Travel Technology - A Good USA Pre-Paid Sim Card

I need some help. I am currently working/living in Kuwait for the majority of the year. I had a contract with AT&T that I finally finished with and switched to a goPhone plan back in August. When I was home in December it worked fine. I came home a week ago and had to get a new number because they canceled my number for being inactive.

I am looking to change to any other carrier (I have a unlocked quad-band i9) who will not cancel my number if I am out of the country for 4-6 months at a time and not using my phone. All I need it for while I am in the US is for about 2 weeks at a time.

Does anyone have any ideas?

-Pat

You can get a SIM from T-Mobile (free or virtually free) and then top it up with $100. This reduces your call cost to the lowest slab ($0.10 / minute) and gives you a year's validity

Yea I agree that Tmobile is the best way to go. Once you put $100 on the card it gets "Gold Status" and it is always valid for a year since your last re-up if I remember correctly.

The $100 refill gives you 1,000 minutes, plus "Gold Status" as mentioned previously. The 1,000 minutes are good for a full year.

What is even better is that at the end of the year, you can prevent any remaining balance from expiring for another year just by adding a $10 refill. We have 3 phones that are maintained this way.

Last month I purchased a T-Mobile to-go Nokia phone for my Mom. I bought the phone at Sam's Club. The Sam's Club phone kiosk is operated by Radio Shack. The price of the Nokia was $9.87 plus sales tax. No other purchase was required. However, they do open the package and activate the phone immediately. The phone came with the SIM and 10 minutes of calls. I purchased the $100 refill online for about $88. T-Mobile will even unlock the phone if requested. I don't recall the exact requirements for unlocking, but I believe you have to be active for at least 90 days, and applied a refill within the past 30 days.

T-mobile.com are offering a SIM with 10 minutes credit for $6.99 after online discount, which looks like a good deal.
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/Detail.aspx?class=prepaid&device=53299206-c069-429a-82fa-000007a2ac12

Unfortunately, they don't supply to anybody in that place called Outside-USA-and-Canada-land - curious for a German-owned company. I know I can buy when I arrive (for $9.99) but I'd like to get the SIM before I travel.

I've e-mailed T-Mobile UK and got an answer promising a response within 5 working days. That's a week! :(

Buy the slightly more expensive Tmobile phones which have the Hotspot to Go on them. You can access your US Tmobile account over wifi (for the same price as being in the US) to check for vociemails, text messages, or add recharges.

I've e-mailed T-Mobile UK and got an answer promising a response within 5 working days.
They came back next day saying I should contact the US website. :rolleyes: When I told them that the US website only sold to US and Canadian addresses, she suggested calling them.

Perhaps I'll try that, though without hoping for success. I Googled some stores who can sell the SIM to customers in outside-USA-and-Canada-land for about $25 with no credit.

There are a couple on E-Bay. Another thought is Geodessa which has a roaming SIM with a US and UK number and pretty good rates for incoming on the US number together with great roaming rates in other countries.

You don't have a family member who can get the SIM and transship to Kuwait CIty?

Buy the slightly more expensive Tmobile phones which have the Hotspot to Go on them. You can access your US Tmobile account over wifi (for the same price as being in the US) to check for vociemails, text messages, or add recharges.

This is excellent advice. Thank You Dubai Stu. ^

It is my understanding that T-Mobile does not offer a data plan for prepaid SIMs, so use of GPRS/Edge is out. :(

Excluding their Sidekick plan, you can't buy prepaid data on TMobile. (Hotspot at Home is not data). ATT's has some pretty good offers. Additionally, you can get data on Flexpay.

Stu, I'm confused about your recommendation to spend more to get a phone that works with hotspot 2 go on a t-mobile 2 go account. I don't think any of that works with tmobile 2 go, at least, I can't find anything about it when I log into my t-mobile 2 go account on their website.

