the810

I've tried to search, but can't find answer.. I'm going to the US on holiday (2 weeks) and I'd like to get some prepaid SIM card for use in my smartphone. Could you recommend me one? I'm gonna need a lot of data (500 MB is minimum), but no calls or texts. In UK I was able to find unlimited internet for 5 GBP / month (prepaid), I know it's gonna be more expensive in the US, but 40 USD (that's what I found) seems too much to me..

richarddd

AT&T prepaid is $25 for 500mb for 30 days.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-pho...hone-plans.jsp

potfish

Just got home from there!

You can buy an Econet SIM from any of their shops for $1 then add credit which you can buy as scratchcards from anyone in the country wearing a fluorescent orange jacket marked "Buddie".

No data possible, sadly, only voice and SMS. As far as I could find out there is no way to do mobile data in Zim.

GoingAway

I have a UK card on the O2 network (giffgaff) with free data thru (almost) the end of July and another card with about 8gb of data from Orange for use in Poland which doesn't expire until late November.

If you can use either, let me know. You might be responsible for postage

FriendlySkies

Thanks for the info! ^

Jamjaw

Glad to see you get giffgaff working!

nmenaker

Has anyone tried out these guys at

http://www.3gsolutions.com.cn/page/simcard/

For china, they'll process a china unicom paygo sim for you, put you on a month to month plan 250 minutes, 300MB data, 50 texts and deliver to your door or hotel in shanghai for 33$. Just top up month to month. Seems like one is overpaying about 15$ for the service and delivery but heck, you can't beat that. Anyone try them out yet?

GoingAway

I bought my sim off the street when I was there a few years back, they called it in and I was all set. Took maybe 15 minutes and was on the way to wherever I was going. This is an enterprising effort for sure, but a total overpayment

BiziBB

For limited rather than unlimited data, what is the recommendation for an Ireland SIM?
I've been advissed that most of the major players offer unlimited on EUR$20/mth plans and there may be one or more that do this without a contract.

Any advice is appreciated!
As searched in this thread:
Irish overview: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/14224422-post14.html
Tescomobile Ireland EUR$6.99 1024k add-on: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16128538-post79.html
Meteor.ie free incoming roaming: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/chalkitdown.html

Did I miss sometning more useful? I'll also check boards.ie.
Thanks.

nmenaker

I went ahead and tried the service, worked pretty great. Yes, it was 15$ more than I would pay in a store or otherwise in shanghai, but I would have to find the store, get there and do the stuff. For the 15$ extra fee I think it was worth it.

I received an email about three days prior to arrival with the phone number (so I could set it up with my domestic DID for forwarding for family to china - which is AMAZING at how cheap trunking to china mobiles are. They are the same price as landlines, I've never seen it that cheap other than India)

The card was delivered to my 'hotel' a day prior to my arrival, when I got to the hotel, I popped in the card, it worked right off the bat and calls, data, sms everything worked without configuration in my unlocked iphone. I texted a family member to call me at my USA trunk number and the call came through in about five seconds. Inbound calls are free of course, and my trunking service is only .02$ a minute.

I give them an A for service, A- for pricing.

If anyone needs cards for china after my return in two weeks, you can have these. They will last for three months without topup, then they expire but can be topped up for the monthly fees online or with a stop in a china unicom store.

chalkitdown

Hi, as you have already found, the cheapest deal is with Tesco.ie at €6.99, you need to buy a minimum €10 voucher to enable it.
They offer 'edge' speeds rather than the faster 3G but I find that it works as well, if not better, than the other networks for voip, my main benchmark.

From a quality point of view, all Irish networks sell some form of home mobile broadband which makes them all suffer from congestion, so quality of mobile broadband anywhere in Ireland regardless of network is a bit hit and miss. Going with the cheapest in this case is not necessarily the worst option.

The call rates to Australia are 3c per minute to a landline and 12c to mobiles
so it would appear to be a good deal for you.

The only caveat is that Tesco have the highest termination rate for incoming calls, sometimes making it more expensive for others to call you. It's very network dependant so maybe check from your home what it costs to call Irish mobile networks, there may be a difference between them, although all are way too high anyway.

21H21J

I can't actually see where you can buy the sim card and data package online. Anyone know, or is it best to go to a store

Thanks

21h21J

jumbooze

Hi,
I'm back from a trip to France, and I just want to give a little warning regarding SFR's prepaid card and the system in France in general.

I was in Cannes and bought the prepaid version "La carte" and I had brought my computer in as well. I bought the usb dongle with the SIM and they told me that registration process should take between 5 min up to 48 hours after I paid, well I waited and waited and it didn't work and I went back to the store and they told me, there was a technical malfunction but the registration service should be back in 24 hrs so I left Cannes and went on a road trip.

When I arrived in Paris, I still couldnt get it to work so I went to the nearest SFR and asked for help. (I speak very little french mind you but I managed)

They told me, that the dongle works and that it only should take about 24 hrs to get it up and running.

So I spent my vacation going back and forth to SFR, when I finally had my fill I asked for a refund after the 4th visit in Paris and on the day before leaving France, I requested a refund.

And they told, you need to go to the store that sold you the card, to get your money back... This is a Franchise system.
They had no responsibility for the other store...

So sums up to, if it doesn't work for you in the store, don't leave until it does else if you leave the city of purchase your left with calling the SFR phone line and good luck with that...

Sorry for my rantings but I just wanted to let everyone know, ask how a refund works before hand in case it wont work and don't accept if they tell you it will only be 24 hrs it took more than a week and it never worked...

theworld

I can't take credit for the below information, I am just summarising the details. I had originally found the information from the Tripadvisor forums here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...Bali-Bali.html

I have personally tried it out in Bali and it works. Service is patchy mind you, but much cheaper than data roaming.

FYI the network is Telkomsel simpati.

Buy the simPATI SIM and credit, then to enable data/3G send the following SMS messages:
1. Text "3G" (without quotes) to 3636 to enable 3G
2. Text "flash" (without quotes) to 3636 to enable data
3. Text "flash on 50K" (without quotes) to 3636 to purchase a 125MB data block for Rp 50,000 (as an example, substitute 100K for 300MB, there's also smaller blocks such as Rp 10,000 for 15MB data blocks).
4. When you get the confirmation message respond "flash ya" (without quotes) to confirm your purchase.
That should do it. Keep in mind it can take up to 24 hours for data to start working but it usually works in an hour.

Telkomsel also offer the following:

- IDR 5,000: 384kpbs, expires in 1 day, 15MB
- IDR50,000: 384kpbs, expires in 14 days, 200MB
- IDR100,000: 384kpbs, expires in 30 days, 500MB
- IDR200,000: 512kpbs, expires in 30 days, 1.5GB

To activate/deactivate: dial *363# <call> and follow menu options. Menu is in bahasa but the plan names are in English so you may be able to guess your way around. The IDR5,000 daily unlimited flash is under main menu option 1 (harian). The rest are under main menu option 3 (flash unlimited). Options 9 and 0 are always to go back to previous and main menu respectively.

As per the "flash on" data plans, the credits are deducted from the stored value in your sim cards. At any time, dial *888#<call> to check your credit balances.

R U?

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/07...l?pagewanted=1

Nothing really new, but a nice roundup of the available options