Any reasonable data tariffs when roaming in the US

I shall be visiting the USA next month, and am considering replacing my
simple mobile phone with a new smart phone of some sort, so that I can
access email, and maybe use web access to check in for flights etc.
while travelling around.

But I am concerned that the roaming data rates that I can find are all
remarkably high - several pounds per megabyte, which means I'd probably
be better off using Internet cafes or hotel business centres. Do any UK
operators have deals which make roaming data affordable for those not on
an expense-account?

Alternatively could I buy a pay-in-advance SIM in the US which would
roam to more than one state, and allow data access at reasonable rates?

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Clive Page

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› See More: Any reasonable data tariffs when roaming in the US

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]ine says...
> I shall be visiting the USA next month, and am considering replacing my
> simple mobile phone with a new smart phone of some sort, so that I can
> access email, and maybe use web access to check in for flights etc.
> while travelling around.
>
> But I am concerned that the roaming data rates that I can find are all
> remarkably high - several pounds per megabyte, which means I'd probably
> be better off using Internet cafes or hotel business centres. Do any UK
> operators have deals which make roaming data affordable for those not on
> an expense-account?
>
> Alternatively could I buy a pay-in-advance SIM in the US which would
> roam to more than one state, and allow data access at reasonable rates?

Some of the networks now offer bolt-ons to your monthly contract of
various amoutns of raoming data which can be a substantial saving. Could
be worth checking out.
--
Regards
Jon

On 2008-10-05, Clive Page <[email protected]> wrote:
> Alternatively could I buy a pay-in-advance SIM in the US which would
> roam to more than one state, and allow data access at reasonable rates?

It is difficult to find prepaid phone service in the US which
provides data service, in fact the only GSM option I'm aware of
is T-Mobile Sidekick Prepaid, here:

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/D...plancategory=4

While this is affordable, if not exactly cheap at $1 per day for Edge
Internet service, and while you can get T-Mobile service in most cities,
the plan says it requires you to have a T-Mobile Sidekick phone (I believe
these are HTC phones running T-Mobile-branded software). I have no
idea whether the service is actually somehow dependent on that software
or whether it really can be used on more generic GSM smartphones and
they have that restriction because they don't want to be bothered
trying to support getting it set up on other phones. If you want
to ask about this the newsgroup alt.cellular.t-mobile might be a good
place to find someone who knows what they're talking about.

I would note that, compared to the UK, in the US it is fairly easy
to find free WiFi service (pick any generic, unbranded coffee shop),
and hotels are much more likely than the UK to include Internet
service in the price of the room. For Internet service from a
mobile carrier, on the other hand, the options in the US are much
more limited and less attractive than the UK, particularly on prepaid.

Dennis Ferguson

On Sun, 5 Oct 2008 16:57:58 +0100, Clive Page wrote in
<news:[email protected]>

> I shall be visiting the USA next month, and am considering replacing my
> simple mobile phone with a new smart phone of some sort, so that I can
> access email, and maybe use web access to check in for flights etc.
> while travelling around.
>
> But I am concerned that the roaming data rates that I can find are all
> remarkably high - several pounds per megabyte, which means I'd probably
> be better off using Internet cafes or hotel business centres. Do any UK
> operators have deals which make roaming data affordable for those not on
> an expense-account?

You might consider getting a Vodafone Ireland SIM card. Anyone living in
Northern Ireland can in fact order one online. This allows up to 50MB a
day abroad (on a partner network) for 99 cents (Euro) a day.

Get an AT&T sim and add the $19.99 unlimited data option to it.

EDIT: Hope you are going before the 12th of Nov.

http://tinyurl.com/4u9rvk

MikeT;772984 Wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Oct 2008 16:57:58 +0100, Clive Page wrote in
> news:[email protected]
> -
> I shall be visiting the USA next month, and am considering replacing
> my
> simple mobile phone with a new smart phone of some sort, so that I can
>
> access email, and maybe use web access to check in for flights etc.
> while travelling around.
>
> But I am concerned that the roaming data rates that I can find are all
>
> remarkably high - several pounds per megabyte, which means I'd
> probably
> be better off using Internet cafes or hotel business centres. Do any
> UK
> operators have deals which make roaming data affordable for those not
> on
> an expense-account?-
>
> You might consider getting a Vodafone Ireland SIM card. Anyone living
> in
> Northern Ireland can in fact order one online. This allows up to 50MB
> a
> day abroad (on a partner network) for 99 cents (Euro) a day.




--
mrcamp