Mobile Internet In The Usa

[BKOKVLX]

Soon I will be traveling to the States for a month or so. I am interested in purchasing a sim card that I could place in my iPad for mobile interneting. (i have no problem cutting a full size card down to size) I do not want to sign up for any type monthly billing, more of a pay as you go.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Mark

[nikster]

I used to have an AT&T Pay as you go SIM card and it used to work just adding a data package - pretty expensive, but not crazy expensive.

But now they've locked this option down so it specifically doesn't work with iPhone. I am also sure it won't work with iPads because AT*T wants to sell you their expensive iPad plan. They don't care you don't live here...

Let me know if you find anything... the only thing I found was a few international SIM cards that include data at soviet-era rates. Example: $2.50 / 100 KB. Kilobytes. A Megabyte for a cool $25.

Edited October 22, 2010 by nikster

[2008bangkok]

Let me know if you find anything... the only thing I found was a few international SIM cards that include data at soviet-era rates. Example: $2.50 / 100 KB. Kilobytes. A Megabyte for a cool $25.

Wow that is just crazy, who is gonna pay $25 for 1mb of data

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Mifi. You can buy your own equipment or rent. Neither is cheap.

Rental Option

Purchase option

Otherwise you can buy a Hua Wei E585 for around £50(2500 baht), unlock it for free and use it on EDGE with an AT&T SIM.

Edited November 4, 2010 by Jiu-Jitsu

[wpcoe]

So, with an existing EDGE USB modem (or 3G modem ... they are backwardly compatible with EDGE, no?) I can walk into any AT&T shop or kiosk in the USA and simply buy a SIM with a prepaid data plan?

I visit my mother in California about twice a year for a week at a time, and she only has 56k dial-up. I'd like to have something a bit faster -- and which doesn't tie up her phone line -- for those visits. I can satisfy that with a USB modem and a AT&T SIM?

[nikster]

Otherwise you can buy a Hua Wei E585 for around £50(2500 baht), unlock it for free and use it on EDGE with an AT&T SIM.

Where do you get the AT&T Sim and how much is it (even if it's EDGE)?

[nikster]

Mifi. You can buy your own equipment or rent. Neither is cheap.

Rental Option

Purchase option

The first one looked promising - wifirents! - until you see the rates. $130 / week for a rental? <deleted>?? That's crazy. Unlimited mobile internet with a plan costs $40 / month in the USA so these guys are slapping on a whopping 1000% - rip off!

Now the second one looks great - You have the buy the MiFi for $140, but then you get it with no plan for $40 / month - that's great, and so far the best deal I've seen. Thanks so much for that link! Maybe it's even possible to buy used VZN MiFis on Ebay? I have a CAT CDMA MiFi, it's a good little device. Battery life could be better but other than that it operates flawlessly.

[4evermaat]

i recommend tmobile for phone service. prepaid internet hard to find, as all the carriers want to lock you in month to month. only usa does this foolishness. you could also do pagepluscellular, but you'd have to find a used or new verizon phone that is not prepaid phone (they closed that loophole about 10 months ago - you could walk into a walmart and buy a prepaid verizon phone for $20. and then get pageplus unlimited talk text plan for $40/mo )

[ozymandious]

So, with an existing EDGE USB modem (or 3G modem ... they are backwardly compatible with EDGE, no?) I can walk into any AT&T shop or kiosk in the USA and simply buy a SIM with a prepaid data plan?

I visit my mother in California about twice a year for a week at a time, and she only has 56k dial-up. I'd like to have something a bit faster -- and which doesn't tie up her phone line -- for those visits. I can satisfy that with a USB modem and a AT&T SIM?

do your mom and yourself a favor and get her some cheep ADSL (if available in her area) buy a 20-50$ WIFI router and save your self the pain of dial-up.

a good site to check for ISP's in her area is http://www.dslreports.com/ click on find service tab and enter her zip code, see what you can find.

[ozymandious]

I used to have an AT&T Pay as you go SIM card and it used to work just adding a data package - pretty expensive, but not crazy expensive.

But now they've locked this option down so it specifically doesn't work with iPhone. I am also sure it won't work with iPads because AT*T wants to sell you their expensive iPad plan. They don't care you don't live here...

Let me know if you find anything... the only thing I found was a few international SIM cards that include data at soviet-era rates. Example: $2.50 / 100 KB. Kilobytes. A Megabyte for a cool $25.

