Ask Slashdot: Best Smartphone Plan For a US Vacation? 200
SJrX writes "I am planning on visiting the Pacific Northwest for several weeks, and was looking for the best smartphone option available. Roaming data rates and SMS rates are ridiculously high (best plans are $0.80 / MB, and $0.75 / message). Beyond AT&T and Verizon Prepaid, are there any other options? (I'm on an iPhone 4 so GSM is a must.) I assume in the US, I have no credit history for which to qualify for a plan, and a contract is obviously out of the question. Data and SMS are the only important things, with a few hundred minutes being plenty. I'm only planning on being in the US for 2 or 3 weeks, but mainly in rural areas (US Route 101) so large (3G) coverage is important."
Try to find a local carrier (Score:2, Interesting)
Try to find a local carrier in the area. You may be able to find US Cellular, Metro PCS, or something along those lines.
The reason I recommend looking into them is with a lot of those companies you'll get better coverage if they are a local provider as they'll have their own towers in the area (much the same way Immix Wireless does in central and eastern PA). Plus, with a lot of them (just like with AT&T and Verizon) you can get either a pre-paid plan or sign up for a plan without contract since you'll have your own phone. Just get a SIM card from them and go. The other issue you may have is doesn't the iPhones (or at least the newer ones) use the smaller SIM cards? It may mean you'd have to try to trim the card to fit like others have done in the past.
Still your best option is a pre-paid phone, but with a lot of those the "data internet" is really more of a Mobile Web (cut back version)... so keeping your own phone may not be a bad idea. I haven't tried, so I don't know if you stick a Pre-Paid SIM into a regular phone, if it works right. (I know at least on Verizon the "pre-paid" phones have custom firmware that includes the prepaid options).
You could also just do a TracPhone or something along those lines and just stick to calling and texting and forget about the data... save that for uploading pictures/facebook/etc when you're home, or send them over bluetooth to a laptop and upload on a WiFi signal at a coffee shop or some open network you find while you're out there.