Best cell coverage. ..

[ShaunaM]

We are looking at buying an American SIM card (phone is unlocked) to use in the parks as we want to buy MAXpass and will need a cell phone anyway. Which carriers in your experience have the best coverage in the parks?
Thanks

 

[Davin_Felth]

I can only speak for Verizon Wireless, I haven't tried other carriers. My 4G connection was good throughout both parks, the only issues were sometimes inside of buildings (Indiana Jones comes to mind).

 

[McNs]

I've used both T-Mobile (2014) and AT&T (2015) and found the latter to have consistently better service. Not sure if other things led to that (e.g New or upgraded cell towers) or if AT&T has better coverage.

 

[tlovesdis]

I have AT&T and never have issues with my phone, except when I get into Soarin, Indy and Space sometimes. Other than that I always have good service!

 

[Davin_Felth]

I have AT&T and never have issues with my phone, except when I get into Soarin, Indy and Space sometimes. Other than that I always have good service!

Oh, right. I definilty lose service when going into Soarin with Verizon. The good news is, most queues at DL are outside and you don't lose service.

 

[Mama Bear Me2]

We are looking at buying an American SIM card (phone is unlocked) to use in the parks as we want to buy MAXpass and will need a cell phone anyway. Which carriers in your experience have the best coverage in the parks?
Thanks

I used Roam Mobility recently (just returned from July visit) and was happy with the service. I purchased the SIM Card at a retail store in Canada AND then purchased the monthly plan $39.95 (+taxes) online as it was more economical than the per day rate for our trip.

You will need an unlocked phone which you stated that you already have.

I only used the data to access Disney's Wait Time App (NO Maxpass use) and the 1GB of 4G LTE data was more than sufficient for my needs. There's unlimited 2G data once you reach your 1 GB limit of 4G LTE but since I was still using the 1 GB of 4G LTE data, I can't comment on the 2G data speeds.

There's a monthly option for 4GB of 4G LTE data (throttled to unlimited 2G speeds once you reach the 4GB limit) if you think you might need more 4G LTE data.

Again, there's also per day rates if you are visiting USA for a short visit.

Never really lost service unless for rides like Soaring or inside some buildings. If service was lost outside it was quickly rectified by turning my data on and off.

I liked that I had unlimited global text (texted a lot) and unlimited calls to USA & Canada (I understand some plans only cover calls to USA phone number and still charge for calls to Canada).

Here's the link if you want more info:

https://roammobility.com/plans

Note: click on the Monthly Tab if want monthly info

Good luck!

 

[dec2009mama]

i use my Roam SIM every time we travel to the states and I haven't had many issues (used with both iphone 5C and iphone 6s)
some issues are:

~if flying, i have a hard time getting a signal within an airport this makes it tricky when I have a layover in an airport without free wifi. Example at LAX, I usually won't get a connection until we are a good 5 to 10 min away from the airport
~like others have a said within certain rides I drop network all together and usually have to turn data on and off or on the rare occasion the phone all together to get back online
~when I first started using Roam 2 years ago I used their "lite" data once, can't remember what speed it was and it was horrible i was beyond frustrated the entire time so now I won't use anything less than the 3G or 4G network

As long as I have been using Roam it has worked well, i usually buy the per day packages since I get more 4G data than the monthly plan. Example within the next 30 days I am travelling to the states twice, once for 10 days and once for 4 days ~ for my 10 day trip I purchase the per day plan and get 5GB of data usage then I buy another per day plan for my 4 day trip and i will get 2GB of data (total of 7GB of data) vs the monthly plan of only 4GB of data that I would have to share between both trips. I am a heavy data user when in the states due to my work so the additional data at the better speed is worth the extra cost.

 

[ShaunaM]

I used Roam Mobility recently (just returned from July visit) and was happy with the service. I purchased the SIM Card at a retail store in Canada AND then purchased the monthly plan $39.95 (+taxes) online as it was more economical than the per day rate for our trip.

You will need an unlocked phone which you stated that you already have.

I only used the data to access Disney's Wait Time App (NO Maxpass use) and the 1GB of 4G LTE data was more than sufficient for my needs. There's unlimited 2G data once you reach your 1 GB limit of 4G LTE but since I was still using the 1 GB of 4G LTE data, I can't comment on the 2G data speeds.

There's a monthly option for 4GB of 4G LTE data (throttled to unlimited 2G speeds once you reach the 4GB limit) if you think you might need more 4G LTE data.

Again, there's also per day rates if you are visiting USA for a short visit.

Never really lost service unless for rides like Soaring or inside some buildings. If service was lost outside it was quickly rectified by turning my data on and off.

I liked that I had unlimited global text (texted a lot) and unlimited calls to USA & Canada (I understand some plans only cover calls to USA phone number and still charge for calls to Canada).

Here's the link if you want more info:

https://roammobility.com/plans

Note: click on the Monthly Tab if want monthly info

Good luck!

Thanks this helps a lot will take a look. Unlimited text to Canada would be great. ..thank-you

 

[ShaunaM]

i use my Roam SIM every time we travel to the states and I haven't had many issues (used with both iphone 5C and iphone 6s)
some issues are:

~if flying, i have a hard time getting a signal within an airport this makes it tricky when I have a layover in an airport without free wifi. Example at LAX, I usually won't get a connection until we are a good 5 to 10 min away from the airport
~like others have a said within certain rides I drop network all together and usually have to turn data on and off or on the rare occasion the phone all together to get back online
~when I first started using Roam 2 years ago I used their "lite" data once, can't remember what speed it was and it was horrible i was beyond frustrated the entire time so now I won't use anything less than the 3G or 4G network

As long as I have been using Roam it has worked well, i usually buy the per day packages since I get more 4G data than the monthly plan. Example within the next 30 days I am travelling to the states twice, once for 10 days and once for 4 days ~ for my 10 day trip I purchase the per day plan and get 5GB of data usage then I buy another per day plan for my 4 day trip and i will get 2GB of data (total of 7GB of data) vs the monthly plan of only 4GB of data that I would have to share between both trips. I am a heavy data user when in the states due to my work so the additional data at the better speed is worth the extra cost.

Thanks for this the bit on LAX helps too...maybe we hold off swapping until away from airport as we have a shuttle booked if there a hiccup we might not get texts.