How do they block it, know what kind of device you are using?

[ozymandious]

I go back to the states a few times a year and use ATT's Prepaid service for voice and data.

I don't see why you can't take an exact-o knife an cut down the sim to make it a micro sim and use it.

When traveling I use their plan where it's a $1 a day if I use my phone that day and $0.10 a min after that. I I don't make a voice call that day I don't get charged a dollar.

their prepaid data plans are listed below

I get the 100MB plan

hope you find this info useful.

BTW if you add $100 credit to your phone SIM you get a number validity of 1 year for the number. Then just dip into that to top up your minutes (not applicable for iPad) and data.

Edited November 25, 2010 by ozymandious

[lomatopo]

T-Mobile has finally introduced pre-paid data plans as of Oct. 20, 2010. I'm still looking at these so cannot comment on value/performance/experience.

[lomatopo]

T-Mobile has finally introduced pre-paid data plans as of Oct. 20, 2010. I'm still looking at these so cannot comment on value/performance/experience.

T-Mobile does also offer a 24 hours unlimited data pass for $1.49 per day for pre-paid customers. I guess you browse to the T-Zones site, subscribe and they take $1.49 off your balance.

For the OP I did stumble across this article --> http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=4872

With AT&T I think you can data to an existing iPAD, not necessarily an AT&T-branded one. $14.99 for 250 MB and $25 for 2 GB, over 30 days.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/ipad.jsp

More on AT&T pre-paid data plans.

Edited November 30, 2010 by lomatopo

[lomatopo]

I found this excellent tutorial re: AT&T Pre-paid Data in the U.S. (note on the eBay link there are micro-SIMs available).

http://wpjrnl.com/2010/11/07/activate-att-prepaid-sim-card-with-3g-for-iphone/

[nikster]

T-Mobile has finally introduced pre-paid data plans as of Oct. 20, 2010. I'm still looking at these so cannot comment on value/performance/experience.

T-Mobile does also offer a 24 hours unlimited data pass for $1.49 per day for pre-paid customers. I guess you browse to the T-Zones site, subscribe and they take $1.49 off your balance.

For the OP I did stumble across this article --> http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=4872

With AT&T I think you can data to an existing iPAD, not necessarily an AT&T-branded one. $14.99 for 250 MB and $25 for 2 GB, over 30 days.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/ipad.jsp

More on AT&T pre-paid data plans.

Finally!!!

I'll go with T-Mobile next time.

I have an AT&T prepaid "go" card. Back in 2009, I was able to add the $20/1GB data package, and surfed away on my iPhone. In 2010, that didn't work anymore. They allowed me to add the data package. But, it didn't work. And the customer service insisted that prepaid cards don't work with iPhones (no matter if it was legitimately bought outside the USA, and the data plan also doesn't work for iPhones.

My to-go card had a Motorola IMEI (from the shop where I activated it), so that wasn't it.

In any case, screw AT&T with their idiotic iPhone rules, next time it's T-Mobile. $1.50 / day works for me, no problem at all. Maybe there's a way to make it work with AT&T but I think they need to be punished, they need to lose customers due to their utterly idiotic rules, and I'll do my part.

Edited December 8, 2010 by nikster

[Carmine6]

T-Mobile has finally introduced pre-paid data plans as of Oct. 20, 2010. I'm still looking at these so cannot comment on value/performance/experience.

T-Mobile does also offer a 24 hours unlimited data pass for $1.49 per day for pre-paid customers. I guess you browse to the T-Zones site, subscribe and they take $1.49 off your balance.

For the OP I did stumble across this article --> http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=4872

With AT&T I think you can data to an existing iPAD, not necessarily an AT&T-branded one. $14.99 for 250 MB and $25 for 2 GB, over 30 days.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/ipad.jsp

More on AT&T pre-paid data plans.

Finally!!!

I'll go with T-Mobile next time.

I have an AT&T prepaid "go" card. Back in 2009, I was able to add the $20/1GB data package, and surfed away on my iPhone. In 2010, that didn't work anymore. They allowed me to add the data package. But, it didn't work. And the customer service insisted that prepaid cards don't work with iPhones (no matter if it was legitimately bought outside the USA, and the data plan also doesn't work for iPhones.

