Question about telephone

[NewKid 20]

Good Day everyone,

I hope you all are doing well?

So my fiancee and I had our interview last week and we got approved! So happy and so relieved! :-)

I am flying out to the US in a couple of weeks and I have a question.

I have my smartphone that I love dearly and would prefer to keep it, but I would need to get a US number etc for it.

So:

1. Is it possible to get a sim card( american number) for my phone that would work there? ( I mean after I get there of course)
2. Can it be a prepaid sort of deal? as I would prefer not to take out a plan ( contract) immediately( would want to wait till I am legal allowed to work first)
3. Where can one get a prepaid sim card?

Thank you for your assistance in this regard.

Kid

[Shauneg 762]

CDMA? GSM? Either way yes and yes assuming is it "unlocked in your home country. The best thing to do would be to ask your carrier there if you can use it in the states, or you can google the phone model number and see. For question 3 there are a million places and won't be hard to find one.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Shauneg

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Good Day everyone,

I hope you all are doing well?

So my fiancee and I had our interview last week and we got approved! So happy and so relieved! :-)

I am flying out to the US in a couple of weeks and I have a question.

I have my smartphone that I love dearly and would prefer to keep it, but I would need to get a US number etc for it.

So:

• Is it possible to get a sim card( american number) for my phone that would work there? ( I mean after I get there of course)
• Can it be a prepaid sort of deal? as I would prefer not to take out a plan ( contract) immediately( would want to wait till I am legal allowed to work first)
• Where can one get a prepaid sim card?

Thank you for your assistance in this regard.

Kid

You can get but will depend on the provider. For example I had a phone with MTN in SA, it wouldn't work with Verizon but would work with one of the others. So if you're going prepaid, just check with the providers and go with whoever works with your phone.

[NewKid 20]

CDMA? GSM? Either way yes and yes assuming is it "unlocked in your home country. The best thing to do would be to ask your carrier there if you can use it in the states, or you can google the phone model number and see. For question 3 there are a million places and won't be hard to find one.

Mine is GSM, any difference then?

You can get but will depend on the provider. For example I had a phone with MTN in SA, it wouldn't work with Verizon but would work with one of the others. So if you're going prepaid, just check with the providers and go with whoever works with your phone.

Thank you for your reply. Mine is a Vodacom phone, So the providers ( state side) would be able to tell me which would work?

[Shauneg 762]

You will want to use either TMobile or AT&T's network. I figured GSM, only the states really uses CDMA (verizon, sprint) anymore.

http://www.allprepaidplans.com/

Go there and click on either TMobile or AT&T and you see the truckload of prepaids that can be had for each network. No need to make decision until you get here and see what's best for your specific location.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Shauneg

[NewKid 20]

You will want to use either TMobile or AT&T's network. I figured GSM, only the states really uses CDMA (verizon, sprint) anymore.

http://www.allprepaidplans.com/

Go there and click on either TMobile or AT&T and you see the truckload of prepaids that can be had for each network. No need to make decision until you get here and see what's best for your specific location.

Thank you so much! will have a look at it! Appreciate your assistance

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Mine is GSM, any difference then?

Thank you for your reply. Mine is a Vodacom phone, So the providers ( state side) would be able to tell me which would work?

Yeah, they will check the phone and see.

Bear in mind that it works quite differently to SA in terms of coverage, so one provider may have fantastic coverage on the east coast and very poor on the west coast, or vice versa. So when taking advice, be sure to listen to locals. We had used a pay as you go package on a holiday in the east coast that was great but all locals in SF warned us against that provider for California. At least with prepaid you can change if you find you've ended up with a dud, so that's an advantage!

[NewKid 20]

Yeah, they will check the phone and see.

Bear in mind that it works quite differently to SA in terms of coverage, so one provider may have fantastic coverage on the east coast and very poor on the west coast, or vice versa. So when taking advice, be sure to listen to locals. We had used a pay as you go package on a holiday in the east coast that was great but all locals in SF warned us against that provider for California. At least with prepaid you can change if you find you've ended up with a dud, so that's an advantage!

Thank you so much for the information, will have to ask around regarding coverage.