Hi,

I'm a newbie from Australia (my first post!) & have been reading some of the threads about GSM simcards & would apprecaite some thoughts on the best option for our upcoming trip to the US.

We have an unlocked GSM phone & would like to use this on our holiday for emergency incoming & outgoing calls back to Australia (and perhaps the very occasional call within the US to a hotel, etc).

We are mainly in Alaska (starting in Fairbanks working our way down to Anchorage, then on a cruise from Anchorage down to Vancouver (stopping in Vancouver for a few days).

Our first stop will be Los Angeles for a few days (before heading to Fairbanks) - is it possible to get a sim card that will work in our phone from somewhere around LAX? I presume this would need to be a prepaid SIM as we won't want to sign up for a plan or contract.

I understand that GSM is not that common in the US & Canada, so I'm not sure which carriers will support this.

Of course if anyone has any other suggestions on ways to give us emergency contact & SMS that would be good too.

Thanks,

Gary.