My to-go card had a Motorola IMEI (from the shop where I activated it), so that wasn't it.

In any case, screw AT&T with their idiotic iPhone rules, next time it's T-Mobile. $1.50 / day works for me, no problem at all. Maybe there's a way to make it work with AT&T but I think they need to be punished, they need to lose customers due to their utterly idiotic rules, and I'll do my part.

My guess is Apple is the one to blame for the limitations on what plan you can use with an iphone no matter the origin. They're the ones who required unlimited data plans only as part of the exclusive agreement with AT&T. Tmobile has no agreement with Apple so they can do whatever they want.

[nikster]

My guess is Apple is the one to blame for the limitations on what plan you can use with an iphone no matter the origin. They're the ones who required unlimited data plans only as part of the exclusive agreement with AT&T. Tmobile has no agreement with Apple so they can do whatever they want.

Well - does it really matter who's to blame? In any case, the predicament of the Go account is all AT&T. They did allow prepaid SIM cards with the original iPhone, and they did offer data packages at some point, which did work. Then they decided that all iPhones must switch to postpaid - I imagine they make way more money that way, if you look at how much these plans cost.

The underlying problem in the USA is lack of competition. I went to Malaysia and was able to get a prepaid SIM card with unlimited 3G and tethering for $5. Same in Austria. That's because there's healthy competition in these places, and so prices go down, and choices go up. In the USA, the only GSM carriers are AT&T and T-Mobile, unlocked phones are unheard of, and prepaid Sims are hard or impossible to come by, and very expensive at the same time. Phones are sold with 24 month lock-ins only. It's the same as in communism, of there's no competition then goods become scarce and expensive.

[lomatopo]

I did provide a link to a tutorial on getting 100 MB of 3G data on AT&T for 30 days at $19.95 on an iPhone/iPad. That's 2x the current AIS/One-2-Call price. The T-Mo 'day-pass' price of $1.49/day but with a 30 MB per day soft-cap would be ~ $45/mo and ~ 900 MB. Maybe a better deal but maybe not 3G?

I'm not sure what all this talk of Communism is about? I do agree that Apple and AT&T do seem to want to restrict their users as much as possible and inhibit competition, but that's more about increasing the hold on the customer, increasing ARPU, maximizing profits and reducing churn rather than some sort of central planning effort.

FWIW I'm still not sure exactly which bandwidths are used for 3G, maybe 850 and 1900 for AT&T and 1700/2100 for T-Mo.

The U.S. mobile market is a different beast with ~ 95% post-paid, subsidized hand-sets and multi-year contracts which benefit both consumers and providers. The only people who get pre-paid in the U.S. are people who do not have worthy credit or green cards, and if TV shows and movies are accurate, criminals using 'burners'.

I think I am going to try the T-Mo day-pass next trip (in a few weeks) as I have had a T-Mo pre-paid SIM for ~ 6 years, and then try the AT&T option the trip after (Feb.) I'll post back on my experiences. I'll get some AT&T SIMs, maybe one regular and one micro extra in case anyone here wants one.

Edited December 9, 2010 by lomatopo

[wpcoe]

do your mom and yourself a favor and get her some cheep ADSL (if available in her area) buy a 20-50$ WIFI router and save your self the pain of dial-up.

a good site to check for ISP's in her area is http://www.dslreports.com/ click on find service tab and enter her zip code, see what you can find.

Tell you what. I'll give your phone number to my 92-year old mother, so you can be her tech support line. If I change ANYTHING in that house, it's instant crisis. Just having an ADSL modem on the desk by the computer would be traumatic. "What is it? It's new. Why do I need it? It's different. It must be evil." Several times a day.

[nikster]

Here's another option - MiFi from Verizon:

http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/684592/review/mifi_2200_mobile_hotspot.html

It's pre-paid & $40/month. 3G.

[lomatopo]

Here's another option - MiFi from Verizon:

http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/684592/review/mifi_2200_mobile_hotspot.html

It's pre-paid & $40/month. 3G.

I think it is from Virgin, not Verizon, acting as a MVNO for Sprint. The unit itself is ~$150. Some first-hand reviews here. Coverage may be spotty, at best?

[nikster]

Here's another option - MiFi from Verizon:

http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/684592/review/mifi_2200_mobile_hotspot.html

It's pre-paid & $40/month. 3G.

