Travel Technology - Pay-as-you-go solutions for iPhones for visitors to the US?

There are iPhone threads, but they are unwieldy. I'm starting this one and in so doing I crave the indulgence of the board and the dark lord of travel tech, ScottC. If it's felt that this should be merged elsewhere, then so be it.

I'm probably not alone in the situation I'm about to describe. In fact, I know that Wingnut, vicar of the BD parish, has a telecoms state of affairs identical to my own.

I'm a Brit and I visit the US a fair bit. But the frequency and length of visit vary. So far this year, six days. Last year, 21 weeks.

For the last four years, I've made use of a T-Mobile to go PAYG sim when in the US. For outgoing calls back to the UK, I use a Jajah local access number. It's all worked really rather well.

I've just made the leap to the iPhone for my main UK cell. I'm growing to like it. I'm not a corporate drone who has to send dozens of emails a day (if I were, a BlackBerry would be much better). So the iPhone is great for someone like me.

But what it's meant is that picking up my 2003 unlocked Nokia handset on my next trip over the pond is going to be pretty unappealing. Worse, due to the astronomical per MB roaming charges on o2 (and other networks elsewhere by the sound of it) my UK mobile is going to have the international data functionality turned off when I'm abroad. Because I'm not an international diamond thief, I won't be able to afford the crippling costs.

It strikes me that getting a jailbroken, second-hand, first gen iPhone for US use seems like not a bad plan. 3G isn't all that great in the US, and really I just want to make calls and send and receive the odd email. I can make do with EDGE.

I'm assuming it's possible to have a .mac mail account synched with two iphones simultaneously. I don't actually know if that's so.

But what are the data rates on T-Mobile to Go? Are there even any? Or should I move providers? Can you port a PAYG number easily in the US, or will I have to lose my number?

I don't have a US bank account or billing address, so I guess that narrows my options some. And I don't want to be locked into an expensive monthly outgoing. I want to retain the PAYG flexibility.

Any thoughts gratefully received.

T-mobile has pay as you go and it has pay per day plans. I don't recall there being any decent T-mobile pay as you go data plan that was not tied to Sidekick device use.

If there are pay per day data plans from T-mobile that aren't tied to Sidekick device use, that would be great -- I'd start by looking at the T-mobile USA website to see if that's an option.

There is no data on T-mobile PAYG (except for the sidekick plan) :(

The only way to get (semi) PAYG data is on the AT&T GoPhone plan if you pick their hybrid prepaid solution.

You really only have 2 options:

1) Try and activate the iPhone on an AT&T plan, and enter a Social Security number in all 9's. This will fail the credit check, and you should be offered the AT&T GoPhone iPhone plan (ONLY on the non 3G iPhone). You are however, looking at a minimum of $49.99 a month, but you can end it any time you want, or simply stop paying.

2) Pick up any GoPhone from an AT&T store and activate it (once again on the Pick Your Plan hybrid PAYG plan). The plan starts at $29.99 for just 200 minutes. You can then add the GoPhone MediaNet plan for $20 (somtimes it can be found for $15), and then pop that SIM in the iPhone.

There is NO true PAYG data in the US, as insane as that may sound :(

Porting numbers on PAYG is tricky, it's all up to the operator whether they want to release the number or not.

Another option is the T-mobile Flexpay plan; this is essentualy a post paid plan, with prepaid requirement. You can pick almost any T-mobile plan and service, but you need to pay everything upfront.

https://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm22546.htm

I am pretty sure you can signup for Flexpay without an SSN or credit check, and the plan is then true month to month. Stop paying, and service stops, but once again you'd be looking at a minumum of $50 for voice+data.

Looking at eBay last night, those first-generation iPhones aren't exactly cheap (yet). Not sure if that's different on your side of the pond.

Maybe relying on Starbucks and other (free) WiFi locations might be sufficient for the occasional email, until the carriers here in the US figure out that they are leaving quite a bit of money on the table by not offering cheap pay-as-you-go data services.

Have you got a 3G or 2G iPhone at the moment?

If you can bear it, I'd echo the advice to stick to wifi.

For voice calls, if you don't want to pay the roaming rates (who does?) then it's a toss-up between taking your old handset and T-mobile SIM or downloading Truphone from the App Store. (Its rates aren't particularly stunning but they're a hell of a lot better than O2, and the application works gracefully with your contacts.) On the downside, you would spend your life frantically screaming 'hang on, this is costing me a fortune, I'll call you back' to every incoming call.

Thanks for all of this. I have a 3G iphone for use here in the UK.

It looks like I'm sort of screwed, really. I don't want to commit to $600 dollars a year; some years it would easily be worth it, other years not so much.

Relying on wifi using my existing UK iPhone seems to be the only solution. But that's a bit of a drag, having to carry 2 phones. I usually divert my UK number to skype and then divert the skype to my US cell for incoming. It's worked well for me. It means when I'm out and about in the US I only need to carry my US handset. Them that would SMS me know to try the US number.

ver 1.0 iPhones seem to be going on eBay UK for about £100 - £150. £100 would be OK for a phone for such purposes, £150+ is a bit steep. But it's all moot if I can't get data with my US sim.

The roaming rates for voice are high, but it's the O2 roaming data charges that are criminally high.

So. My list of things I want in life now reads:

1. PAYG data for the Land of the Free
2. Asus sized Mac
3. Leeds United promoted
4. World peace