Prepaid USA SIM with voice/text/data plan

[Tim Flink]

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On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 14:50:56 -0400
Stephen Gallagher <sgallagh at redhat.com> wrote:

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> On 07/25/2013 11:21 AM, Gianluca Sforna wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Stephen Gallagher
> > <sgallagh at redhat.com> wrote:
> >> I'll send an email there about the SIM cards after I talk to Ruth
> >> and Tom.
> > 
> > Ok great, thank you very much for this.
> > 
> > 
> 
> I had a conversation on IRC with Tim Flink about this today. What he
> warned me is that T-Mobile USA is historically very problematic about
> handling data connections for phones not specifically built for
> T-Mobile USA. Tim recommended that we should look into AT&T SIM cards
> if you need data access (to avoid issues).

For more detail than people probably want ...

The issue at hand is how tmo-us does 3G/4G data. Their frequency
spectrum has been pretty much unique globally (split 1700/2100 but at&t
is starting to deploy LTE on the same spectrum) and there are not many
phones which are capable of using that spectrum and aren't specifically
branded or built for tmo-us (for example, the nexus s was sold as two
different models in the US - one for tmobile and one for att/everywhere
else).

If your phone has a radio which is capable of using 1700 AND 2100 (you
do need both), you can use tmo-us 3G just fine (maybe 4G but I'm fuzzier
on the details about what's required for that). Otherwise, you'll still
be able to get data over EDGE (2G speed), make phone calls and send sms.
The wrinkle in this is that tmo-us is in the process of upgrading their
infrastructure, so it is possible that they have 3G on the more normal
1900 spectrum in charleston but I'm not sure how to find out other than
just trying it.

In the US, AT&T has a less abnormal GSM infrastructure. Their prepaid
plans are a bit on the expensive side (if you can get them without a
US address, I have no idea if that's even possible) but h20 wireless [1]
is an example of a mvno which runs on the AT&T network. I had to change
some network settings to get data working with h20 on my geeksphone
keon, but that's not very difficult to do as long as you remember to
change it back when you go home :) I don't know about charleston, but
h2o sims are available around here at bestbuy [2] (USD 10 for the card +
whatever airtime you want). Activation was easy and didn't require an
address or anything like that when I activated mine.

And yes, I have spent way too many hours digging into this stuff.
Welcome to the wonderful world of US wireless carriers :)

Tim

[1] https://www.h2owirelessnow.com/pageControl.php?page=index
[2]http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Prepaid+Wireless+SIM+Card/9646907.p

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