[dazzjazz]

Hi,

I've read some other threads here regarding travelling to the USA and using an Australian bought iPhone. Seems complicated.

Can anyone walk me through it so I have the least hassles possible?

Thanks

Darren

[kevinnugent]

It's very easy Daniel. Although how much it costs you depends on what you want to use the phone for whilst in the States.

Are you going to use an Australian SIM? Get a card once in the States? How long are you staying for, and what would you like to use? Data? Emails? Roaming coverage? Make and receive calls? Maps?

Give us a small clue, and we can go from there.

[dazzjazz]

I want to be contactable by phone in the USA, and use the maps feature.
Skype to call home too would be great. A little web browsing/email would be good too.

I guess I want to get a USA SIM - roaming would kill me $$$
I'll be there for 3 weeks

Darren

[dazzjazz]

Anyone got any ideas?

Darren

[mitty]

Darren I am currently in the same dilemma. Things we have discovered:

you can buy an AT&T SIM on Ebay. We haven't registered it yet, but when you do, DON'T use the imei of your iphone, because apparently AT&T can tell and won't let you use it. Use another GSM phone if possible, and then once you're registered then you can put it in your iphone. As far as I'm aware data is $19.95 for 100mb, which isn't that great but better than the Roaming Alternative!

[kevinnugent]

Originally Posted by dazzjazz

I want to be contactable by phone in the USA, and use the maps feature.
Skype to call home too would be great. A little web browsing/email would be good too.

I guess I want to get a USA SIM - roaming would kill me $$$
I'll be there for 3 weeks

Darren

To be honest, I'd probably keep your Aussie sim in it, make sure your hotel has wireless wifi, and use Starbucks & Macca's for their networks. If you use a AT&T sim then you will get charged incoming calls anyway, and people here won't know the number....

[kristian]

Have a look at Boingo Mobile for the iPhone as well. Depending on the spots you're travelling, it might be worthwhile subscribing for Wifi access. I think subscription is about $7.95 USD per month.

[dazzjazz]

Thanks will check it out.

[dazzjazz]

@Mitty
Should I register with my old Nokia then? What is "imei" - do I need an unlocked iPhone?

Darren

[dazzjazz]

Anyone used this company? USA SIM card

I found these on eBay too Canada + USA SIM card - local calls 25c/m US 45c/m Can - eBay, Other Mobile Accessories, Mobile Accessories, Phones. (end time 08-Aug-09 02:15:30 AEST)

[fompsweeva]

FYI I can speak from experience having just been to the USA in July with my iPhone 3G...

I went to Walgreens and purchased an ATT GoPhone phone package for $14.99 (was the only one that included a sim). Was a large pack that contained a phone, a sim card and some paper. Now is a good time to buy re-charge cards (recommend to buy $50 - $20 for medianet and $30 for calls), as I had trouble re-charging on the web because I didn't have a US address credit card!

Got it all activated and working with the provided mobile, then I removed the simcard and popped it in my iPhone.

You need wifi access to do it, but I then signed up for medianet (100mb) and changed my iPhones APN via the web browser using this website: Unlockit - APN Changer for your iPhone

and viola, a working iPhone 3G on prepaid in the USA!

[Mafesto]

I went through this just a few months ago, I went to the USA for 3 weeks with an iPhone and considered all the things you have mentioned. I decided against getting a USA simcard as I needed to receive calls from my Australian number. I unlocked the phone (just in case I wanted a sim for data), got global roaming connected and ONLY used data when in a wifi area (which in California is pretty much everywhere).

I used Skype to call home (Skype credit boughts) when I was in a wifi area and it worked great.

Much cheaper then roaming onto data there.

[cmaddogz]

Originally Posted by fompsweeva

FYI I can speak from experience having just been to the USA in July with my iPhone 3G...

Hey mate, wow - this is probably the best answer I've found going around on the net... Quick Q's: Was your iPhone "unlocked/jailbroken"? Also, what's the story with MediaNet???

