Best prepaid option for international visitor

[bunnybash]

My wife and I are visiting her family in Orange County Ca for a month. We are from Australia, and have HTC Desires that use the same bands as the AT&T network, so I was wondering if there is a possibility for us to be able to get a prepaid sim card for data and voice that we would only use for a month then dispose of. Trying to figure out AT&T's website is crazy, I have no interest in a "go phone" i just want a freakin sim with data and voice that will last me a month!!!

Any help??

 

[mrcamp]

You can get either AT&T or Tmobile prepaids. Your phone may not do the Tmobile 3G bands though. If you walk into an AT&T store, they will hand you prepaid sim for free as long as you buy topup. OTOH, you can get both AT&T and Tmobile sims on ebay for dirt cheap. Tmobile has the "daily pass" for $1.49. That gives you unlimited data for the day. You may want to look at that as well. However, their call rates are a little higher than AT&T's unless you buy the $100 topup, when will then give you the same $0.10/min as AT&T.

 

[bunnybash]

so would i be correct in thinking that the $50 plan on the T-mobile plan would be a good option, unlimited talk and text and 100mb of data, we are only in america for exactly a month, so it should be ok for us...

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx?WT.mc_n=Prepaid_SeePlan&WT.mc_t=OnsiteAd

it operates on the following frequencies... i will be metro areas of Los Angeles and Orange County 95% of the time...

GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, 3G 850, 3G 2100

 

[mrcamp]

As long as 100 MB of data meets your needs. For $20 more you get 2G of data plus everything the $50 plan gives you.

 

[bunnybash]

So I went ahead and got the t mobile, but can't seem to get any data signals... Wifi only at the moment, plan on dropping in to ask t mobile, but yeah, annoying!

 

[mrcamp]

What do you mean by no data signals? Your phone will probably show E for edge unless it has the 3g bands tmobile uses. You will also need to get the GPRS settings for tmobile on your phone.

So I went ahead and got the t mobile, but can't seem to get any data signals... Wifi only at the moment, plan on dropping in to ask t mobile, but yeah, annoying!

 

[bunnybash]

What do you mean by no data signals? Your phone will probably show E for edge unless it has the 3g bands tmobile uses. You will also need to get the GPRS settings for tmobile on your phone.

doh jet lag is a killer, i totally forgot to change my APN settings!!! will do now!!!!! wow wow wow i am an idiot!!

 

[mrcamp]

If you do not have the settings already, here they are. Also, note that you will only be able to access a couple of sites via tzones CNN and ABC, check balance, etc. Unless you sign up for one of the data packages, which will giove total internet access. Tmobile does NOT have pay per use data as AT&T does.

t-zones