Visiting USA, how to use the mobile?

ahmjt

Dear forum members
I am going on a visit to USA in two month's time for 2-3 weeks. Currently I use a semi-smart phone (Nokia 5800), T-mobile network.

While in the USA I will mainly use the phone for:
- Texting
- Receiving calls
- GPS

I don't surf the web on my mobile.

For GPS I can switch off the assisted GPS although assisted GPS will take only 4-5 KB of data for each lock. This is because the map software (Nokia's Ovi) has the map data saved on the memory. It does not have to download the whole map data (like Google map).

I have checked some options. At&Ts GoPhone is something I find close to meet my requirement. For At&T GoPhone do I have to buy the handset or can it be a SIM-only deal?

Just getting some ideas from you all who visit USA from time to time. Last time I visited was 5-6 years ago and things have changed a lot since then.

Thanks for your help.

Gina_22

you can use a prepaid sim card...

JPR

Sorry to hijack the thread but what happens when you use Ovi maps overseas as a Sat Nav?

If you have your UK SIM in the phone, how much data would it need in terms of cost (say, per hour)

Thanks

grumbler

Am I wrong in thinking that Nokia Satnav works without data connection?

JPR

That's what I thought & was planning to use it on a trip to Canada and USA. Then I saw this post and doubts started.........

Gloomendoom

If you are thinking of using it outside the major towns and cities be aware that mobile phone reception in the US is crap compared to the UK.

chanz4

cinqular aint too bad, but buy a p&go chip already registered, dont forget you mob must be tri-band

ahmjt

Hi folks, Nokia's GPS can be used in two modes. Assisted and not assisted. In assisted GPS you can get the GPS lock (means you get your position) very quickly as both satellite signal and mobile data/signal are used by the GPS to figure out the location. Receiving satellite signal is free. Receicing mobile data will incurr cost from your data package. If using assisted GPS at the very beginning to get your location the handset will download a small 3-4 kb file (the file contains just a one line text with specific format that states your lattitude and longitude). Also, if you start your GPS again in a reasonably short amount of time it will use the same file instead of downloaing a new file.

As I have T-mobile's web/data package it does not cost me anything extra in the UK to use assisted GPS. This will cost me some money if I try to use the GPS in the USA. That is the reason I was looking for some sort of pre-paid SIM with data-package.

By the way, I used the word' asynch' instead of 'assisted' on my original post.

The handset's GPS can be set in a way so that it only looks ofr satellite signal. In this setup the GPS will only look for satellite signal. It will not try to get anything from mobila/cell signal (hence no data cost). However my experience with 'satellite' only mode is not good. The handset takes ages to get the location data.

If you folks like to know how to setup the GPS for this:

On your handset, go to 'Application'.(Not 'Map')
Select 'Location'.
Select 'Positioning Methods'.
You will 4-5 different options:
Bluetooth: If using an external GPS.
Assisted: This is the one I am talking about. Gets signal from mobile data.
Integrated: Gets signal from satellite only.
Wi-fi/Network: gets signal from wi-fi hotspot.
Network: not sure about its operation.

For USA, you can select 'Integrated' and 'Wi-fi' which would not incurr any cost.

On 'Map' I would also suggest the following:
Start 'Map'.
Go to 'Menu'. Depending on what version of Map you are using there may be tool sign on the lowet-left corner of the screen.
Go to 'Internet'
Set 'Connection' = Offline
Set Roaming Warning = On


Hope this helps. Please note that this only applies for Nokia's Ovi map suite where the map is pre-loaded into the headset. Other mapping tools may work differently. For example Google map is good but load the map from the data package, so using google map means high data usage.

Thanks chanz4 for mentioning the tri-band. I thought my phone was tri-band, but after checking I found it a dual band phone

ahmjt

JPR wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread but what happens when you use Ovi maps overseas as a Sat Nav?

If you have your UK SIM in the phone, how much data would it need in terms of cost (say, per hour)

Thanks

If you don't use assisted gps, and if you do not use the web it should not cost anything. See my second post regarding this.

ahmjt

Gloomendoom wrote: »

If you are thinking of using it outside the major towns and cities be aware that mobile phone reception in the US is crap compared to the UK.

It is a big country. And they love to leave it this way so that they can still make some horror movies!

ahmjt

JPR wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread but what happens when you use Ovi maps overseas as a Sat Nav?

If you have your UK SIM in the phone, how much data would it need in terms of cost (say, per hour)

Thanks

Not exactly sure about the cost. It will be per Mb data. Cost I think will not be low.