T Mobile in the USA

davidshads

We are going to be using payg sims in our phones whilst on holiday in the USA,we are very light users so not fussed about the charges but just wanted to know what we would need to do to be able to use them or would they just work when we get out there?

OneADay

Get a local sim card over there - don't use your phone (i.e. UK sim), using T-mobile USA won't make any difference - its separate to T-mobile UK. If you use your T-mobile UK sim there, it will cost a bundle.

Buzby

Also, make sure you choose your SIM carefully, you need a GSM 1900 network SIM, and your phone must support this too. A number of carriers (Nextel comes to mind) and other that do not, so you need to do your homework, and source the SIM on arrival.

Colin_London

We are going to be using payg sims in our phones whilst on holiday in the USA,we are very light users so not fussed about the charges but just wanted to know what we would need to do to be able to use them or would they just work when we get out there?

To answer the OPs question (as their light users they might not want to have the hassle of buying a new SIM card after all):

It depends on your phone model. It needs to be at least a 'tri-band' phone, which has GSM900/1800 and 1900MHz reception. Most phones purchased in the last few years have this capability. This will be fine for most city areas.

If you are going out into the sticks you might want to have a phone that also does GSM850 as this is used in some areas. Note that the US is such a vast country that coverage often disappears when you leave civilisation.

Finally, check your UK operators website for charges and the US operators that you can access. As a T-Mobile UK user you can use many different ones: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/going-abroad/details-by-country/united-states-of-america/networks/

alf

Will a phone locked to T-mobile UK work with a T-mobile USA sim?