USA iPad pay-as-you-go SIM

[BobH260]

We are Canadian, spend our winters in USA/Bahamas. For a number of years we have kept an ATT pay as you go cell phone and been quite pleased with it. We bought an IPad last year. Tried to get a pay as you go data plan with ATT. I wanted to pay 6. months in advance. All went well until it came time to pay with my credit card. It has a Canadian Billing address so the computer would not allow the transaction to go through. I offered to pay 6 months in cash, still no go. We gave up at that point.
I don't know if it is still the case but that was my experience last year.
I think an unlocked phone with a data plan, that can be used as a hot spot might be easier.
Good luck, Bob

[GreenIssue]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

Virgin mobile uses Sprint as their carrier. I used them for a very short time, lousy coverage, slow network. The very worst of everything.

I've got no problem with them... thanks for your productive reply though.

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by BobH260

We are Canadian, spend our winters in USA/Bahamas. For a number of years we have kept an ATT pay as you go cell phone and been quite pleased with it. We bought an IPad last year. Tried to get a pay as you go data plan with ATT. I wanted to pay 6. months in advance. All went well until it came time to pay with my credit card. It has a Canadian Billing address so the computer would not allow the transaction to go through. I offered to pay 6 months in cash, still no go. We gave up at that point.
I don't know if it is still the case but that was my experience last year.
I think an unlocked phone with a data plan, that can be used as a hot spot might be easier.
Good luck, Bob

I paid AT&T in Chicago no problem with my New Zealand Mastercard. Also likewise no problem with Rogers in Vancouver.

[northwestsailor]

I have unlimited DATA with AT&T on my iPad. For the most part it is a waste. Unless you are in or near a big city, service is very slow even with plenty of "bars". Verizon has much better service nationwide especially for the more remote areas of the country. If you go into a Walmart they have several different SIM cards for data only that they can sell you for quite an attractive price on a month to month basis.

[Mike OReilly]

It's sounding like AT&T is my best bet if I want to have coverage for most of my journey. Maybe I'll just suck it up and stick to free wifi zones. Thanks for all your help folks.

[Stargazerroatan]

WalMart has "straight talk??" and one of the choices uses the Verizon network. unlimited everything is about $45/mo as I remember.

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Stargazerroatan

WalMart has "straight talk??" and one of the choices uses the Verizon network. unlimited everything is about $45/mo as I remember.

I stated the same thing in post #25 on page 2. I incorrectly stated 20GB when in fact it's 5GB, but I've heard they don't enforce the cap anyways, so it makes no difference.

I've been tethering from my Samsung phone to my tablet and laptop for 5 yrs now with Straight Talk, works pretty good for a cellular data connection. The monthly rate is even cheaper if it's auto refilled, and even cheaper yet if prepaid for 6 months or a year.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

Check out Airvoice Wireless. They're an AT&T MVNO.

You can get pay-as-you-go data at 6.6 cents per MB.

I use their $10/month plan for my phone. That would get you about 150 MB per month. The beauty there is that any unused balance rolls over to the next month as long as you keep paying the $10/month.

Depending on your usage, you might want to sign up for one of their bigger unlimited plans.

I'm not sure if you can activate a SIM directly in an IPad, but if not, you can always activate it in a phone and then transfer it to the IPad.

$66 per Gigabyte

We were paying one or two euros per gigabyte in Scandinavia this summer.

Sent from my D6633 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Cormorant]

Yes, the pay-as-you-go price, or the $10 per month plan, are expensive per GB, and really only suited for low usage cheapskate customers (like me).

But Airvoice also has fixed-price unlimited plans as well, like 5GB for $50. But I guess once you go to that level, you may as well get Straight Talk.

[duefocena]

I hopped off the boat and rode the Goldwing to Oregon from Southern CA a year ago. T Mobile covered me all the way along the coast of both states. I have a $30 a month plan with 5gb and limited voice but unltd text. Use it as a wi fi hot spot with my IPAD everywhere I went. On the boat it works up to about 10 miles off shore.