I think it is from Virgin, not Verizon, acting as a MVNO for Sprint. The unit itself is ~$150. Some first-hand reviews here. Coverage may be spotty, at best?

True, true, it's Virgin / Sprint, got that wrong. Coverage can't be worse than AT&T, that's not really possible

[lomatopo]

Here's another option - MiFi from Verizon:

http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/684592/review/mifi_2200_mobile_hotspot.html

It's pre-paid & $40/month. 3G.

I think it is from Virgin, not Verizon, acting as a MVNO for Sprint. The unit itself is ~$150. Some first-hand reviews here. Coverage may be spotty, at best?

True, true, it's Virgin / Sprint, got that wrong. Coverage can't be worse than AT&T, that's not really possible

Sprint and T-Mo's 4G coverage is quite limited, and I'm not even sure what frequencies they're using? With the T-Mo Day-Pass you'll be getting 2G (EDGE/GPRS) only. With AT&T, which in my experience has better covereage than T-Mo (when I lose T-Mo I get AT&T ), you would get 3G on your iPhone.

I'll try the T-Mo (I'm a pre-paid subscriber) Day-Pass, in a few weeks, and then AT&T at the end of January and follow-up here.

Edited December 16, 2010 by lomatopo

[nikster]

Here's another option - MiFi from Verizon:

http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/684592/review/mifi_2200_mobile_hotspot.html

It's pre-paid & $40/month. 3G.

I think it is from Virgin, not Verizon, acting as a MVNO for Sprint. The unit itself is ~$150. Some first-hand reviews here. Coverage may be spotty, at best?

True, true, it's Virgin / Sprint, got that wrong. Coverage can't be worse than AT&T, that's not really possible

Sprint and T-Mo's 4G coverage is quite limited...

Nobody said anything about 4G. The MiFi is 3G and as Sprint has had this for a very long time, and has offered data plans for a long time, I imagine coverage is pretty good. It's 3G CDMA-EVDO, same as CAT CDMA here in Thailand.

Does the iPhone on T-mobile really run on 2G only? That would suck...actually just read up on this and from what I gather the iPhone 4 will run on 3G on T-Mobile USA.

Edited December 17, 2010 by nikster

[lomatopo]

Nobody said anything about 4G. The MiFi is 3G and as Sprint has had this for a very long time, and has offered data plans for a long time, I imagine coverage is pretty good. It's 3G CDMA-EVDO, same as CAT CDMA here in Thailand.

Does the iPhone on T-mobile really run on 2G only? That would suck...actually just read up on this and from what I gather the iPhone 4 will run on 3G on T-Mobile USA.

Sorry, not sure why I thought that Virgin box did 4G. Yes, Sprint has moderate 3G coverage in the U.S. I guess that Virgin box is more of a static (home, hotel) solution? Or do you carry it around with you?

AFAIK, in the U.S. T-Mo's 3G uses 1700 MHz for download and 2100 MHz for upload. Your iPhone does not support 1700 MHz, hence 2G for you. Also T-Mo's 3G coverage appears pretty sparse at present, if their coverage maps are accurate.

[nikster]

Nobody said anything about 4G. The MiFi is 3G and as Sprint has had this for a very long time, and has offered data plans for a long time, I imagine coverage is pretty good. It's 3G CDMA-EVDO, same as CAT CDMA here in Thailand.

Does the iPhone on T-mobile really run on 2G only? That would suck...actually just read up on this and from what I gather the iPhone 4 will run on 3G on T-Mobile USA.

Sorry, not sure why I thought that Virgin box did 4G. Yes, Sprint has moderate 3G coverage in the U.S. I guess that Virgin box is more of a static (home, hotel) solution? Or do you carry it around with you?

AFAIK, in the U.S. T-Mo's 3G uses 1700 MHz for download and 2100 MHz for upload. Your iPhone does not support 1700 MHz, hence 2G for you. Also T-Mo's 3G coverage appears pretty sparse at present, if their coverage maps are accurate.

Sigh - you're right about T-Mobile 3G - doesn't work on the iPhone 4, even though the iPhone 4 has quad-band 3G the apparently exotic frequency used by T-Mobile for 3G is not supported.

