Travelling to the USA - ReadySim any good?

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hairy1

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#141156 3-Mar-2014 09:41

Hi All,

Am travelling to the States in April and am looking for a mobile handset option as $4 per minute with Vodafone soon gets expensive.

http://www.readysim.com/ seem to be a good option. Has anyone used them? Any other recommendations? I like the preactivated part with Readysim....

Won't be close to a Walmart for the first week so having something ready to go when we hit the ground would be good.

Cheers, Matt.

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#998064 3-Mar-2014 11:56

Hey Matt, do you think they will let you have a turn up the front?

SaltyNZ has used Readysim
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=115977&page_no=2

-Sheryn

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kiwifidget

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#998068 3-Mar-2014 12:02

Spooky, someone on Trademe just mentioned this NZPost product.

http://www.nzpost.co.nz/travel/travelsim

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hairy1

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#998071 3-Mar-2014 12:07

Thanks Sheryn,

I hope to be snoring down the back. Flying all night is too much hard work. Actually being down the back with the 2 year old might be worse! The two oldest will be fine. Movies, headphones, food... sorted!

Will have a read of the other thread.

Cheers!

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hairy1

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#998073 3-Mar-2014 12:08

I had a look at the travelsim a while ago but it seems really expensive compared with readysim

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LennonNZ

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#998076 3-Mar-2014 12:13

Straight talk has their Kiosks in a lot of Airports in the states so you can just pick up a Sim from them when you get there.

See: http://consumerist.com/2013/03/28/coming-soon-to-a-mall-or-airport-near-you-straight-talks-prepaid-phone-vending-machines/

$US45 for 30 days unlimited national calls etc/Unlimited Data (Unlimited = 2.5G of fast data and then slow down after that)

ajobbins

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#998077 3-Mar-2014 12:17

They are an MVNO of T-Mobile, so I strongly advise you to avoid. Much of T-Mobile's network is based on the AWS bands, and even though they have a lot of WCDMA 1900mhz coverage now, it's nothing on AT&T.

I used T-Mobile directly late last year and found it to be adequate, but still lots of coverage issues especially indoors. I would strongly suggest you got with AT&T or an MVNO that uses the AT&T network.

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hairy1

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#998082 3-Mar-2014 12:24

It was going to be more for voice and sms than data as were are going to be split in two places at a time quite a bit of the time.

We had a bunch of dramas getting AT&T activated last time we went in 2010 and then found credit disappeared really fast as we were paying for receiving and sending....

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ajobbins

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#998124 3-Mar-2014 13:00

hairy1: It was going to be more for voice and sms than data as were are going to be split in two places at a time quite a bit of the time.

We had a bunch of dramas getting AT&T activated last time we went in 2010 and then found credit disappeared really fast as we were paying for receiving and sending....

There are AT&T MNVOs that might be a better option that the one you mentioned. Even without data, I found actual coverage was the issue with T-Mobile. A fair few places I just got no service.

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hairy1

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#998131 3-Mar-2014 13:07

Might have to do some more research:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g28953-i4-k6658306-Has_anyone_used_Ready_Sim-New_York.html

Ready Sim looks pretty hit and miss. I think Straight Talk is T-Mobile too...

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SaltyNZ

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#998137 3-Mar-2014 13:15

ajobbins: They are an MVNO of T-Mobile, so I strongly advise you to avoid. Much of T-Mobile's network is based on the AWS bands, and even though they have a lot of WCDMA 1900mhz coverage now, it's nothing on AT&T.

I used T-Mobile directly late last year and found it to be adequate, but still lots of coverage issues especially indoors. I would strongly suggest you got with AT&T or an MVNO that uses the AT&T network.

*Shrug* I didn't think much of AT&T's network either TBH.

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hairy1

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#998139 3-Mar-2014 13:18

I think the general consensus is that mobile networks here are better than the states. I am after an easy solution that I can text and talk on. Ready Sim seems dodgy. Straight talk might be better.

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hairy1

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#998140 3-Mar-2014 13:18

Salty how was ready Sim for you?

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sbiddle

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#998141 3-Mar-2014 13:24

T-Mobile is incredibly bad. I was in San Francisco, Atlanta and Los Angeles in October and couldn't help but laugh at what Americans think is acceptable performance from a mobile network.

All 3 cities have the brand new 1900 3G network (they are moving 3G from AWS to 1900 to free up the AWS band for LTE) but indoor coverage was shocking and performance was very average. While I was in Los Angeles for 24 hours I stayed at the Hilton LAX and despite having good coverage, data was essentially unusable in the Hotel and in the general vicinity for the duration of my stay.

SaltyNZ

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#998148 3-Mar-2014 13:35

hairy1: Salty how was ready Sim for you?

I had no complaints other than that I needed a pair of scissors to make it nano-SIM size. T-Mobile is not the best compared to NZ. But AT&T is only marginally better. Since I was going there for work myself and therefore didn't need a roaming SIM, I used both on my phone, and compared. AT&T... yeah, probably better overall, but it's the difference between being stuck on a crowded bus for far too long, and being stuck on a crowded train for far too long. I can certainly see why the Yanks are so keen on their free Wifi.

I would use it again if I took my wife over another time. It was easy to get, worked well enough, and caused me no hassles, which is exactly what I wanted.

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SaltyNZ

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#998149 3-Mar-2014 13:37

sbiddle: T-Mobile ... are moving 3G from AWS to 1900 ...

I like to call it 'American Whacky Spectrum'.

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