Best way to use mobile in USA?

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Geektastic

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#196489 2-Jun-2016 09:51

I will be in the USA for 3 weeks in a couple of months.

My wife and I have mobiles (iPhone 6 and 6 Plus) on VF contracts. They will roam on VF when we go.

I'm sure that won't be the most cost effective way to use them there: do any frequent US visitors have any suggestions that work well?

sbiddle

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#1564038 2-Jun-2016 10:06

I always just roam there, but my trips are normally only 1-2 weeks. You just need to weight up buying a SIM vs paying the daily roaming charges depending on your usage requirements.

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#1564040 2-Jun-2016 10:10

Well, it'll be $5/day to use the plan I have now. I will be away 33 days so that will add NZ$165 to the bill for each phone but with no additional call or data charges (I think).

How much would a SIM cost to do there?

trig42

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#1564046 2-Jun-2016 10:21

There is this:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-international-tourist-plan?icid=WMM_PD_Q216TRSTPL_QQWFQCES835017

Wade

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#1564190 2-Jun-2016 12:42

Don't mean to hijack thread but wife is in a similar predicament going to Hawaii in a weeks time, has a iphone 5s (I assume this will work there?) on VF and is doing the $5/day thing. Her VF rep could not tell her which network to roam onto, is anyone able to elaborate or does the universe take care of itself and it autoroams correctly without intervention?

dickytim

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#1564191 2-Jun-2016 12:42

trig42:

There is this:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-international-tourist-plan?icid=WMM_PD_Q216TRSTPL_QQWFQCES835017

That's not bad but t-mobile data speeds were very slow when I was there, in fact all their data was very slow and if you need to call back home for some reason that will cost.

For me I'd just pay the $5 a day and take 1 phone, for me the convenience would win hands down. I am un the unlimited + 5gb plan.

Also I have found I chew through my data when overseas much more than at home so 2GB might be a little light.

Geektastic

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#1564196 2-Jun-2016 12:49

dickytim:

trig42:

There is this:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-international-tourist-plan?icid=WMM_PD_Q216TRSTPL_QQWFQCES835017

That's not bad but t-mobile data speeds were very slow when I was there, in fact all their data was very slow and if you need to call back home for some reason that will cost.

For me I'd just pay the $5 a day and take 1 phone, for me the convenience would win hands down. I am un the unlimited + 5gb plan.

Also I have found I chew through my data when overseas much more than at home so 2GB might be a little light.

I agree - this may in fact be the answer. I'm on the 7Gb plan and even that is sometimes not enough. I see AN Other big company are offering 10Gb on their top plan...

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MikeAqua

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#1564301 2-Jun-2016 14:27

I looked into this recently. I'm with spark and I was able to buy a 1 month roam bundle that would give me enough text, minutes and data (with moderate use) for two week trip for $50 so I just went with it.

Surely VF have something similar?

Mike

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#1564306 2-Jun-2016 14:34

dickytim:
trig42:

There is this:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-international-tourist-plan?icid=WMM_PD_Q216TRSTPL_QQWFQCES835017

That's not bad but t-mobile data speeds were very slow when I was there, in fact all their data was very slow and if you need to call back home for some reason that will cost.

For me I'd just pay the $5 a day and take 1 phone, for me the convenience would win hands down. I am un the unlimited + 5gb plan.

Also I have found I chew through my data when overseas much more than at home so 2GB might be a little light.

It's unlimited data. Just 2gb at LTE

sbiddle

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#1564319 2-Jun-2016 14:55

MikeAqua:

I looked into this recently. I'm with spark and I was able to buy a 1 month roam bundle that would give me enough text, minutes and data (with moderate use) for two week trip for $50 so I just went with it.

Surely VF have something similar?

Nope. They have $5 roaming which for most users users represents far better value for money. There is no way I could survive with 500MB while roaming and have restrictions on inbound and outbound calls.

sbiddle

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#1564321 2-Jun-2016 14:59

Wade:

Don't mean to hijack thread but wife is in a similar predicament going to Hawaii in a weeks time, has a iphone 5s (I assume this will work there?) on VF and is doing the $5/day thing. Her VF rep could not tell her which network to roam onto, is anyone able to elaborate or does the universe take care of itself and it autoroams correctly without intervention?

5s doesn't have bull band support for US networks but will work fine on 3G networks. It doesn't matter what network you roam on - roaming steering will direct you (from memory) T-Mobile but you can select any network you want and override roaming steering.

ajobbins

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#1564344 2-Jun-2016 15:45

If you get a local SIM, avoid T-Mobile and go AT&T. Likewise, if you roam try and select AT&T (you may have to do this manually) and you'll have a far better experience.

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nathan

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#1564365 2-Jun-2016 16:36

ajobbins:

If you get a local SIM, avoid T-Mobile and go AT&T. Likewise, if you roam try and select AT&T (you may have to do this manually) and you'll have a far better experience.

I've been living here for 9 months now and have both ATT and TMO SIMs, personally I find TMO just as fast as ATT. Maybe it depends which city you're in. TMO seems to have improved a lot compared to a few years ago, they've been buying up more 7xx Mhz spectrum etc

If you need coverage in the boon docks Verizon is the way to go.

ajobbins

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#1564445 2-Jun-2016 18:18

nathan:

ajobbins:

If you get a local SIM, avoid T-Mobile and go AT&T. Likewise, if you roam try and select AT&T (you may have to do this manually) and you'll have a far better experience.

I've been living here for 9 months now and have both ATT and TMO SIMs, personally I find TMO just as fast as ATT. Maybe it depends which city you're in. TMO seems to have improved a lot compared to a few years ago, they've been buying up more 7xx Mhz spectrum etc

If you need coverage in the boon docks Verizon is the way to go.

It's gotten better over time, but does depend on your handset too. Things have changed since, but when I was in NYC about 2.5 years ago there were heaps of black spots with T-Mobile unless you had an AWS band phone, including the entire subway system. In Hawaii late last year my phone roamed between T-Mobile and AT&T but T-Mobile was demonstrably slower and had way more coverage black spots than AT&T.

Of course this will vary by both location and by handset.

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nathan

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#1564454 2-Jun-2016 18:30

The mantra you get what you pay for continues to hold true :)