SIM card for short trip to USA
 

I need a SIM card for a 2-week trip to the USA. My current European provider has no roaming plan for the USA. I will be traveling mostly in New England, but I will also spend a few days in a very isolated part of upstate New York.

I tried to order a prepaid one-month AT&T SIM card on-line, but was unsuccessful. Their website said I needed to take a photo of my passport, but skipped that part and went straight to payment. Then they sent an email saying that they hadn't been able to confirm my identity and had cancelled my order.

AT&T has the best coverage for the NY part of my trip, but I'd be willing to try something else with good coverage. I've also seen data-only eSIM offers, but the sellers are companies I've never heard of. If there is a good data-only eSIM, that might be sufficient, because I could use WhatsApp to reach people at home.

Thanks for any advice!

The actual cell tower providers in that area are T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. All 3 have good coverage. I find Verizon coverage good across upstate NY. It can be spotty in remote areas which includes remote roads between towns, but service is generally good in any town I've been in. How remote (away from a town) do you plan to be? Others who use AT&T report similar issues, but not necessarily the same locations. If you let me know some specific areas of northern NY I can give you my 2c.

The sellers of data esims would need to ride on other's networks. Spectum (the cable tv co) has a cell plan that is popular, but they utilize i believe Verizon towers. You might need to be a spectrum customer to use their service - no idea if they offer just a temporary use esim.

So my guess is that as long as an esim provider uses one of the 3, you'd be ok, but I don't know how you'd verify that. An esim from Tmobile or Verizon would ensure you're on their network.

replied, but it went to moderator purgatory....probably because I called out some companies and they add hyperlinks...

in the meantime, what specific areas do you plan to visit? I can tell you my experience across much of upstate NY.

We have a hard line at home, but I have a cell phone for when I go to the mountains or even bicycle around town. My cell phone has a SIM card from Tello.com. It is on a monthly rate which varies depending on the services your require. I pay $5 plus tax a month for 100 minutes of talk time, no data, no charge for texting. If you know someone at your arrival point, they could purchase the SIM card for you for $2. But I do not know if the information required, presumably for security reasons, can be from outside the U.S. You might want to call them before leaving for the U.S. to see if that would work.

Thank you! I will be visiting Brushton in Franklin County. I looked at coverage maps, and AT&T seemed to have better coverage than Verizon in that area.

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A plan with no data wouldn't work. Because of the time difference I wouldn't rely on voice calls alone for communication with family back home. We would use WhatsApp for text messages and voice calls. I might need an occasional voice call to a hotel, but I could use my home SIM card for that.

Most of the places I go will have WiFi, but I will be on the road for extended periods.
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But if you checked the web site you would discover that plans with data exist. Texting is free even with a no data plan. Tello was associated with T-Mobile (this may be less clear in the present), as that is what appeared on the connecting information given on the screen. The T-Mobile coverage for my street is non-existent, and I use WiFi as the alternative which works fine when I call Europe; in fact, the connection is much quicker than when I used the land line with all its connecting clicks.

Part of Franklin county is remote Adirondacks wilderness area but the area near Malone and Brushton, Potsdam, Massena is not what I’d call remote. The eastern side of Franklin county near Saranac Lake has good Verizon coverage along the major roads, and including just about anywhere on those 3 Saranac Lakes.

The white spots on Verizon maps are more remote.

Anywhere along Rt11 in the Malone area you’d have good coverage. Potsdam, Massena, etc are all ok. I’d say most of Rt11 all the way from VT you’d have an ok signal. That is north of the mountainous areas and signals travel further.

You may hit some dead spots but Brushton is not really remote compared to the area further east, high peaks area south of Lake Placid that’s remote mountains. Whiteface mtn has good cell coverage top to bottom.

Can someone else really buy a SIM card for me? My experience with AT&T led me to believe that they were very particular about making sure they knew who would be using the card.

​​​​​​​Thanks everyone for the advice. Unless I hear something new, I'll visit an AT&T store near my hotel.

I use Google Voice for my voice service, When I am at home, I use my wifi connection to provide data for my google voice... works flawlessly.

When I am away from a wifi signal I use a sim card that I stumbled across several years ago from surfroam doc com. It is a pay as you god system, and requires an up front purchase of a sim card (now available as and Esim account also). What is usedful is that the service is measured and charged in megabytes. For example, in Germany and Italy (recente trips), the cost is one euro cent per megabyte. In the USA, the cost is 2 euro cents per megabyte. Other locations may be more expensive. During a 10 day trip to Germany, the total cost of service was less than 20 euro dollars (since I used wifi there whenever it was available).

Here in the USA, the service is good, and I average about 1 euro per month by only turning on the mobile data when I need it (I do not need to be constantly chatting with people, and google voice will take a voice mail message if I cannot answer the phone.)(

Check it out... I have been a satisfied customer for five years now, just make sure that you do not let your prepayment expire (the balance expires if you do not replaenish the account (minimum 25 euros) at least once in 12 months.) Good luck...

I don't know how anyone could think this is a reasonable price. Most providers offer a minimum of 3 gigabytes of data a month. The AT&T plan I'm considering offers 5GB of data, plus voice and text, for $30. 1 GB is 1000 MB. That means your favourite SIM card charges €20 per GB, or €100 ($111) for the amount of data offered on the AT&T plan. It's outrageously overpriced. It almost makes me wonder if you're selling this SIM card.

on airalo I see US data only eSIMS from some company called Change - never heard of them. The fine print says they use TMobile and Verizon networks.

on simoptions there are several others, including one from the carrier you say has the best coverage (I'm not going to name it, as my post will go to moderator inbox...)

None jump out as great deals.

good luck with your phone, and enjoy your trip to this area. Let me know if you need any travel info for the upstate NY area.

If you are using 5 GB of data per month, your argument makes sense. Since I use about 10 MB per month, my plan makes sense for me.

It was just a suggestion, after all...

I'm not selling mine:

https://tello.com/