Has anyone used a 3 sim in the States?

Haffiana

I have a spare 3 pay as you go sim, and it seems that if I buy a £15 bundle I can use it in my iphone in the USA on a trip next month, and calls/texts to the UK come out of my allowance. That actually isn't particularly useful as I would use Viber over wifi anyway, but what does look good is that I can use data for free which would be great when out and about.

Has anyone actually tried this? Are the US networks reliable for data? What are speeds like?

I don't know whether to go for this or just pick up a local sim when I arrive.

pmduk

I can't answer your questions, but I'm sure it would help others if you could say which cities you'll be in. I believe coverage in the States varies immensely.

Buzby

I use it in Florida, but it requires your handset to be GSM 1900 capable - and you cannot use PCS networks (like Sprint). Check what your phone supports.

d123

Feel at Home page at at Three:

http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Article,varset_cat=roaming,varset_subcat=4157,Case=EXT(EM11925)

Feel At Home lets you take your UK allowance away with you to 11 destinations around the world, to call or text back to the UK or to get online. So you can use your phone or device, just like you would at home. And you won’t be charged to receive a call or text while you’re away.

We’ve also arranged for special, lower roaming rates in these 11 destinations. So you can keep using your phone or device while travelling if you’ve used all of your allowance, without worrying about high bills when you get home.

The great thing about Feel At Home is that it happens automatically when you arrive at one of the 11 destinations, and your phone or device picks up a signal.

What do you mean by allowance?
Most of our plans include a set of allowances, made up of a number of “units”. Each unit entitles you to a voice minute, a text or a megabyte of data.
If your plan doesn’t automatically come with an allowance (if you’re on Pay As You Go or SIM Zero, for example) you can buy an Add-on, which give you an allowance. There’s a range of Add-ons to choose from, depending on what you need. Just visit mobile.three.co.uk/my3 on your phone or device to buy one, even if you’re away.

If your allowance is for All-You-Can-Eat data, you can use up to 25GB when you’re in a Feel At Home destination. If it is for All-You-Can-Eat texts, you can use up to 5,000 texts and if you have 3,000 or more minutes included in your allowance, up to 3,000 minutes can be used as part of Feel At Home. If you use more than these amounts in any 2 months within a 12-month period, it could affect your roaming services and prevent you from using international roaming in the future. We’d tell you about this first. It’s to make sure all of our customers can enjoy Feel At Home fairly.

Three roaming networks in the USA:

The coverage you'll enjoy

Under each roaming partner, we have listed the services that are available. To check whether you can access internet access from abroad, look for a tick under 'Data'. Some services, that are available at home and on 3 sister networks, may not be accessible from abroad.

The nature of mobile networks means we can’t guarantee the level of service that you’ll experience when abroad or that your device will work in all countries if the local networks work on different frequencies from those in the UK.

Feel At Home.

In Feel At Home destinations, you can use your UK plan allowance or Add-on allowance to call or text the UK, or use data, just like you would at home at no extra cost, as long as your device is compatible with the local networks that you are roaming on.

AT&T .

Services Available.
Voice yes Video n/a Text yes MMS yes Data yes My3 yes

T-Mobile USA .

Services Available.
Voice yes Video n/a Text yes MMS yes Data yes My3 yes

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roaming_and_international/Going_abroad_Pay_As_You_Go/Destination_Details?content_aid=1214306357859

Jon_01

A very timely thread, I'm off to Chicago on Thursday and was wondering what sim to get.

Without wishing to hijack, can anyone let me know the best place to get a 3 payg sim before Wednesday night!!

Buzby

A Three store is a reasonable starting point!

cbrown372

You need to check the t&c as they require you to be using the sim for 30 days before you can activate Feel At Home.

Jon_01

cbrown372 wrote: »

You need to check the t&c as they require you to be using the sim for 30 days before you can activate Feel At Home.

Ah, that's that out of the window then. Looks like a local T Mobile sim then.

Thanks for the info, saves me dashing into town on a bank holiday...

JohnM5206

The 30 day requirement is only for contract sim. PAYG is valid from day 1 so get purchasing. Please read the Three web site for PAYG sim to satisfy yourself about "Feel at home", it IS all there.

thetightone

I've ordered a few online and they have always came the next full working day. So order now and should come on Wednesdays post......Even as a back up if you don't get to a shop tomorrow.

kingrulzuk

thetightone wrote: »

I've ordered a few online and they have always came the next full working day. So order now and should come on Wednesdays post......Even as a back up if you don't get to a shop tomorrow.

Agree i did the same. Now i have 3 or 4 in the house