Best SIM for Visit to the US?

[innerscorecard]

My wife and I are visiting the US soon. We have GSM compatible unlocked phones, but we don't have existing US carrier SIM cards or accounts. What's the best way for us to be able to call and use data during our stay? We will be in the US for a little less than two weeks. We're meeting and coordinating with a lot of people and also exploring places we're not familiar with, so we really do need calling, texting and data. Please don't recommend just using WiFi or something like that. :)

I truly did try to Google this but cannot for the life of me figure this out. I saw deals for nearly free T-Mobile SIM cards, but it seems that you need to already have a T-Mobile account to use those? I'm embarrassed to admit I spent hours researching this and couldn't figure out all the steps. I also don't want to pay ridiculous activation fees or the like.

[Daley]

An AT&T MVNO would be your best bet for coverage. As to whom, it depends on how much service you're after. Airvoice or Red Pocket would probably be a decent choice. The SIM cards will be cheaper off Ebay than from either MVNO directly. As for maps, plan ahead and pre-load maps for the area visited for your phones instead of relying on data. That will help reduce your reliance and need for any significant amount of data.

[Eggman111]

My wife and I got prepaid plans from T-mobile for our longer trips in the US. They gave us SIM cards for free when we put money on the account. I believe there was a minimum amount of $30. Last time we used it, it was $3/day for unlimited 3G data, calling, and texting. If you didn't use the phone for that in a day, it was free. We just went into a retail location with our unlocked phones and walked out with the new SIM cards on the plan.

Before you go, you would have to scope out a retail location or two to set this up in the US. If you want them to be working when you hit the ground, then you may have to look at other options.

[innerscorecard]

Wow I.P. Daley, do you have a batsignal for telephony-related posts? Thank you so much.

Is AT&T MNVO coverage much worse than AT&T directly? We don't care so much about speed (not going to stream Youtube during our vacation) but would like to make sure we can look addresses, schedules, and other things up when we need to.

I see that Airvoice has pay as you go, which is nice. Obviously we'll have to forecast how much our usage will be to see if it hits the threshold where simply buying a month is more cost effective.

Just did a search and it looks like Google Maps support downloading more than it used to. Great idea.

[innerscorecard]

My wife and I got prepaid plans from T-mobile for our longer trips in the US. They gave us SIM cards for free when we put money on the account. I believe there was a minimum amount of $30. Last time we used it, it was $3/day for unlimited 3G data, calling, and texting. If you didn't use the phone for that in a day, it was free. We just went into a retail location with our unlocked phones and walked out with the new SIM cards on the plan.

Before you go, you would have to scope out a retail location or two to set this up in the US. If you want them to be working when you hit the ground, then you may have to look at other options.

Awesome. I wonder if free SIM cards is corporate policy or if it's at the discretion of individual stores. Pretty dumb that T-Mobile won't let you just do it yourself online.

[innerscorecard]

Annoying how some of these providers don't have nano SIM cards.

[Daley]

Wow I.P. Daley, do you have a batsignal for telephony-related posts? Thank you so much.

Is AT&T MNVO coverage much worse than AT&T directly? We don't care so much about speed (not going to stream Youtube during our vacation) but would like to make sure we can look addresses, schedules, and other things up when we need to.

Just well timed. :)

An AT&T MVNO is going to restrict you to AT&T owned towers only (no roaming to T-Mobile or other smaller GSM network providers like Cinty Bell in Ohio, Plateautel in New Mexico, etc.), which still provides the largest GSM footprint in the nation. Obviously, you'll want to check the coverage maps for where you're going, but an AT&T MVNO is going to be the safest bet for several reasons, including data speeds and GSM data band availability versus your phone (without a T-Mobile pentaband handset, you get out of the city, you're likely going to be capped to 2G EDGE speeds) and prepaid prices.

Annoying how some of these providers don't have nano SIM cards.

If you go the Ebay route, you can frequently find those SIM cards pre-cut for smaller form factors before you buy.

[dragoncar]

Some friends recently visited from another country and also wanted good data options (all respect to IP, but some people are just addicted, me included) for their iPhone 4.  They went with MetroPCS because it was cheap and they could walk into the store (didn't plan ahead and order a SIM card online).  They were happy.

They said they weren't sure if the phone was locked, but it was a GSM phone and they thought it SHOULD work with AT&T but AT&T was just too expensive.  I was surprised about MetroPCS because I thought PCS was CDMA for some reason.  Apparently it's a TMobile company.

edit: this was in northern california and service was good.