In need of a new phone - needs to work in the US

captain_insano

Apologies in advance, I do not understand mobile phones!

My daughter is going to New York before Christmas with school and I'd like to get her a new phone as a Christmas present. This also means I can keep in touch with her while she's away and don't have to worry (this is the first time she's been away from home without her parents).

All I care about is that it

• has good coverage
• can access the internet easily so she can send me an email or check-in to somewhere on Facebook
• has a good camera so she can take photos

I appreciate most phones come with these as a given but it's all greek to me, I'm afraid! I suppose what I'm looking for are recommendations...

I'm happy to get her a contract as I have no idea how much credit I would need to load on to a pay-as-you-go. I imagine using it abroad would use that credit up quite quickly.

Thank you in advance

Rusty!

How well do you want it to work in the US and on what network?

If you go for a pentaband phone you'll be fine as it will support 3G on T-Mobile and AT&T.

If not, you'll have to pay attenetion to what frequencies you get. T-Mobile uses AWS (1700Mhz) for 3G, AT&T uses 850Mhz and 1900Mhz.

grumbler

captain_insano wrote: »

...I'm happy to get her a contract as I have no idea how much credit I would need to load on to a pay-as-you-go.

:huh:

I take it that as you have no idea you are happy to foot, say, a £2-3K contract bill... Nothing wrong with this if it's really what you mean.
Not that it's a typical amount, but not uncommon for data roaming abroad that some UK networks charge £8K/Gb for.

Neil49

grumbler wrote: »

:huh:

I take it that as you have no idea you are happy to foot, say, a £2-3K contract bill... Nothing wrong with this if it's really what you mean.
Not that it's a typical amount, but not uncommon for data roaming abroad that some UK networks charge £8K/Gb for.

grumbler's reply should give you some idea of what you are letting yourself in for!

A 'typical' UK phone contract does not include use abroad (although you can purchase booster packages etc at additional cost in certain circumstances).

I was in NY recently and text messages on Orange back to the UK were extra and I received a quick phone call from the UK which cost me around 40p. I've just checked the text message Orange sent me re US charges when I got there and they are as follows.

Calls / voicemail checks cost £1.10 per minute. receiving calls is 70p per min (don't know how I got away with just over 40p), text messages are 40p to send but free to receive, picture messages are £1.50.

Internet usage is - are you ready for this - £8 per megabyte!!! (which is where grumbler is coming from).

I switched off data connectivity (i.e. internet connectivity) before leaving the UK and just made use of free wifi. With this I could send access Facebook, use the internet and send picture emails using gmail on my phone at no cost. If I had used a data connection at £8 / MB it would have cost me a fortune.

I appreciate you want your daughter to keep in touch etc but you really don't know what you are letting yourself in for when involving facebook/internet usage over there. I forsee a massive bill heading your way unless you rethink what you allow her to do when using her phone over there.

It is possible to buy local sims over there (as per Rusty's reply) which would reduce costs significantly but the phone would need to be unlocked, compatible with the network over there and she would need to know what she was buying at the time - I get the impression she isn't old enough to be up to that or have the time to shop around for it.

captain_insano

Thank you all. That's exactly the kind of replies I was looking for. I'll have to do some more research. Cheers