What SIM to use in USA please?

Biggles

andrewmoorcroft wrote: »

Whats a CDMA phone? Is it a different phone or a different SIM?
I will be going for 3 weeks at mainly Lake Havassu, Yucca, and Death Valley with one day at Phoenix, and Vegas.
How does the price compare and is it free to receive on one of these?

It's a completely different technology, CDMA phones don't have a SIM.

There are links to various coverage maps here http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/sprint-nextel/4505-6454_7-32137729.html, see if any of them help.

Can't help re pricing but I believe it's pretty well standard to pay to receive a call in the States, though it's nothing like so expensive as receiving a call from the UK on your UK mobile.

appleseed_2

Biggles wrote: »

Can't help re pricing but I believe it's pretty well standard to pay to receive a call in the States, though it's nothing like so expensive as receiving a call from the UK on your UK mobile.

As a guide to costs. With Cingular Pay As You Go (10 cents a Minute w/Free M2M Rate Plan - Daily Fee: $1.00/daily access **Charged when subscriber makes a billable or mobile to mobile call, otherwise no fee is charged):

Local Calls (Local numbers; VoiceMail access number; Toll-free numbers (i.e. 800, 888, 866, 877), Operator Assistance (0,00)

Peak Rate: 10¢/min (except Cingular/AT&T M2M, which is free_
Peak Hours: Monday 7 a.m. until Friday 6:59 p.m.
Off-Peak Rate: Nights: 10¢/min (except Cingular/AT&T M2M)
Weekends: 10¢/min
Off-Peak Hours: Off-peak weekend rates apply from Friday 7 p.m. until Monday 6:59 a.m.

Long Distance Calls (Includes 50 states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam & Mariana Islands):
10¢/min (except Cingular/AT&T M2M)

So, a flat 10c/min basically, with no national roaming charges. If you make an international call to say, Western Europe, it's 39¢/min, so definitely preferable to get someone to call you back at 1p/min and pay 10c/min to receive the call, making an international received cost of around 6-7p/min.

SMS is even better:

SMS Originating: 5¢/message sent
SMS Terminating: 5¢/message received

Both are independent of the number of concatenated SMS in a single message (the actual length is limited by the network) - basically works in your favour as compared to the UK.

andrewmoorcroft

Thanks for all your replies. Ive decided that because of the cost of purchase of the SIM, the cost to receive calls, and the poor network coverage, i will just ask my wife to call me at my hotel for 1p per minute.
I wrongly assumed that i could get a freebie SIM and free incoming calls just like you can in the UK but i was wrong!
Once again, thanks for all your replies.

jj2579

Hi Everyone

I have been following this thread with interest as I will be going to USA (New York & Florida) in 2 weeks and will need to get a US sim to call back to UK and also to be contacted from UK.
I will be getting a Cingular Sim which I think is the best way to go.

Many thanks to all who contributed.

J

Kerr_Avon_2

Hi. I too am looking for advice, on a slightly different matter.

I will be in the US for almost three weeks. I don't expect to receive many calls from the UK or make many, but if I do I have Vodafone passport, which I think means a 75p flat-rate cost for making or receiving calls (as my inclusive minutes will kick in under the Passport deal if I make a call).

HOWEVER, I am staying with a pal and expect to be making quite a few short (just a minute or two at a time) calls, in all likelihood several per day, to arrange to meet up with him and other friends and family who live there. In other words I'll be phoning US mobile or landline numbers from my UK Vodafone phone.

At 75p a time, this cost could soon mount up over the course of three weeks, so assuming I can get my phone unlocked, what is my best option to avoid ? Do I get a PAYG sim... or just buy the cheapest PAYG phone I can when I get there?

Any advice appreciated. Cheers in advance.

dorks

Kerr_Avon wrote: »

I am staying with a pal and expect to be making quite a few short (just a minute or two at a time) calls, in all likelihood several per day, to arrange to meet up with him and other friends and family who live there. In other words I'll be phoning US mobile or landline numbers from my UK Vodafone phone.

I think you'd be better off with vyke. You can use your mobile to set up a call to your friend's landline (on the assumption he has one) and it will connect you to whatever other number you want. I use it and I think it is great.

Apart from a small GPRS packet signal (or one text message if you're not on a Java enabled phone), the costs are very small.

redux

Kerr_Avon wrote: »

I will be in the US for almost three weeks. I don't expect to receive many calls from the UK or make many, but if I do I have Vodafone passport, which I think means a 75p flat-rate cost for making or receiving calls (as my inclusive minutes will kick in under the Passport deal if I make a call).

Vodafone Passport isn't enabled for all countries, and USA is not definitely included, so you'd be spending something between 50p and £1 a minute.

In fact, no visiting SIM cards will have cheap roaming there, so if you will need mobile use, then a local SIM is the way to go, at 10 to 20 cents a minute

For calls home, you might use calling cards either from the mobile or a landline. For people calling you on either mobile or landline, brief them on using cheap calls providers as seen in the MSE Callchecker. People expecting a lot of incoming calls might set up call forwarding from Vodafone via another provider

faza20

Working for Vodafone, I can tell you Vodafone Passprt will only work in certain countries, and America is not one of them

If you do want or need to see what countries are included, the information is on the Vodafone Passport page on the Vodafone website

Kerr_Avon_2

faza20 wrote: »

Working for Vodafone, I can tell you Vodafone Passprt will only work in certain countries, and America is not one of them

If you do want or need to see what countries are included, the information is on the Vodafone Passport page on the Vodafone website

Yes, I see that now. Doh! I checked the website after redux posted his reply above. Thanks for the reply though.

I just assumed the US would be included. It's a slight inconvenience but like I said, I won't be making or receiving many international calls (not via my mobile anyway) so no Passport is not really a big (or expensive) disappointment.

What I am concerned is about the cost of lots of short calls to US numbers (just to arrange meeting places with friends and so on) while I'm over there, which would have been pricey even with Passport, hence my need for an alternative.

Thanks all for the responses so far.

dc

Just a comment to say why the US companies charge for incomming calls, is because in the US there is no special number system for mobiles/cellphones.

The cellphones have the same numbering as the local area landlines have . The charge is to make up the differece in cost of connection. As the caller will not know what type of phone they are calling, the receiver, not the caller pays the extra.

If only OFCOM had followed this method :rolleyes2

Word of warning on the costs of roaming, we ran up a £100 bill with Orange, mainly because we did not realise some networks had a min call charge in minutes, not by the second. We drove to Chicago visiting son and OH wanted to let him know we were nearly there. Called him and every motorway bridge we passed under cut off the call, so OH redialled at £2 a go a few seconds.