-David

I have a tmobile prepaid account and it works without any problems using a. Nokia 6086 UMA phone. As Stu mentioned, it should work with any WiFi that you can connect to. It just uses minutes when calling over WiFi. Even when out of the country (as long as the call is back to the US)

Stu, I'm confused about your recommendation to spend more to get a phone that works with hotspot 2 go on a t-mobile 2 go account. I don't think any of that works with tmobile 2 go, at least, I can't find anything about it when I log into my t-mobile 2 go account on their website.

-David

That matches my experiences. TMobile's phones work well in the Middle East over wifi. There isn't much blocking of UMA and it is lower bandwith than the G711 used with SIP.

Yea I agree that Tmobile is the best way to go. Once you put $100 on the card it gets "Gold Status" and it is always valid for a year since your last re-up if I remember correctly.

I know you didn't want AT&T pjasnica, but $100 on AT&T gets you the same 'good for a year' status. I have a spare unlocked phone and $100 SiM card I loan to visiting foreign friends.

The $100 refill gives you 1,000 minutes, plus "Gold Status" as mentioned previously. The 1,000 minutes are good for a full year.

What is even better is that at the end of the year, you can prevent any remaining balance from expiring for another year just by adding a $10 refill. We have 3 phones that are maintained this way.

.

I do exactly the same thing - have maintained the same number now for over 3 years.

T-mobile.com are offering a SIM with 10 minutes credit for $6.99 after online discount, which looks like a good deal.
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/Detail.aspx?class=prepaid&device=53299206-c069-429a-82fa-000007a2ac12

Unfortunately, they don't supply to anybody in that place called Outside-USA-and-Canada-land - curious for a German-owned company. I know I can buy when I arrive (for $9.99) but I'd like to get the SIM before I travel.

I've e-mailed T-Mobile UK and got an answer promising a response within 5 working days. That's a week! :(

Try looking on ebay (USA site) under prepaid SIM - I have had friends in UK get SIM this way for trips to USA. They get the SIM card BEFORE leaving UK, and its already activated, so they know the phone number. Many come with like 50-60 minutes already included and are very easy to top up.

Thanks, 3rivers. Yes, I already checked the eBay sites. The US site has a good SIM from eKit with rates from $0.09 per minute + $0.50 connection fee. Unfortunately only for customers in the US and Canada.

The other cards on eBay work out expensive.

I now have an eKit Home & Roam card. The cute thing is it has a +44 number for most calls and a +1 number for North America. This SIM offers $0.49 per minute to US, Europe, South Africa, Australia etc and $0.59 to European cellphones. Receiving in US and elsewhere costs $0.19 per minute using the +1 number, free in Europe, SA, Oz etc using the +44 number. This is quite a good compromise for me for short visits.

The eKit cards have a 9 month expiry from last use/recharge.

One other good thing about T-Mobile prepay is that you can top it up online with a non US billing address Amex. I've been doing it for nearly 5 years now. Once you've added $100, a $10 refill is valid for a year.

If you go to ebay.com put in this number in search Item number: 370205855423 - I am NOT the seller btw. Two friends of mine have used this SIM card from this vendor, so I know that they work. Each gives you 50min and is PRE-ACTIVATED, so you know the number before you leave UK or wherever, and when you get to USA, it works IMMEDIATELY.

If you go to ebay.com put in this number in search Item number: 370205855423 - I am NOT the seller btw. Two friends of mine have used this SIM card from this vendor, so I know that they work. Each gives you 50min and is PRE-ACTIVATED, so you know the number before you leave UK or wherever, and when you get to USA, it works IMMEDIATELY.Well, up to a point.

From the website:
- 'Pre activated with local California number and expires on Sep/10/2009' (my bolding);
- 'I do not ship these outside U.S. Please do not ask.'

I know what he says in the ad - but he did send to 2 of my pals in England.

Only the 50 minutes expire by Sep 10th - as long as you top up the account, the SIM card remains valid.