Steerpike

I'm a big fan of GSM, and personally use both ATT and TMo. But part of my job is providing cell phones to employees all over the country, and in the NYC area - much to my dismay - Verizon (which uses CDMA technology - also big in Japan, btw) is still the best carrier. They are a pain to deal with, and are expensive, and we will drop them like a hot potato once the ATT network catches up in that area, but - not yet.

I did a lot of research, and in MOST of the country, ATT is equal to or ahead of Verizon on coverage, and in ALL of the country, TMo is ahead on customer service and rates. But in the north-eastern US, Verizon is still king and if you really, really need to have good coverage, I'd go with them.

Also - regarding GSM phones - the US operates on 800 and 1900 MHz; the UK operates on 900 and 1800 MHz. So a typical US phone won't work over there, and a typical UK phone won't work over here, even though they both are GSM and use SIMs. You need a 'tri-band' or 'quad-band' phone to be able to have one phone working in both countries. Finally, you will need to 'unlock' the phone in order to be able to use it with a carrier other than the one who provided the phone originally. When you buy a phone from (eg) ATT, ATT 'lock' the phone so it only works with ATT, even though it uses the common GSM technology. They will unlock for free, usually, after a period of time, or you can get it done cheaply at various places (easier in UK), or do it yourself using info from the web.

Steerpike

One more thing - all services are required to offer a 30 day money back period. You can sign up for any service, any phone, and return the whole package within 30 days if you don't find the coverage or the phone to be to your liking. I've taken advantage of this several times and they really do honor it. I would therefore go with T-Mo first, since they are the cheapest, and if you find you don't get a good signal everywhere, move to ATT, and if they don't cut it, move to Verizon. try out different phones along the way too - there are a LOT of dud phones out there, it's not always the fault of the service.

danfan

SIMs are fairly recent addition here though, aren't they? When I tried to get one 5 years ago, the cell phone store told me "there's no such thing". I got ran home, dug out my old UK mobile phone and showed them. They'd never seen such a thing.

wtkp0u

Go into TMobile or ATT stores and they'll probably still say that

On one occasion I gave up trying to explain and just bought the cheapest PAYG phone to get the SIM out.

cgcgcg

A bit of a late reply, but I only just got the $$ to get this sorted...

I went with a Verizon PAYG, with $100 credit which lasts 1 year. The most basic handset was $30, plus $25 connection fee.
It was a big outlay in 1 lump sum, but will be the cheapest for me overall - I don't switch the phone on most days, probably use it once a week, maximum.

Thank you for all your advice everyone!

ironporer

Any WalMart, Kmart etc will sell prepaid phones- Tracfone and Net10 will cost you about $30 for the phone and 300 minutes/2 months airtime, then it is about $30 for each additional 300 minutes. Not a terrible deal if you do not live on the phone, or want a throwaway/vacation phone