
300 mins for 39.99
400 mins for 49.99
650 mins for 69.99
here are more details on t-mobile prepaid plans
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Default.aspx?plancategory=4
I was looking for something similar in February, except I also needed a data plan. At that time AT&T and T-Mobile were the only options that met my needs.
I have been a long time customer (more than 10 years) with Iowa Wireless. I LOVE the plan I have, and the rate I haven't been able to find a match to. I'm a big fan of GSM and how I can change phones at will, but alas, I am moving to an area of North Dakota that doesn't have any GSM data, and very poor GSM voice coverage.
I have to move to Verizon (or any other CDMA provider), so I have taken this as my chance to get a new Rhodium to upgrade from my Kaiser to. Yay me.
BUT...
I don't like it, but I have had some financial difficulty, and now must pay a heafty deposit to get 'normal' service from Verizon (which is over priced to begin with).
If I get the Verizon pre-pay unlimited plan *shudders*, can I add a TP2 from eBay by just providing the correct serial numbers?
What about other pre-pay CDMA providers? Wal-Mart's Straight Talk is the right plan at a reasonable price, but can I mount a CMDA TP2 to thier network?
If you have access to MetroPCS in your area, and are willing to jump through a few hoops in getting the device configured, you can use a TP2 there. I have a Sprint TP2 that I bought on eBay running on MPS without issue. Data speeds will take you back to 2003, but the $40 unlimited call/text/data plan is hard to beat.
goldenu said:
If you have access to MetroPCS in your area, and are willing to jump through a few hoops in getting the device configured, you can use a TP2 there. I have a Sprint TP2 that I bought on eBay running on MPS without issue. Data speeds will take you back to 2003, but the $40 unlimited call/text/data plan is hard to beat.
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Wow, I'll have to check them out. Is MetroPCS GSM, or CDMA based? Unfortunatly (in this case) the TP2 can run both GSM and CDMA... as for speeds, I'm used to a trunkated 20K, so anything is fine with me. *chuckles*
Thanks for the pointers!
Check out Page Plus it resells Verizon service thier data plans are crap 20megs and 50 megs and then prepaid $3 a meg (I think) lol but if you setup you phone right you can get allo the free data you can use. I had some issues but had it working pm me if you want details. thei unlimited plan talk and txt with 20megs of data is ~$40
Otherwise see if US Cellular is in the area still expensive for my plan but better than Verizon.
1000 anytime National plan, free nights and weekends starting at 7pm, free incoming calls txts and pics~$45
+txt plan 750 msgs ~$10
+data $24
+phone insurance ~$6
+taxes ~however much the government steals
gets my bill ~$100 per month
But I do pull about a 1megabit down and reasonable upload with 200ms to 250ms latency in my service area when tethered on my pc and I've only been in two places in all of america I did not get coverage so I like them allso the costumer service is the best I've ever had from ANY COMPANY HANDS DOWN.
If their was one company that deserves a hug in the whole world is US Cellular they are the best!
sorry for typos it's late I'm tired and lazy.
How do you get free unlimited data from Page Plus?
I am also curious as to whether or not you can tie an unlocked Touch Pro 2 to the Straight Talk network. Anybody have any ideas?
Verizon Wireless Basic Pre-Paid Plan
I've got a Blackberry through work and use that to read my work mails and for calls. I was still using the HTC P3600 as my PDA/MP3 player/Navigation/snapshots/movies/games/etc. and was thinking it's time for an upgrade. The TP2 seemed to be a worthy successor... thank god - I was waiting long enough. Anyway, I was also looking for a plan that I could use every now and then without any monthly commitments and related high charges. So the Verizon basic pre-paid plan seemed ideal for my situation - it costs 99 cents per day you use it - while giving you unlimited data for that day. I'd get a $100 charge so they let me keep my number for 1 year and I'd get OTA data for every third day during that year. So much for the plan...
First attempt: Try to get the Vz TP2 with the basic pre-paid plan. FAILED ... although the pre-paid guys told me the phone would work with the plan, they wouldn't be able to sell it to me without a monthly plan. I could have gotten it for the month-to-month price and then cancelled the plan after the first month - but I didn't want to go that far.
So I bought the phone through eBay. Slight complication - but I am very happy with my new phone so far!
Second attempt: Get the Vz pre-paid plan setup to my new TP2 that I bought off eBay. FAILED althought initially I was informed the pre-paid plan would WORK with the TP2 - Verizon Wireless refuses to set it up with the TP2 (which they will recognize as soon as you give them your MEID). They told me "the pre-paid network is not able to handle the traffic generated by the TP2 phone" right, like there's a separate pre-paid network....