I'm heading back to the US on Thursday - was there 6 months ago for 3 months, AT&T were useless and just said "nup, it ain't gunna work bro"... Hopefully this time I can use my iPhone instead of the crappy phone I bought last time (prepaid credit expired - damn Verizon)...

[fompsweeva]

No worries.

"medianet" is ATT's term for "data".

Phone is completely legitimate unlocked via Optus. No jailbreaking.

[mitty]

Here's the steps I've gone through, prior to leaving Australia.
a) buy some prepaid credit online somewhere. I used PINZOO Official Site • Compare and buy prepaid phone cards (calling cards) & wireless refill airtime minutes or you could try Mr. Simcard - Now You're Talking. Prepaid Sim Cards USA, Worldwide Digicel - Start Here! . Pinzoo are annoying because they want to call you to verify you are a real person for the first time you buy credit, but apart from that it worked well. You'll need at least $25 of credit to get media net.
b) buy an AT&T sim on Ebay.
c) when it arrives in Oz, go to Prepaid cell phone, GoPhone® - | Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular and go through the activation process on the right hand side of the screen. Note: If you don't buy any credit, the phone will only stay active for 28 days. So make sure you do all of this with less than 28 days to go (preferably do it as close to your departure date as possible).
d) you'll have to put in the SIM serial number, and an IMEI. As mentioned, use any IMEI that's not an Iphone one! If you don't have a spare phone yourself, beg a non iphone friend for their IMEI... it won't matter, the SIM never needs to be in that phone.
e) pick your plan... pay as you go, I forget the details but I chose the $1.00 a day plan (you only get charged it you actually make calls that day, doesn't include data).
f) put in your name and a US address. We put in the address of where we are staying, so you probably need to know this.
g) you'll get your US phone number in the format xxx yyy-yyyy.
f) it will ask you for your recharge pin that you bought earlier. Put that in. With $25 you've got 90 days to use it.
g) you won't be able to sign up for ATT online services because when you do, you'll get sms's a new pin. Catch is you can't receive this SMS til you arrive there, but hopefully you won't need it.
h) fly to the USA (best bit!)
i) on landing, you dial 611 from the phone. You need your phone number and pin on hand. You can then select the Medianet 100mb kit, which will use $20 of your credit. If you buy credit on arrival, you can dial *888*rechargepin# and send to recharge automatically.
j) you'll need to change your APN to wap.singular, as detailed by fompsweeva above
k) everything should be sweet. Added bonus if you are travelling with someone, and you both do this, is that calls between other AT&T phones are free! Bonus!!!!

Will let you all know how this works when I arrive. Can't wait!

[Renoman]

Be careful that your phone is actually unlocked. I was assured over and over by Virgin/Optus that it was unlocked and all would be good, but of course it wasnt.

Found out they only put a request to Apple to unlock it, and I had to log into my itunes account with a US Sim in it for it to work.

Was a week into a 2 week trip (skype call to bloody virgin "customer support" finally shed some light on it), so i gave up and just used the Skype app and wifi where I could get it (and my gfs nokia was working fine on a US sim )

Its somehow comforting (?) that telcos around the world are equally useless...

In short, I hope you have better luck than I. Google maps and a proper phone would have been very handy.....

[HarbieBoys]

As cumbersome as this may sound, I'd just grab an old triple-band mobile, and get a T-mobile SIM card on arrival. You can use the US number to make and receive local calls. Email people in Australia to let them know your US number.

You can use your iPhone to receive texts, and when you're in a wifi zone, use it to browse, skype and so on.

[cmaddogz]

Thank you all so much for your help, I pretty much created my own approach to this issue - based on all the help on here (especially mitty & fompsweeva)...

Here's my situation and the solution...

SITUATION:
I "own" an 8gb iPhone 3G which is attached (read: paying off) to my Vodafone Australia $99 cap plan. I spend anywhere between 2 and 6 months of the year in the USA... Hence want to be able to use my Australian Vodafone iPhone here in the USA - without crazy ridic roaming charges... But, at the same time, with enough flexibility to not worry about wasting $ on months I am not here in the USA...

