Best Prepaid Cell Phone Service in the U.S. with my European Phone?

Question

Hello,

I'm coming from Europe to U.S. for 1-2 months. I checked and my Nokia cell phone supports U.S. standards. I don't want to buy a new phone, can I buy prepaid service without buying a new phone from cell phone companies?

I'll be based in Ann Arbor, Michigan but will drive to Chicago, Cleaveland and New York. My main usage will be for emergency, like needing help on the freeways etc. So I won't need a lot of minutes.

What do you think would be the best service in these areas both in terms of reception and price?

Thank you.

Answer 1

1st, Make sure your phone has GSM 850/900/1800/1900 bands. It needs to be a quad-band phone.
Then, you need to find a way to unlock it. You can call your carrier and ask them to unlock it (T-mobile will do it for you if you are traveling abroad) If your carrier won't do it, then find a place online, or take it into a store, but it needs to be unlocked to use it in the states. Once it is unlocked, I would buy a T-mobile prepaid sim. I have been using their pre-paid for years, and it is by far the cheapest. It has good service too.
www.tmobile.com/coverage
Check the coverage of places that you are going, if you have coverage there, then I would go with T-mobile. All you have to do is go to the store, and buy a "Pre-paid pack"
You will get a SIM-Card, and it will also probably come with a cheap phone. You can't avoid getting the phone....sorry. Not with any of the carriers. Then you can put the SIM in your European unlocked phone, and your good to go. I live right by Chicago and MI, so if you have any more question, you can email me. [e-mail]

Answer 2

lots of the american cellphones are locked so as that they received't artwork in Italy, and in the experience that they do your bill will upward push up very extremely! My suggestion is to get your self an inexpensive cellular telephone 3 band (that works in u . s . and interior some thing of the international in case you bypass elsewhere) and get a pay as you go card for roughly 10 euro.Any company is positive, Tim, Vodafone or Wind received't require any settlement and also you may throw away the sim card in case you received't desire it anymore, even with the indisputable fact that it is going to expire in a year in case you received't recharge it , you could configurate your telephone with english language so so that you could not have issues. we do no longer have minutes the following yet credit, oftentimes in accordance to minute is 0,60 cent to call u . s . , 0,30 cent to textual content u . s ..My suggestion is ,if you're bringing with you a operating laptop or computer, you more advantageous acceptable use Skype really, it is going to value you 0,17 cent in accordance to minute and that's a lot more low-cost than the different fee!So once you've some money to spend by making use of a telephone besides, to make confident your mothers and fathers and pals can attain you and could be solid in case you'll meet italian pals.have relaxing and enjoy Italy!