Third attempt: PENDING I want to get some low-cost CDMA phone, either off eBay or from Vz directly (~$40 dollars one-time costs) and set that up with the basic pre-paid plan. Then I'll just "repair"/clone that phone's ESN to my TP2 and theoretically will be able to use my TP2 finally with the Verizon Wireless Basic Pre-Paid plan.
Anyone has any thoughts or - even better - real life experience? Will this work? Any ideas for a cheaper solution? I don't mind the workaround - it's fun so far...
Bizzled - THIS IS EXACTLY the kind of information I wanted to know! I'm reading this intently, I can't wait to hear how this went. I have a little bit of time before I have to change companies, I'd really like to do this...
I think I can get you a phone that is from VZ... used to be on the network, let me know if you need one, I'll go do the research on my end.
Page Plus is a prepaid service that uses the Verizon network. They will activate any unlocked CDMA phone (even phones from another carrier).
Most Verizon PDA phones work out of the box with no unlocking or anything needed.
See here:
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/
Sounds like exactly what you are looking for.
bizzled said:
I've got a Blackberry through work and use that to read my work mails and for calls. I was still using the HTC P3600 as my PDA/MP3 player/Navigation/snapshots/movies/games/etc. and was thinking it's time for an upgrade. The TP2 seemed to be a worthy successor... thank god - I was waiting long enough. Anyway, I was also looking for a plan that I could use every now and then without any monthly commitments and related high charges. So the Verizon basic pre-paid plan seemed ideal for my situation - it costs 99 cents per day you use it - while giving you unlimited data for that day. I'd get a $100 charge so they let me keep my number for 1 year and I'd get OTA data for every third day during that year. So much for the plan...
First attempt: Try to get the Vz TP2 with the basic pre-paid plan. FAILED ... although the pre-paid guys told me the phone would work with the plan, they wouldn't be able to sell it to me without a monthly plan. I could have gotten it for the month-to-month price and then cancelled the plan after the first month - but I didn't want to go that far.
So I bought the phone through eBay. Slight complication - but I am very happy with my new phone so far!
Second attempt: Get the Vz pre-paid plan setup to my new TP2 that I bought off eBay. FAILED althought initially I was informed the pre-paid plan would WORK with the TP2 - Verizon Wireless refuses to set it up with the TP2 (which they will recognize as soon as you give them your MEID). They told me "the pre-paid network is not able to handle the traffic generated by the TP2 phone" right, like there's a separate pre-paid network....
Third attempt: PENDING I want to get some low-cost CDMA phone, either off eBay or from Vz directly (~$40 dollars one-time costs) and set that up with the basic pre-paid plan. Then I'll just "repair"/clone that phone's ESN to my TP2 and theoretically will be able to use my TP2 finally with the Verizon Wireless Basic Pre-Paid plan.
Anyone has any thoughts or - even better - real life experience? Will this work? Any ideas for a cheaper solution? I don't mind the workaround - it's fun so far...
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Did you buy a verizon branded TP2? Just curious, since I'm dealing with my own issue with verizon.
@cdmccul - I'll definitely share the results once I'm done. Got a Verizon Phone already for the cloning process... just need to figure the cloning out now. Thanks for the offer though!
@SaltyDawg - thanks for the hint. I won't go with PagePlus though since they charge you $1.20/MB for data and that's all I'm interested in for my future TP2 plan...
MadM3rlin said:
Did you buy a verizon branded TP2? Just curious, since I'm dealing with my own issue with verizon.
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Yes I did.
bizzled said:
@cdmccul - I'll definitely share the results once I'm done. Got a Verizon Phone already for the cloning process... just need to figure the cloning out now. Thanks for the offer though!
@SaltyDawg - thanks for the hint. I won't go with PagePlus though since they charge you $1.20/MB for data and that's all I'm interested in for my future TP2 plan...
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$1.20 per MB? That's only if you take the standard plan.
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans/Talk n Text 1200.aspx
That says you get 1200 minutes, 1200 text messages, and 50 MB of data for $29.99 per month (which is the same as the $1.00 per day that you were talking about on Verizon). And data is billed at .60 per MB if you go over the 50 MB.
I looked at PagePlus, but the web site wasn't working well for me, and it appears as though they won't get me a phone number near where I need one. Doesn't mean I won't try a different area code, but for now, if I can get Verizon to work, that would be 'better.
