Anyone got any tips re mobile phone (inc data) in the US?

[crossy]

Actually the title kind of says it all.

I'm currently on Three with an old SE X10, but I'm intending to move teleco (to T-Mobile) and phone (probably something by Samsung) shortly. We (me, the missus and the kids) are going out for two weeks in Orlando in autumn, and I'm planning to take my phone (to use as a satnav - ALK CoPilot).

But this has got me thinking, is there any decent way to get mobile service (especially data) in the US for such a short time?

I could ask my prospective new carrier (T-Mobile) especially since they have a US arm, but I strongly suspect that they'll be less than helpful. In which case the advice I've seen seems to be to get a SIM of some sort out there. Trouble is my new phone'll be a MicroSIM and it's really data I'm after not calls and texts. (And there's also the small matter that most of the US carriers seem to use that CDMA nonsense)

So, I thought, time to call on the real experts - the good folks who hang around Hexus.

[SteveL]

I've been looking at exactly the same thing, and it seems quite difficult to find. If you're going for a Samsung phone, most of them have a full size sim card, so I guess you're going for the S3.

I'm on T-mobile, and looking at their web site, they charge £7.50 per MB if you roam in the States , and have no addons for data outside Europe.

I've found a few people who simply went to the T-Mobile shop in the Mall at Milennia with their unlocked phone, and asked them the best way to do this. For $50 + tax they got a sim with unlimited calls, texts and data for 30 days, and for an additional $10 have included unlimited international calls. It's called "$50 UL Talk Text Web". If the Florida Mall is closer, there is a couple of T-Mobile places there. I think this will be our first stop on the first morning of the holiday!

The only possible problem is the microsim, as I'm not sure if they do these, but that's nothing a pair of scissors or a sim cutter from ebay can't fix!

If you've got a smart phone with data, and you're spending a few days at Disney parks, it might be worth looking at the Touring Plans web site (HERE). It's $11.95 to subscribe and then there's an app to install. This app gives you all the information you could ever need about the Disney parks and most importantly, the current queue times for everything Disney. This alone can save hours of queueing.

Also, take a look at The Dibb. Loads of really useful information about holidaying in Orlando.

Steve

[crossy]

Wow, that's a LOT of useful information - you don't happen to work for the Florida/Orlando tourist board (because if you don't, then maybe they need to pay you a few bucks as a consultant!).

And yes, the Samsung phone I was thinking about was the S3, although there seem to be a lot of the 2012 models that have switched to the smaller SIM's.

[SteveL]

I'm just a bit of an Orlando-a-holic, and extreme planner! This year is the first time we've been during school holidays (damn those holidays!) so I've been planning where we're going each day with military precision!

The busy day guide on the Dibb and touringplans.com have been really useful previously when we went in September. Once it recommended going to The Magic Kingdom on a Saturday. Everyone else in the party thought we were mad to go to the most popular Disney place on a Saturday, but we got there and everything was a walk-on, no queues at all!

When I saw the app with live queue data, I started looking at the cheapest way to get data access while on holiday. The Dibb has a very large thread about using mobiles on holiday, and that was a big help, even though it's cluttered with things like "How do i dial the UK when I'm in Orlando", and "I used my mobile and arrived home I had a £700 bill".

Any other questions, fire away!

Steve

[capt_cornflake]

If you're just planning on using it as a sat nav, why not look at application that downloads and stores maps locally? Then you just pull the maps down before you leave and you don't need to worry about being stung for data charges?

That's what i did last time I was in the states (can't remember which app I used now), and then turned off the mobile data for the duration to avoid any surprises.

[crossy]

If you're just planning on using it as a sat nav, why not look at application that downloads and stores maps locally? Then you just pull the maps down before you leave and you don't need to worry about being stung for data charges?

I had the same thought - that's why I use ALK CoPilot rather than Google Maps, since CoPilot can operate "data free". I originally got CoPilot because G.Maps at the time I got my phone didn't cache worth a damn, so if you were out of signal range for a while (quite possible in the wilds of Scotland if you're on Three) then mapping stopped working. I'd also used CoPilot on Symbian and it seemed quite good.

No what started me thinking was an article on the radio about the number of Brit's who holiday in the US. That then led to the thought that there MUST be some way to get "full" smartphone service over there.

Now what I'm thinking - thanks to SteveL's sage advice - is that I'll still rely on CoPilot, but maybe budget for one of those SIM's (50 bucks is, what, 30 quid - so it's not that expensive) and that way not only can I use all those websites that SteveL's suggested (advanced warning of queue times when you've got two impatient teenagers is going to be a god-send) but if CoPilot "fails" then there's always Google Maps to fall back on.

Of course my missus' view - ever the luddite - is that a plain old paper map is just as good as a "backup plan".

@SteveL