US Sim for iPhone?

[meryll83]

I'm worried about using my iPhone in the US, having heard horror stories over data charges even when roaming has supposedly turned off.

It got me wondering whether any US PAYG sims are available that would be suitable for the iPhone? I know standard sims van be bought from US supermarkets or eBay, but I don't know whether these would still end up with high costs if I wanted to use the data connection.

Anyone have any info?

 

[15isto2]

Copied from another forum, this is what I am trying when I go a week on Saturday:

Just back and will attempt to tell simply how to get your iphone working in Orlando using an AT&T sim.

Firstly, but an AT&T sim. You can get these cheaply on ebay. Just do a search there are a lot of them. I choose a UK seller and it arrived a couple of days later.

You need to add money to the sim. You can do this via internet as the sim will not work in the UK. There are a number of different ways to add. I went through www.pinzoo.com and bought $25 worth of time. They will send you by email the details of how to activate it. Basically you dial a freephone number and then enter a code. Again however you cannot do this until you get to the US.

I downloaded an app from Unlockit.co.nz which changes your iphone setting automatically from in my case o2 to AT&T. You need to be online with the phone to do it so I did this in the UK as I was waiting for the plane. Once done you can no longer use the phone online in the UK. Remember to reset the phone back to o2 before you leave the US.

I switched sim at the airport.

On arrival in US I followed instructions from pinzoo and the $25 was activated. You can then dial 611 and buy the 100mb data package for $19.99. This is deducted from your $25 rather than having to give them more money. You are then off and running. I used my phone daily to check email etc and used up the 100mb after 10 days and had to add a further $25 which I got from a walgreens.

One word of warning. My balance of $5.01 disappeared from my phone after a couple of days. I phoned 611 to be told that I had roaming switched on and that had drained it. They gave me it back.

Second thing you need to add the package yourself. Do not go through customer service as they can see you are on an iphone and tell you it won't work.


I have so far activated the sim on line but note you need the IMEI number from a phone other than an I Phone as it wont allow you to activate it for an Iphone

 

[meryll83]

I take it downloading of the app needs a jailbroken phone? In which case this won't work for me?

 

[15isto2]

I take it downloading of the app needs a jailbroken phone? In which case this won't work for me?

Its not an app you download its a change to your settings, the phone does not need to be jailbroken (mine is not) but it does need to be unlocked so you can use another carriers sim card, orange charged me £20 to unlock my phone

 

[McCrae]

I live in the US and have a suggestion that will save you all this hassle, it's not perfect but it does work.

Make sure your data roaming is switched off!

Free internet access is more available in the US than the UK and you can use the Internet connection rather than your phone connection to get access email etc.

The iPhone app store has a free app which will locate free Wifi near to your location.

 

[Marks281172]

I used my iphone in the US recently on business and have to say the charges werent that bad at all.

I used facebook, googlemaps, mail and google almost daily, my normal monthly bill is around £35 and it was just under £40, and i was out in Kansas for 2 weeks.

What you need to avoid is downloading big chunks of data like apps, music, youtube or browsing the web on picture heavy sites, stick to the apps that just use little nibbles of data and its fine.

What i didnt like was the idea that when someone called me on my iphone, Vodafone would charge me 10p per call so i bought a cheap little pay as you go phone from Wallmart for $30 and used that for calls and texts and just gave the people that call me the most that number (and screened the calls to my iphone), worked brilliantly.

Did my bit for my company keeping expenses down.. which actually turned out to be pretty pointless as my 'betters' seemed to be attempting to drink Wichita dry

 

[NicolaUK]

Copied from another forum, this is what I am trying when I go a week on Saturday:

I downloaded an app from Unlockit.co.nz which changes your iphone setting automatically from in my case o2 to AT&T. You need to be online with the phone to do it so I did this in the UK as I was waiting for the plane. Once done you can no longer use the phone online in the UK. Remember to reset the phone back to o2 before you leave the US.

I switched sim at the airport.

This is the part I'm not understanding, why is this required?

Edit - Actually ignore me, this is just a software unlock. My phone is already unlocked.

 

[raymondcky]

I have the same problem I go in 20 days just thinking I might just keep my phone in aeoplane mode the whole time

 

[NicolaUK]

I usually just turn data off but would like to make more use of it this time, otherwise there's no point in taking it - we already have a US phone for calls that we've had for years.

I'm going tomorrow so will let you know how I get on

 

[Cyrano]

I usually just turn data off but would like to make more use of it this time, otherwise there's no point in taking it - we already have a US phone for calls that we've had for years.

I'm going tomorrow so will let you know how I get on

Look forward to hearing how you get on