SOLUTION:
Get iPhone unlocked from Vodafone - costs $75 to do it online... I had issues as my IMEI wasn't showing up in Vodafone's "system"... This process is supposed to take anywhere up to 10 days, mine took more than 3 weeks...
When I arrived here, I went to the nearest place that sold AT&T/T-Mobile/Verizon pre-paid packages - in my case, Walmart... Go to the electronic department and buy one of their GoPhone (or similar) packages... For $30 I got a schweet old-school (read: 1998) Nokia 2610, a SIM card and $15 call credit on AT&T. That's right, that means a $15 Nokia 2610 [although locked to AT&T] - very useful in case your iPhone wiggs out (happened to me - waiting for Vodafone to unlock). As fompsweeva said, buy credit at the same time - no US telecommunication company will let you recharge online as you dont have a US address attached to the credit card...
You have to set up your account and stuff (see mitty's post above re: IMEI issues), but pretty much there are 3 daily options: Pay only for your calls made/receive (higher call rate), $1-a-day ($0.10 per call - doesn't matter whether you make it, or receive it), or $3-a-day (unlimited calling)... I am on the $1-a-day package, and usually spend about $2.50 a day (which includes the $1 for access)... The great thing about these is that you only pay if you use the phone - remember, this includes RECEIVING CALLS as well (well, I know on Verizon and AT&T this is the case, not sure about T-Mobile)... Therefore, when I head back to Oz, I simply pull out the SIM and don't get charged... However, credit will expire either after 30 days (for MediaNet), or 3 months (for your calling credit), or 1 year (if you have bought a $100 recharge card)...
Once you are all set up and can make calls on your Nokia, then you have to put your AT&T Sim into your iPhone - reboot it with SIM card in, and you should be good to go... If not, here is one possible issue (which happened to me)... The Nokia 2610 comes with a SIM card that is a bit technologically "old"... Head to AT&T straight away and get them to swap your SIM - I went in, explained the situation [luckily I have some idea about SIM cards as the girl at AT&T didn't], and got me a 3G SIM card... But with my same number... Simple way to tell: there is a "3G" on the actual AT&T SIM itself...
Then, get your MediaNet (or equivalant)... I got the 100Mb/$19.90 dealio... Head to a wifi area, enable WIFI. Connect to the WIFI on your iPhone, head to Unlockit - APN Changer for your iPhone (thanks fompsweeva), and follow the process... Change the settings to AT&T... "Create the profile" (i think that's what it's called on the UnLockIt website)... Then, all done!!!

Seriously, it's a little tricky, but succccch a livesaver... So nice to have my Maps back (keep getting lost), and my 600+ contacts on my phone - as opposed to having to go to my iPhone to get the contact, then to my Nokia to type the number, back to iPhone to check, back to Nokia to check, call - killed me...

Anyways, I hope this can help anybody who has the more particular issues I have (the Vodafone AU IMEI unlocking issue, and the AT&T SIM card 3G issue)... Again, mad props to mitty & fompsweeva for all their help... There are always pioneers, and you two have been a massive help - way more than any American or Australian telecommunications customer service rep.

Cheers again everyone...

[duvel]

...there was an article on this back in March (in Melbourne's AGE)

Using your mobile phone overseas cheaply

I have no idea what TravelSIM are like, i just bookmarked the article.

[mtchairs]

I've been reading all these threads about travelling in the US with an iPhone and I'm still a bit unclear about the best way to go. I have an unlocked iPhone 3GS through Optus.

I was in the UK last November and got a prepaid sim with data from O2, so something similar to that would be ideal. Is T-Mobile still an option for data and phone calls? I understand that it wouldn't be 3G. AT& T sounds a bit complicated to set up.

I'm only there for 2 weeks from Sept 13 so should I just make do with wifi access where I can find it for web browsing and emails and ringing home using the Skype app? Or would just an ordinary prepaid sim for phone calls and sms be an option too?

I'd welcome any advice and suggestions.

Thanks

mtchairs