Cheap data roaming: Article discussion

mrcamp

Sounds like a good plan! If you will be mainly calling the US, then as you are already doing, the $2/daily unlimited talk and text is good to go with. As for calling the UK, most calling cards charge about 1 cent (even less in some cases) to UK landlines and about $0.15 - $0.28 to mobiles. The cards will give you a local US access number. This may not be neccessary if you do not plan on calling the UK much though.

PS. Some AT&T goPhone sims (orange color) are locked to the phone/IMEI they are activated on for 6 months. They will not work in any other phone except the original one for 6 months. The blue color ones are not. So, just something to keep in mind.

Conkermon wrote: »

Right so I've done a fair bit of research on the cheapest way to fund my BlackBerry use during an upcoming two week trip to LA. Here's what I've found out (might help others, unfortunately can't add links) + some questions.

I unlocked my BlackBerry at www[.]freemyblackberry[.]com (free service with the code provided within 24 hours - can't recommend them enough) and have since been looking at sims with data bolt-ons.

AT&T looks like the best bet for carrier, coverage is good and reliable and the costs are acceptable at 49¢/minute for calls to the UK (not aware of costs to receive if they exist). International text messages are $0.25 per message sent. Ideally I'll be mainly texting and calling US numbers so I can use data to contact people back home and keep costs down.

As for the payg plan, smartphones are ineligible for the cheapest option, 'pay per use' while the $50 Monthly Unlimited Plan exceeds my requirements so the $2 Daily Unlimited Talk and Text is looking like the best choice for me. A 10¢/minute plan also exists that may interest some.

So $14 will cover all texts and calls within the US and I'll probably add another $10 for international calls.

Data bundles are available as follows:

$5 for 10 MB
$15 for 100 MB
$25 for 500 MB

I'll probably take 100 MB but am toying with 500 so I don't have to worry. Does it sound like 100 MB would suffice for heavy bbming, occasional fb use (including 2 or 3 medium resolution photo uploads), occasional browsing of the bbc news site + receipt of some emails (html/images disabled)?

Anyway that puts me out about $40 for 2 weeks of US calls and texts, 100mb data and $10 credit.

+

The card itself ranges from £6 to £9 on ebay.

So let's just say it essentially comes to $50 (~£30) for a 2 week phone bill. +$10 if I really think more data is necessary + any additional credit.

I think that's pretty reasonable, however, if anyone spots any ways of cutting costs further I'd be grateful!

Conkermon

mrcamp wrote: »

PS. Some AT&T goPhone sims (orange color) are locked to the phone/IMEI they are activated on for 6 months. They will not work in any other phone except the original one for 6 months. The blue color ones are not. So, just something to keep in mind.

Ahh that is interesting. I'd prefer to get a number + sim I could use on future trips rather than going through this every time. This place has the blue sim (remove []): www[.]usasims[.]com/ATT_SIM.html but the plan looks different (All outgoing text messages to the USA 20¢ for example). Any ideas where I could get a blue sim to put unlimited talk and text on myself?

Edit: Just re-read and paid heed to the 6 month part. That might be alright, I can keep my number at least and now my BlackBerry is unlocked I don't anticipate giving it back to Orange even if I upgrade (free new bold + a nice contract might change that, otherwise I'm gonna investigate the o2 simplicity route!).

Also thanks for the call card advice - do you know of a cheap, reliable and easy/convenient to use brand? I will be making some UK calls so it might be best.

grumbler

Conkermon wrote: »

...I'd prefer to get a number + sim I could use on future trips rather than going through this every time. ....

I guess you'll have to make a chargeable call every 180 days to keep the sim alive.

Conkermon

grumbler wrote: »

I guess you'll have to make a chargeable call every 180 days to keep the sim alive.

Ok, I'll just get the orange then and I'll try and remember to order some cheap from the US (or buy some out there) for future trips.

mrcamp

If you are referring to the AT&T sim, No. US sims do not require a chargeble call every 180 days to keep them alive. It's just that topups have varying expiration dates. For AT&T if you topup with $100, you get 1 year. I believe the other topups are 90 days. Tmobile on the other hand, you topup with $100 and become gold rewards and get 1 year expiration. Any additional topup (even the $10 one) extends it for another year. So, this is the cheapest way to keep a US sim alive for infrequent visitors.

