Best mobile phone provider
 

Hi everyone,

I am moving over to the States at the end of July to start my new job. I am wanting to keep hold of my Iphone I use in the UK at the moment and possibility get a sim only plan. If I get my UK phone unblocked which mobile provider would you recommend?

Thanks W

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I use a sim only plan from T-Mobile and it works fine for me. I brought a Google Pixel XL from UK over, but have been successful using an iPhone with them in the past.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Depends on location and budget. In cities you can get service much more cheaply from local or regional phone companies, but service in the outer suburbs and away from cities may be unreliable or unavailable.

If cost isn't an issue then Verizon is probably the best overall, nationwide. ATT is a close second-best. Sprint and T-Mobile are cheaper but have less coverage, especially outside of urban areas.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

What he said :nod:

What iPhone do you have? They're fairly universal but (for example) a UK purchased iPhone 7 won't work on Verizon.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Thanks for the replies so far. It is an iphone 5s. Starting to age a bit I am still happy with it. Very much team Iphone and I think just with moving over to begin with I'll be paying out for a lot of things. Just out of curiousity, if I were to get a new iphone and plan what would be the minimum I would be paying per month? Would I need to have built up credit?

TIA.

W

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

If you are bringing a phone from the UK the only 2 providers in the US who use sim cards are ATT and T-Mobile. You can put a sim in a Verizon for use overseas, but I don't think you can use a sim on their US network.

Any of the 3rd party providers who piggy back off of ATT or T-Mobile should have sim only plans as well. ATT and their partners have slightly better coverage than T-Mobile, but cost a bit more (well in Oregon anyway).

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

A UK iPhone 5S isn't going to work too well in the US - it won't work on Verizon (or Sprint, but they're rubbish so no great loss) full stop because it hasn't got CDMA and it doesn't support most of AT&T or T-Mobile's LTE bands.

Monthly pricing varies depending on how much data you require, but be prepared for it to be a lot higher than you're used to paying in the UK. As an example my Verizon bill is about $140 a month for 2 iPhones and an iPad sharing 24GB of data, unlimited domestic calls and texts and 1000 international minutes. That's for the cell service only, none of the devices are financed.

If you have no credit and want a postpay account you'll probably have to put down a deposit and might not be able to finance a phone right away. I had to put down $400 per line when I signed up to T-Mobile after first arriving, but switched to Verizon after a year and didn't have to put down anything as my credit score was good enough at that point.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

All the networks use SIM cards now - LTE is a GSM technology. You can just swap phones on Verizon by switching the SIM as long as it supports CDMA but Sprint isn't so simple.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I think you are saying what I was thinking :lol:

Unless a phone has CDMA it will not work on Verizon or Sprint. As UK phones I thought were sim only they only work with an ATT or T-Mobile sim card. Has that changed?

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Yes, for example if you have a UK iPhone 6 or 6S you can just put a Verizon SIM in and it'll work fine.

Not that many phones sold outside the US have CDMA though, Android phones generally don't.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I think most Verizon phones are now sim-based, and have been for 3-4 years, after Verizon built an LTE network (LTE being the next generation of GSM technology).

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Thanks

I knew Verizon phones had a sim card but thought that was for use overseas with local sims.

Live and learn.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

We are bringing over our iPhones 6s when we move over to the US next month so hopefully they will work, should we get them unlocked before we leave the UK?

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Yes, if you get them unlocked an iPhone 6S will work on any US network.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Thank you I'll get them unlocked next week.😀

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

This. Once you leave the cities, you will see coverage change dramatically. I took advantage of a t-mobile test drive where I could have the phone for a few days. I guess my area would be classed as fairly rural. As soon as I left any built up town, I completely lost coverage. Verizon seem pretty good in my area of keeping coverage even in the less built up areas.
As well as the quality of coverage, the other big difference you'll notice about cell phones out here is the price. They are expensive!

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Does that also apply to iPads I have an iPad Air will that work on just wifi or a sim?

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

My unlocked iPhone 5 works perfectly with T-mobile LTE so not quite sure where you got your info from. T-mobile global is very handy if you travel a lot (free roaming worldwide, unlimited calls in US and unlimited texts when in the US and abroad). $120/month for two phones.

Coverage is patchy outside of the main cities though and in some areas you won't have a choice of providers for this reason.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I didn't say it won't work full stop, it's not ideal though. T-Mobile uses Band 2, 4 and 12 LTE and the iPhone 5S sold in the UK only supports one of those, band 2.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

What model is your iPad exactly?

If you go in to Settings > General > About > Legal > Regulatory the model number (begins with an A and has 4 numbers) should be listed at the top.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

There used to be a couple of places where calls would drop on AT&T service if I was on the phone while driving home. The service eventually improved, but it was only a year or so back when service improved at Pulaski Manor enough for us to have fairly reliable :fingerscrossed: service at home. We got quite used to getting voice mails for calls that never rang or hanging over the banister trying to find enough of a signal to make a call. There wasn't much of a signal even if we went outside and wandered around the yard looking for a signal. :(

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

we had this and t-mobile gave us a free booster thing for the house. works great.

like others have said, t-mobile works fine in the cities/towns. Not so great outside of them. Mind you, my experience of losing signal is limited to west texas and new mexico where there is sweet FA anyway.

