Short-term SIM for the US - 2010 edition

Yeah, the authorized resellers are akin to going to a market stall in Shanghai and expecting not to have to bargain.

Easiest way to find a corporate store is to go to www.att.com, click Wireless, then click Find A Store at the top. Corporate stores usually show as "AT&T" or "ATT", which authorized resellers are labeled "AT&T Authorized Reseller".

For TMO, best/cheapest route is order sim card on-line, under $10 including delivery; but it takes a few days.

For AT&T, prepaid sim card is $25 plus tax and only sold in corporate AT&T stores (or on-line). Then they suggest adding at least $25.00 worth of time. At the Walmarts, Best Buys, etc.can only purchase a pay-to-go phone, cost around $30 with 5 minutes time and often $25 coupon for minutes.

Yesterday I went to a corporate store (Fulton Mall in Brooklyn) and everyone from salesman to assistant manager to the store manager insisted that the nationwide policy was to charge $25 for SIM cards. They would not budge. They did let me use their phone to call AT&T's toll-free hotline; the operator there offered to send me a SIM for $6, but it wouldn't arrive for 3 days.

So I walked a few blocks to the Montague store, and they rang me up with a free SIM card without any discussion.

I took the receipt (showing $0.00 for the SIM card line item) back and showed it to the manager at the Fulton store and he was quite condescending about it: "Good for you!"

So it appears that simply going to a corporate store isn't enough to avoid the SIM issuance charge; you may have to try several. I'm not sure why AT&T would authorize its staff to discourage people from signing up by adding that ridiculous charge.

Currently I use a Virgin mobile but I was thinking of switching to a pre-paid SIM (ATT) as the screen is cracked on the phone and auto-top up is not working so I am looking around. A couple of questions:

1) How easy/hard would it be to port my current number to a new SIM, and how long does it normally take?
2) If using the SIM in an unlocked quad-band phone would the local US number work worldwide? Or is there a block on roaming?

I bought 2 AT&T GoPhones mainly to keep in contact with other family members on a trip to California this month.
Cheapest handsets are $30 + $25 credit on each one + $1 a day giving free calling AT&T to AT&T; worked fine esp as roaming calls on O2 appear to be �1.99 a minute!
SIM cards do not work back in UK on an unlocked handset but I didn't call AT&T to ask about roaming and I forgot to do it in the store.
Interestingly, AT&T say that the iPad comes with a SIM card and you can activate and use data with a non-US credit card - I didn't try it though as I had free or cheap wifi in all the hotels used.