As for calling cards, one suite and union telecards (megaclean) come to mind. You can also sign up for rebtel. They have excellent rates to the UK.

http://www.onesuite.com/rates.asp
http://www.uniontelecard.com/phonecards/2045/mega-clean-and-stable/
http://www.rebtel.com/en/Rates/Rates/?id=&epslanguage=en

grumbler wrote: »

I guess you'll have to make a chargeable call every 180 days to keep the sim alive.

SandLake

Been looking into this myself for my Android phone

On the DIBB there has been an ebay seller recommended recently, sippy_international, one of his items is 300576089037

Apparently he will sell and send you the sim now (quite quickly I believe) and will activate and add credit a few days before you need it - obviously he will bill you up front. (I'm not recommending him, simply that he has been on the DIBB)

I don't see any way of buying the credit on the AT&T site, looks to me that you need to buy a phone (OK a cheap phone) and then add extras. It looks like you must buy for example $25 credit and then use that towards the $2 a day. I am going for 16 days so would need $32+$25 for data so a total of $57 which effectively would be a $60 'topup'

I'm thinking that I might just go to an AT&T shop when I get there.

Conkermon

mrcamp wrote: »

.

Excellent - thanks again

SandLake wrote: »

Been looking into this myself for my Android phone

On the DIBB there has been an ebay seller recommended recently, sippy_international, one of his items is 300576089037

Apparently he will sell and send you the sim now (quite quickly I believe) and will activate and add credit a few days before you need it - obviously he will bill you up front. (I'm not recommending him, simply that he has been on the DIBB)

I don't see any way of buying the credit on the AT&T site, looks to me that you need to buy a phone (OK a cheap phone) and then add extras. It looks like you must buy for example $25 credit and then use that towards the $2 a day. I am going for 16 days so would need $32+$25 for data so a total of $57 which effectively would be a $60 'topup'

I'm thinking that I might just go to an AT&T shop when I get there.

Is this not where we'd top up etc? (remove [], annoying but needed) https[:]//www[.]cingularrefill[.]com/MobilityUSWeb/anonTopupStart.do?isGift=false

Or maybe through here https[:]//www[.]att[.]com/olam/passthroughAction.myworld?actionType=WirelessProductLandingPage

mrcamp

As for topping up, you can get topups from callingmart.com, see link below. You should be able to use a UK credit card or pay with paypal, then just go online to add it to your active sim card. Once you get your sim it will have activation instructions. You basically go to the website, enter the sim number, zipcode (this will determine what area code you get), and some basic info. You will get assigned your number instantly, then you can topup at your convenience, either online or when you get to the US. Topups are all over the place, walmart, target, radioshack, etc. Actually, if you can wait to get to the US, you can walk into an AT&T store and get a free payg sim as long as you purchase airtime.

http://www.callingmart.com/products/wireless/ProductDetail.aspx?ID=12&name=at&t-go-phone-Prepaid-Wireless-Airtime-Minutes-Refill&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

charlea

I have this as well and have used it in mexico domincan republic channel islands all or europe i also use it as a modem on my laptop when im abroad with the blackberry software and its excellent highly reccomend it if you going abroad

m5rcc wrote: »

If you have a BlackBerry on T-Mobile then you can get the "World Email Booster" for £15 for 30days which gives unlimited data worldwide which I have used many times with zero issues. I even tether it to a laptop to use as a modem.

Portchester

The advice given to update iPhone software and switch off Data Roaming is not quite complete. For the iPhone 3G (and maybe other models) it is ALSO necessary to switch off Cellular Data which, unlike Data Roaming, is not off by default. It appears that if wi-fi drops during a download the phone may switch to cellular data even if data roaming is switched off, and thus incur high charges. This has happened to me twice, and I have won battles with o2 to get the charges refunded as they were incurred without explicit authorisation. I think o2 originally believed this was a software fault, but it has not been corrected in later OS updates. o2's website gives different advice about data roaming depending on the iPhone model - check their "How to switch off data roaming" page (sorry I'm not allowed to post the link!).