However, Verizon doesn't have any LOCAL numbers to exactly where I am. The closest town to where I am moving to is considered long distance to where I will be living.
cdmccul said:
I looked at PagePlus, but the web site wasn't working well for me, and it appears as though they won't get me a phone number near where I need one. Doesn't mean I won't try a different area code, but for now, if I can get Verizon to work, that would be 'better.
However, Verizon doesn't have any LOCAL numbers to exactly where I am. The closest town to where I am moving to is considered long distance to where I will be living.
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Just port your number in. Keep your existing number. If you don't have an existing number, buy a cheap prepaid phone and then port that number.
SaltyDawg said:
Just port your number in. Keep your existing number. If you don't have an existing number, buy a cheap prepaid phone and then port that number.
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I'll have to see if I can find any - the town I'm moving to isn't THAT small, but I haven't found any local cell numbers. I'll have to do more research, there's got to be somebody... That or I'll try to do something with the GoogleVoice thingy I read about a while ago.
Well if push comes to shove, you can port landline numbers too. So you could sign up for a landline from whoever the local phone company is, and then after a few days port it out to your cell phone.
I am a USA visitor, am in Washington now. I was in the AT&T store today, was going to buy Captivate off contract and buy AT&T sim with data plan only and use until the end of this summer and then waiting for unlock to use in Russia, but AT&T guys said that they don't sell prepaid sim card with data plans for non-contract PDA phones which is Captivate for $500. I find it absolutely crazy, why then they sell smartphones off contract in this way? For whom? If this phone is full prices when buying it without contract, it is locked with AT&T and it's not even possible to use the internet with an AT&T sim. Well, does T-mobile provide data plans when buying prepaid sim card? Should I wait for unlock and then buy this phone and then connect to T-mobile until this summer? And, well, it's possible for unlock not to arrive so soon
And I heard that there is a Captivate coming to Rogers in the 20th of August, is there any info if it'll come off contract and unlocked(able)? And in this case it is possible for Rogers to send this phone to the New York's hotel, for example?
for data plan only say you have a ipad they will give you a prepaid data plan and you can use it by adjusting some settings
i just got the $20 100MB data plan to use in my captivate. the gophone sim and data work fine.
Don't get the captivate. ATT won't have unlock codes available for a long time.
jromeo350 said:
i just got the $20 100MB data plan to use in my captivate. the gophone sim and data work fine.
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Yep that's what I was going to suggest. That's your best option. Buy a go phone sim card. Tell them you want the 100mb worth of data and that's it. Pop it into the phone and you will be good to go.
100 mb is probably not enough for me, is it possible to get more with this go plan?
and about captivate, if Rogers starts selling it soon, this phone won't be exclusive and I think there is a great chance to get an unlock code in september for example
If a buy a data plan for iPad, will they give me a micro sim or normal sim? Will it work with captivate for sure?
DarkVasyaK said:
100 mb is probably not enough for me, is it possible to get more with this go plan?
and about captivate, if Rogers starts selling it soon, this phone won't be exclusive and I think there is a great chance to get an unlock code in september for example
If a buy a data plan for iPad, will they give me a micro sim or normal sim? Will it work with captivate for sure?
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yes... spend $20 more and get 200MB Also, you can get a sim adaptor if you recieve a micro sim. If you go the ore-paid route, make sure you get the sim from a retail store and not from a gophone kit. I did this and had to get them to swap the sim (for free) to one that works in my new phone. Hope this helps!
DarkVasyaK said:
I am a USA visitor, am in Washington now. I was in the AT&T store today, was going to buy Captivate off contract and buy AT&T sim with data plan only and use until the end of this summer and then waiting for unlock to use in Russia, but AT&T guys said that they don't sell prepaid sim card with data plans for non-contract PDA phones which is Captivate for $500. I find it absolutely crazy, why then they sell smartphones off contract in this way? For whom? If this phone is full prices when buying it without contract, it is locked with AT&T and it's not even possible to use the internet with an AT&T sim. Well, does T-mobile provide data plans when buying prepaid sim card? Should I wait for unlock and then buy this phone and then connect to T-mobile until this summer? And, well, it's possible for unlock not to arrive so soon
And I heard that there is a Captivate coming to Rogers in the 20th of August, is there any info if it'll come off contract and unlocked(able)? And in this case it is possible for Rogers to send this phone to the New York's hotel, for example?
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Click to collapse
You could get the T-Mobile Vibrant at full price (supports Euro 3G on the 2100mhz band for when you go back to Europe, needs unlocking though) and sign up for the Even More Plus Smartphone Unlimited Web & E-mail, no contract, $39.99. Should work.
