Mike Jacoubowsky

The AT&T overseas data plans shown on that page require no contract or time period; they can be pro-rated to just part of a month, all of it, whatever you need. I've used it often and never had an issue. You do have to call and make sure, if you're on an 800 meg/month plan and you're only using it for 2 weeks, that they allocate the full month's billing or else the plan will only cover 400 megs with huge overage charges. But it's never been an issue, I just call and they take care of it.

$200 for 800 megs is still a lot of money, but it's a lot less than they used to charge. And if you've got an iPhone and all you want to do is email, and you're not going to send photos, the $25 50 meg plan will take care of most people's needs while away.

nmenaker

Mike pretty much covered it, I'll just add that when one signs up for one of the international roaming data plans, you can specify which date you want it to terminate at the time of making the feature add. So you don't have to remember to call in and cancel.

Also, if roaming abroad, texting is nice to have and the 10$ for 50 international texts anywhere is a nice cheap feature add. This is ONLY for OUTGOING texts as INCOMING TEXTS are free if you have some sort of domestic text plan.

Mike Jacoubowsky

+1 on the international text feature!

But incoming media texts (photos, video) still count against your data, so if you've got friends you routinely send you embedded media in texts, better let them know to stop while you're overseas. Also, you should still call in to make sure you got your full data allowance if you engaged the plan for less than a full billing cycle. That's one point that the site is very unclear about.

If you've got an iPhone and want to get an idea of how much data you might want to use when overseas, zero out your data use counter and spend a day making use of googlemaps and whereis to find things, and see how much you ended up using. Some of the things one might casually do can eat up quite a bit of data; it's not just sending photos and videos.

Jake Gittes

I tried this exact thing this past summer with a 3 UK SIM, and while I could activate my SIM in the US, it didn't work at all in the UK. Solution ended up being to run into a 3 UK Store, and they got me all hooked up without a problem.

CatJo

What plan did you use on 3 UK? Did you roam outside the UK?

Jake Gittes

Looking back through my notes, it looks like I signed up for the 15GBP Pay-as-you-go SIM package. I barely used the 300 minute of voice, but I definitely used the heck out of the data.

I roamed outside the UK in Spain and Austria. I got a separate SIM in Spain, but in Austria I signed up for 3 Austria (Drei) on a slightly more expensive pay-as-you-go plan.

I later learned I could use my 3 UK SIM on 3 Austria's network without any extra fees, but out of curiosity, I did slap in my 3 UK SIM in Austria and it worked just fine. I don't *think* I was chewing up my GBP in Austria, but I never really looked into it.

I presume the same thing works in other Three countries.

OverThereTooMuch

Refer to 4.6.1.3. You have to have existing data service. So either you are currently in a contract, or you've already been in a contract for >2yrs. That's semantics, but the point is that it's not a prepaid option.

As far as the time period, in the chart with the heading "Data Global Add-On Packages", the column clearly indicates that those are monthly charges. And the description of the package also indicates that it's monthly. The Data Connect Pass Global link also mentions that it's only good for a 30 day period.

I know people that have had the same experience. That does not mean that it's the standard policy.

In re-reading 4.6.1.3 and 4.6.1.4 of the terms & conditions, I see where I made the mistake last night. They have a "Data Global Add-On Plan" for smartphones, and then a "Data Connect Global Plan" for tablets. They are very similarly named. It's the plan for tablets that has the 1yr commitment, though they do also offer the Data Connect Global plan as a prepaid option.

Another thing to keep in mind - those are the generic terms & conditions. If you have some corporate discount applied to your line, different terms may apply to you.

They could make this a lot simpler. But at least they offer options.

nmenaker

you could also layer an application like Onavo ontop of the os, ios or android to save on data usage. I find it saves about 50% or more when I'm abroad on the iphone (which activates the compression)

j210277

Didn't see this but you can add Straighttalk BYOD SIM http://www.straighttalk.com/ShopSims as a prepaid sim in the USA for unlocked gsm devices. Been using it for a while and it works quite well!

wco81

How does that work?

I went through the forms and it offers you a $15 AT&T SIM and with it, you can buy a $45 "unlimited data, talk & text" plan.

That's way less than what they charge for their smart phone plans, the post-paid ones.

And there's no commitment required?

deniah

prepaid = no additional commitment
straight talk and most prepaid plans are tied to a service carrier, i.e. there is no data roaming. not really a concern unless you are out of metro areas often.
straight talk supposedly has a "soft" data cap... which noone really has a finger on yet

westside8

I purchased an AT&T prepaid sim card on my most recent visit. I had no issues getting data on my Blackberry, but I could not send/receive text messages at all. Have anyone experienced that problem in the past?

sgrech

I only want data! How much was the SIM and the data cost?

Thanks
Simon

hks

I will be traveling to US and Canada for 1 weeks, and I am looking for pre-paid sim card for my unlocked iphone4 and tethering the data plan to my ipad. I prefer unlimited data access, and I expect to use less than 30 minutes of talk time. What plan will be the best for me? I will first arrive SFO, then drive to vancouver.

ryandelmundo

I use H2O wireless for prepaid. Works with ATT (iphones and such) and unlocked phones.

You can get a SIM card off Ebay for about $1 with free shipping. Ordered mine on Wednesday got it Friday.

The plans are super cheap and can include data if you like. I put $10 on the card and it's pay-as-I-go with minutes or SMS at $.05 each.

For $40 you can get a decent unlimited minutes with some data and free international calling credit.

I highly recommend getting one of these SIMs.

The only "issue" is the cards expire after 2 months if you have no credit, so you'll need to either keep some credit on there or have a new SIM ready the next time you need one. I bought two

- Ryan
@theWTD
http://worldtraveldude.com