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Spike1306

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Joined
Jul 23, 2016
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Hi

Well the time is drawing nearer to our little bimble from New York to Las Vegas, 39 days to be precise, picking the RV up in Dallas along the way.

We will both be bringing our phones with us, the wife will keep her UK sim card as all the hotels and hire companies etc have that number and for emergencies from home here in UK.

My phone - I was planning on buying a sim card when I get to New York, now here in uk we have a few different networks that do sim cards vodaphone etc etc, what I want is

A pay as you go sim card that can do calls texts and data to put into my phone

So which network would be best for me traveling across the country? 

Do networks cover all states?

Thanks
 
You will probably be better off buying a prepaid non contract phone from Verizon. I'm not sure they would sell you just the sim...plus that may not work if your current phone isn't 'unlocked'.
The prepaid phones are very inexpensive and the battery lasts forever because they tend to not be "smart" phones thus smaller screens and less battery waste. You can keep it for your next trip or donate/recycle it when you leave.

My personal opinion is that verizon has the best coverage for the entire US. Others may disagree. I have ATT for cell service now and it can be spotty, even in big cities.
 
Verizon's network has the broadest geographic coverage, but Verizon & AT&T network cover about the same number of people. Both are nationwide and work pretty much everywhere, though signal quality varies. Sprint is also considered nationwide, but has considerably less coverage than the other two.  Verizon is an LTE network, so make sure your phone can handle that variation (most recent model smart phones can do so).

Unlike Europe, the USA is so vast that some areas have poor or no coverage at all. For example, there is a 30 mile stretch of forest to the east of my house that has no cell towers even though there are highways through it. It is sort-of covered by the cells in the towns around the edges, but towards the middle of the area there is weak or no service. That's not an unusual situation in sparsely populated regions.
 
Walmart has a variety of pay as you go or monthly plans. Some of them run on the ATT network with a Walmart price. Straight talk has a BYOP plan. Bring your own phone, they just sell you the SIM like you are looking for. 
 
The problem with Straight Talk is that it doesn't roam. If you're out of network, you're without a phone.
 
Since you asked about SIM cards you must have a GSM phone.  Verizon is a CDMA network and not compatible with GSM phones.  I use Cricket Wireless which is a subsidiary of AT&T.  I use unlimited voice and text with 3 GB of data for $35.00 per month (if you opt for auto pay, which you can cancel before the pay date if you wish $40.00 per month without auto pay).
They do have a $30.00 plan that gives only 1 GB data.  You can opt for a $45.00 plan that gives you 8 GB of data and unlimited International Texting.
See all the plans at https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans
Good luck
 
My phone that I will be using is a I phone 5s.

Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate that America is vast and signal could get weak in out regions, its like that in Europe too.

Will take a look into allt hat you are saying

Thanks
 
Spike1306 said:
My phone that I will be using is a I phone 5s.
Click to expand...

I phones come in both GSM (AT&T) and CDMA (Verizon) version, or so I understand (never had one). Certainly that's true of most Android phones, as well.

I use Consumer Cellular (they offer a sim card for BYOP, too), where you pay month to month, no contract. It uses the AT&T network.
 
Be very very careful about which sim you get. We bought an AT&T sim after being told it would cover calls back to UK. Wrong. I had to call and complain about it and did get extra money on the account but it was $45 per month with data slowing down to non existent after the amount was used, can't remember what it was 2gb I think. We have found the cost of mobile calls very expensive with no true "pay as you go " any more. We used to get a Net10 phone sim for a few dollars which was fantastic but don't think you can get the same deals now.

My recommendation is to go get a 3 sim with the Feel at Home package. Even if you go over allowance the rates are really good

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roaming_and_international

 
Since you asked about SIM cards you must have a GSM phone.  Verizon is a CDMA network and not compatible with GSM phones.
Click to expand...

No longer true. Verizon 4g is LTE, which uses a SIM.

LTE is the transition path that ultimately merges CDMA and GSM together, but from what I read they are not yet fully compatible, so an LTE SIM is still different than a GSM SIM. There are, however, phones that do both and handle both SIM formats.

Looking at the specs, the IPhone 5S model A1533 handles both GSM and LTE, so Spike ought to be able to use either Verizon or AT&T.
 
Gary RVer Emeritus said:
No longer true. Verizon 4g is LTE, which uses a SIM.

LTE is the transition path that ultimately merges CDMA and GSM together, but from what I read they are not yet fully compatible, so an LTE SIM is still different than a GSM SIM. There are, however, phones that do both and handle both SIM formats.

Looking at the specs, the IPhone 5S model A1533 handles both GSM and LTE, so Spike ought to be able to use either Verizon or AT&T.
Click to expand...

Both Verizon and ATT support LTE.  Verizon and sprint both recently started using SIM cards to help support 4G/LTE data use but they still use cdma for cellular phone service. May also vary by phone.

If the OPs iPhone is jailbroken or unlocked, I believe the term 'flashed' was also used  like 15 years ago, , which a lot of European phones are, either service can be used. Sounds like the OPs wife will have a phone that can make international calls back home, so if the intent is just to have a number to give out here or contact friends etc then I stand by the original idea of getting a small inexpensive pay as you go. Verizon has better converage in my opinion.
 
I have a Sim from Telestial that I use when we travel. Convenient, priced right and I get both Euro and US numbers.
RichH
 
just my 2 cents worth (which is all it worth) I have tried several of the others , consumers 2 times, att,3 times track phone once  and will stand by Verizon because of their support, most of these smart phones are smarter than me and when I need support I need it and don't like being put on hold or jumping tru. hoops to get some.  if I don't like answer from Verizon I call back until I do, and usually comes out ok..  dabrown  I might add that we now off contract phones and went to amazon and bought 2 nice ones.  if you don't have to have the latest & greatest.
 
Gary RVer Emeritus said:
No longer true. Verizon 4g is LTE, which uses a SIM.

LTE is the transition path that ultimately merges CDMA and GSM together, but from what I read they are not yet fully compatible, so an LTE SIM is still different than a GSM SIM. There are, however, phones that do both and handle both SIM formats.

Looking at the specs, the IPhone 5S model A1533 handles both GSM and LTE, so Spike ought to be able to use either Verizon or AT&T.
Click to expand...

Good Grief Folks.  Who needs Google when we have Gary and I mean that as a compliment. Gary has replied to a number of my posts with accurate and factual answers and has helped me immensely.  Yes, if I recall, Gary is now an Emeritus RVer yet he continues to add to our discussions and answer our questions.  Thanks again Gary.

Bill
 
Who needs Google when we have Gary and I mean that as a compliment.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Bill, but I get a lot of my info via Google anyway. Maybe I'm better at research than others, or maybe just more willing to do it and piece the info together into a useful answer. It's pretty easy to come up with specs on the net. Sometimes harder to separate facts from opinions, though.

Re SIM cards & Verizon:  None of my Verizon-capable Android smart phones will make calls without a SIM. Well, I guess they can make 911 calls. They can connect to wifi, though. The SIM card defines the service to be accessed and the phone number for an LTE phone.
 
Not that this might help you, but I travel a lot overseas, and I use MetroPCS. It has integrated WiFi calling. It is like google voice only I don't have to have a special number or call forwarding or software. As long as I have WiFi my phone rings as if I was on the regular cell network. Incoming callers don't need to do anything but dial my number. Likewise outgoing calls are just dialed like normal. This also comes in handy when I am out of the cell network and have WiFi. I know T-Mobile has adopted it as well since they took over Metro. 
 
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