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/...ven-More-Plus-Smartphone-Unlimited-Web-E-mail
I hate the look of Samsung Vibrant...
Captivate is far better
Is it possible for Rogers to send phone outside Canada? In USA or Russia?
From everything I've seen, they won't ship outside of Canada. Though if you or a friend can go yo Canada, they will sell you one.
Another option is to find someone in Canada willing to buy and ship the phone.
Sent from my Samsung Captivate.
ok, I'll wait 2 weeks in this case and then decide what and when to buy
100 mb data plan suks
hope rogers' captivate will be easy unlockable
I'm currently deployed and going back to states in july.
I dont want to pay extreme price to get unlimited data/talk/mms.
I saw boost mobile, cricket, and few other having $40-50 for unlimited everything.
But here is the question.
I really want to use HTC phone with 4.3 screen.
What will be the best choice for me?
I have friend selling Evo 4g from sprint for $200 but I read I cant use it on boostmobile. Other than that I can get desireHD for around 450 unlocked(GSM).
Need to be 4.3 inch screen with unlimited service from any network.
You could also try Simple Mobile. They are a GSM provider so an Evo 4g wouldnt work but a DesireHD should work just fine. They run $60 a month and I believe are using the same towers as T-Mobile uses also Wal-Mart has a GSM provider they are just starting to get into the market and I know they use T-Mobile's network just unsure as to what a total unlimited plan is cause they never actually say anything about data on their commercials on the radio either way there are two others you can look into.
You could just get Sprint's $69.99 plan, but with a smartphone it's +$10, then insurance (which I would recommend) is another $7. Everything is unlimited except calls to landlines, but you get 450 mins for that. With nights & weekends, you'd only use those minutes Mon-Fri, 7a-7p. So unless you call landlines all the time, it would be more than you'd need. It's not super cheap, but cheaper than any other major carriers.
Also be aware that AT&T just bought out T-Mobile, so say goodbye to decent prices there.
I love my Evo, even if it is getting a little dated. If you can get your hands on an Evo, it is possible to flash it to Boost. I think it's illegal, could be wrong. But I've heard nothing but horror stories about doing it. It'll save you $30/month, but you'll have to buy the phone at full price.
I'm out of ideas, sorry.
Thank you. I just found brand new unlocked DesireHD for $330 on craigslist. Going to tell my bro to pick it up.
Hope it works out when I get back.
Going to haggle with friend and see if i can get that evo for $150.
joon82 said:
I'm currently deployed and going back to states in july.
I dont want to pay extreme price to get unlimited data/talk/mms.
I saw boost mobile, cricket, and few other having $40-50 for unlimited everything.
But here is the question.
I really want to use HTC phone with 4.3 screen.
What will be the best choice for me?
I have friend selling Evo 4g from sprint for $200 but I read I cant use it on boostmobile. Other than that I can get desireHD for around 450 unlocked(GSM).
Need to be 4.3 inch screen with unlimited service from any network.
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Click to collapse
i will keep it short..
GO FOR DESIRE HD!!
My two year contract will be up in awhile (ok... 6 months... I’m getting started early).
We have 5 Infuses on an AT&T contract, with unlimited talk/text + 200MB data/mo for total $220/mo.
I'm looking to keep the costs low.
The Infuses are doing great, I’m thinking we’ll hold on to them as long as they keep working.
I’m wondering if others in similar situation have identified good options.
I am leaning towards monthly options... not wanting to get locked down in antoher contract.
Has anyone found a good reasonable plan (preferably monthly) for their Infuse after their 24 month sentence expired?
Tmobile has a great prepaid plan: $30 for 100 minutes, unlimited text, 5GB data.
We can work with the 100 minutes.... we actually don't talk a lot.. we can keep the minutes down by using Google Voice for some of the calls ... keep a prepaid balance which allows extra minutes at the reasonable rate of 10 cents per minute. But Infuse doesn’t have that 1700Mhz band by Tmobile, which means we might be stuck on “Edge” data speeds at least until Tmobile “refarms” with the 1900Mhz. Anyone switched to Tmobile?
Straight Talk no longer provides AT&T SIM cards... some weird leverage that AT&T used on them. Anyone got around this ?
A friend of mine is in a similar situation. He mentioned Cellular One has simm chip compatible with ATT and they were cheap.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
electricpete1 said:
Straight Talk no longer provides AT&T SIM cards... some weird leverage that AT&T used on them. Anyone got around this ?
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I had no idea straight talk no longer did ATT sim cards. that is what I am using, and was going to suggest. They do offer tmobile cards though. $50 month unlimited everything.