Just a smallish thing that I noticed -
t-mobile phones bought here in the USA will make calls using wifi abroad. A non-t-mobile phone even with a t-mobile sim won't.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I'm not sure what 4G options are on the iphone, but T-mobile uses channel 12 I believe , which is not available on all models of phone.

Also what do you call best? Best service or best value?

Also do you require tethering?

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

yes. you will need credit history to do this.
without credit history or at the very least a ssn you will also need to get a pre-paid cellphone plan.

t-mobile do one which is pretty good and compares favourably to their regular post paid one and I think verizon)?) also does a pre-paid one. All this means is that you pay in advance for the next month of usage instead of paying at the end of the month. It's all organised the same way so you don't really notice any difference.,

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

That's an Android quirk - a compatible iPhone will get Wi-Fi calling on any of the US networks no matter where it came from.

Some networks restrict it to certain models though, T-Mobile has Wi-Fi calling from the 5c/5S up but AT&T and Verizon only allow Wi-Fi calling on the iPhone 6 and up.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

It's an iPad Air 1 the model number is:A1474.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

A1474 is a Wi-Fi only iPad so it has no cellular radio.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Okay so I shouldn't have any problems using it in the USA as its only wifi.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I was under the impression that all 'modern' phones worked in both countries with a new SIM! :-O is there a place or website to check capability? Husband and I both have relatively new Androids!

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

There may be a form on the network's website that will check using the phone's IMEI number.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

This used to be the case before proliferation of LTE, to a smaller extent it still is.

If the country you've visiting doesn't have LTE (GSM) or your phone doesn't have LTE then the SIM card will be used to fall back to the host countries 3G/2G GSM network if no CDMA networks are available.

That being said, 90% of the time your phone when, being used for Vz in the US, will be using LTE and the SIM card. But it can and will utilise CDMA if LTE isn't available in the region.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

WRONG.

This was true in the CDMA era, but both Sprint and VZW have LTE networks which require sim cards.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

No, it isn't. LTE is its own standard, outside that of GSM.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Do you mean mobile subscription fees are more expensive? If so, that's true, however if you mean the phones themselves, then that's not true (the phone hardware is significantly less expensive in the US).

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Wrong. There are certain phones that work with T-Mobile's VoWiFi implementation regardless of where purchased / obtained.

Some that spring to mind are the Google Pixel, Apple's iPhone, and the Moto G5 (there are others).

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

LTE != GSM.

GSM is GSM.
LTE is LTE.

You mean if VoLTE isn't available. There's a crucial difference.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

To answer the OP's question; I would initially go with ATT GoPhone's $45 plan for 6GB[1]. You can purchase refills through callingmart.com automatically for the price of $40.50 (no taxes), and add extra data (3GB) for $20 if required. Otherwise, you will be throttled to 128k/sec until renewal.

You don't tell us which model iPhone you have, but if you have a one of the last 3 generations, it will have the required bands for ATT (apart from band 30, but that's not widely deployed yet). Once you're settled, you can then make a decision as to which phone / cell plan suits your purpose best.

[1] I don't recommend T-Mobile until I know which model iPhone you have, as without Band 12 (700mhz) support you will have a less than optimum experience.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

Wow! Someone got up out of the wrong side of bed LOL. I did mean the contract charges. I've yet to see anything that compares with 3's unlimited data, text calls, and international calls for 15 quid!

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I upgraded my plan today, to unlimited US and UK calls, unlimited data and unlimited text. Now I have to pay $23 a month, no multiple lines required. :( I do have to put up with using the T-Mobile infrastructure and no short code SMS.

Ten years ago I used to buy unlocked phones for use in the US from Carphone Warehouse because they were so much cheaper than the US. Also the phones in the UK had much better features. Funny how things change in such a short period of time.

Re: Best mobile phone provider
 

I used to think this, and I see where you're coming from, but I've also experienced a different reality with US cell providers that justifies their prices.

1. They're simply better. LTE has been rolled out here for years, and VoLTE / VoWiFi technologies were deployed in the US far before they were in the UK.

2. The quality of coverage given the land mass scale the US has is very impressive compared to the inability of UK providers to roll out coverage to a tiny island.

3. Three (and other UK cell providers) have recently increased their prices across the board. The plan you cite does not exist anymore.

4. Three has hardly any low band spectrum; massively important for successful network coverage. It's why they are still plagued with coverage issues.

5. I pay $50 to T-Mobile for completely unlimited; nothing is even remotely comparable to that in the UK. The UK has gone for lower prices and lower quality. It shows.