The MiFi is tiny - about as small as a regular USB modem! I have one from CAT CDMA. It lasts about 3-4 hours on battery providing WiFi, comes with a charger and a USB cable. With the latter you can use it like a USB modem, and power it from the laptop's USB. It's a great little thing, check out the reviews. Most definitely mobile. Incredibly small, really, considering it's a WiFi router _and_ 3G modem all in one.

[NanLaew]

Really useful thread this... thanks for all the researchers and posters. I have an AT&T post paid account; had it from the old GTE Mobilnet system that was bought by AT&T and then became Cingular and then changed back to AT&T with more bells & whistles.... except that they could never be added to a 'legacy' (pre- Cingular) account which always made their most loyal customers feel 2nd class.

I go to the US about twice a year and so paying monthly for a data package that saw about 21-days use per-annum was silly. Since there was no handy and reasonably priced options, I never bothered setting anything up and would depend on the scarce free wi-fi in a restaurant or the like when out and about.

It's true, the big two have no competition and the apart from selecting options on your online account page, all other users need to either call a 1-800 number and go on hold forever or the even worse option of going into a store and asking one of the 'sales people' to set something up. EVERYTHING you need would require a new handset and a 1-year lock-in. Pathetic.

I too liked the choices in Malaysia. I went with Maxis prepaid where you could select data packages from the handset itself, pay for them there and then (from your top up account) and get on with the job; no contracts, no customer service numbers and no vacuous sales people.

Rant over.... thanks!

NL

[nikster]

I too liked the choices in Malaysia. I went with Maxis prepaid where you could select data packages from the handset itself, pay for them there and then (from your top up account) and get on with the job; no contracts, no customer service numbers and no vacuous sales people.

Malaysia is a dream. That's how it should be, and that's how it would be in a country where there's a free market.

It was doubly great with the iPhone 4, I constantly used maps, google, and other functions to find my way around, worked amazingly well. A few times I'd use the laptop with tethering too. I was in mobile utopia as has been promised since 3G was introduced 10 years ago.

The USA is pretty much the exact opposite - nothing works, everything is controlled by the big 2, service is terrible, prices are very high, and things work badly even if you have a post paid 24 months contract for $100/month.

Edited December 18, 2010 by nikster

[lomatopo]

I go to the US about twice a year and so paying monthly for a data package that saw about 21-days use per-annum was silly. Since there was no handy and reasonably priced options, I never bothered setting anything up and would depend on the scarce free wi-fi in a restaurant or the like when out and about.

One option would be a T-Mobile Pre-Paid SIM, then top-up with $100 (1 year expiration) which gets you Gold Rewards status, then use the $1.49 Day Pass for data. AT&T also has pre-paid GSM voice/data (details mentioned a few times in this thread).

I'm not 100% certain but believe these Mobile Broadband Plans can be layered onto an existing T-Mobile pre-paid voice account.

WeekPass $10.00 7 Days/100 MB

MonthPass(300MB)$30.00 30 Days/300 MB

MonthPass(1GB) $50.00 30 Days/1 GB

FWIW, on the T-Mo 3G radio frequencies; the T-Mo version of the Samsung Galaxy S aka Vibrant has a 1700/2100 MHz 3G radio.

[lomatopo]

On a recent trip I have been using the T-Mobile day-pass; $1.49 for unlimited 2G access for 24 hours. I am an existing T-Mobile pre-paid customer, having transitioned from being a long-time post-paid customer ~ 5 years ago, so I already have a SIM. It was pretty easy, just opened a browser, got re-directed to a personalized home-page which showed my account details, and allowed me to choose the day-pass option. Coverage (metro-Boston) is fine, and I'm getting EDGE with average speedtest results of 220 Kbps down/115 Kbps up. There is a T-Mobile My Account widget/app in the market.

I'm pretty happy with the service, so may just continue to use it. I was going to try AT&T 3G pre-paid but may not as there are some additional issues for me as I am using an un-locked AT&T Captivate (custom Samsung Galaxy S) and I may not be able to register a SIM in that phone based on the IMEI. I guess I can use another phone to register then swap it back into my Captivate but am not sure it is worth the trouble. I have WiFi access, so mainly use 2G when away from the WiFi.

FWIW my One-2-Call pre-paid SIM roams effortlessly here on both AT&T and T-Mobile. I receive SMSes, calls (but don't answer), status messages like *121#, and even the e-Services one-time password which allows me to originate local (intra-Thailand) SMSes on the One-2-Call website for 1 baht per.