Hi folks, I am looking to get 2 AT&T SIM cards before I travel to the USA in October, one for my iPhone and one for my iPad. I will use the iPad one for data. As we will be travelling to LA, Toronto (for a few days), NYC, then Florida, Arizona and drive back to LA, I will need Sims that have the best coverage for all these places. Total trip time is 36 days and I would like to have my phone up and running from the time we land. Advice much appreciated.
AT&T SIM Best Place to Get before Travel in October
LRosiedent on 25/08/2015 - 09:54
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Thanks, Swordling, I think this is probably a bit expensive for our needs
All good. Yeah I have to say I wouldn't be able to afford that myself, international roaming seems really expensive for the average person to afford.
I just returned from USA 3 weeks ago after a similar tour. AT&T is indeed the best carrier when it comes to GSM, (Verizon has the most coverage, but it's CDMA and you'd need a new phone).
But the irony is I couldn't find anyplace to get a SIM only prepaid plan while I was in OZ or while in US. The only contract less plans that they have is "GoPhone" but they come with a phone. and AT&T is expensive, mind you ;)But you could find T-Mobile here in OZ, they had a stall in Sydney Intl. airport when I checked last year before I left.
Ultimately I found CricketWireless (https://www.cricketwireless.com/) they use the AT&T network and works like some of the carriers here in Oz. You can get a SIM from one of their many dealers (you can try and see if theres any in the airport you land on). They have reasonable (I'd say even the cheapest) prepaid packages for you to choose from.
HTH.
EDIT=========================
They had a $5/mo roaming addon I used while in Canada (Toronto & Vancouver). I could connect to "RODGERS" IIRC.
I've purchased my AT&T sim card from http://www.usaprepaidsimcard.com.au
Been to the USA twice and both times I've purchased a sim card from here and never had any problems.
Turned my iPhone on when I arrived and worked instantly. Just make sure you read the instructions to set up everything correctly before you go.Have a look at travelsimsdirect.com
Got mine @ www.simcorner.com
They got a stand at Sydney and Melbourne airports so you can pick it on the way out. Cant remember what network it was though.We got ours through the sim card seller kiosk at Tullamarine airport, after we went through immigration and before boarding. About $70 each for unlimited data and calls on T-mobile. They set it up for us so it was all good to go from touch down in LA. No need for a sim for our ipads - we just tethered from the phones with no problems at all. The downside - it was only for 30 days and we were away 32! we got around this by having both sim cards inserted and all of the relevant info entered but the date to start from being two days later than the other. However, you might find that a bit inconvenient for six days - but you could simply purchase an extra data package for a small amount via a simple call to T-mobile. Which, by the way, worked perfectly everywhere we went and I would imagine will for you too, since you won't really be travelling to any remote areas.
Another method you may wish to explore is to purchase AT&T prepaid sim directly from sellers on eBay, and then activate and 'recharge' it according to which plan you wish to use once you have received it.
I only just came back from the States about a week ago and this worked out pretty well for me as I wanted to have it all ready to go prior to arriving.
Thanks everyone this gives me some idea of where to look. We are leaving from Brisbane so I will check out the airport here as well as LA for what I can find. I understand that T-Mobile us pretty good but AT&T is better for coverage, which I imagine I.s best for our travels. I would like to have them activated and ready to go as we get off the plane so I don't have to bother with a search once we get there. as I will be travelling with my grand daughter it's important we don't muck around too much before going to the hotel and to have communication immediately is important.
I bought an AT&T SIM via Amazon before my trip more than a year or two ago (to be safe and not sure if I had the time to go searching) and picked up another for the missus in LA. Texting between them was unlimited on the plan we used.
I read on the various forums that you could not pick up a SIM locally in the US without going on a contract plan and a host of other issues which is why I bought it before going. But I had no issues when I went in to a local shop to get a prepaid plan put on. I found out the SIM was no good anyway - and got a free replacement for the one I bought, and a free SIM for the missus - and bought two prepaid plans (no phone as I had my own; in some forums it was mentioned you had to get them but not so for me).
I was told that getting a SIM was not an issue as demonstrated but it could be my good luck that the guy knew exactly what to do. The key was a third-party site he pointed me to, which I forget now, to activate the appropriate codes for the carrier which you chose. I thought it was all a bit dodgy but did it anyway on good faith and subsequent research showed it was all good. Just can't remember the site.
Don’t think so. It was a private site.
On Vodafone you can pay $5 a day ($180 for your entire trip for one device or $360 for both devices) to get international roaming in the United States and Canada. I couldn't find anything about AT&T though. http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/international-roaming (It lets you take the entire plan overseas as if you were in Australia, and you don't pay if you don't use the device for an entire day).