You can pay $15 extra a month with T-Mobile and get unlimited international mobile and landline calls as well. Thats enough of a reason to go with them.

Also with t mobile it's much better for roaming as you get unlimited data and texting in 120 countries which means you could get a google voice US number essentially you got a free number overseas to make/receive calls to/from home.

If one has top buy a new cell phone the Google Nexus 5 is a great unlocked phone and a bargain.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

I have a decent smartphone (Xperia Z) which I can bring over, so it looks like a T-Mobile pre pay may be the forwards, at least for the first few months while we find our feet.

- Mark this sounds like a great option, do you know where I could find a bit more info on it?

Be careful of using T-Mobile in a handset that doesn't support both AWS 1700 or LTE bands. I would buy a North American handset once you're here and settled.

Also before you sign with any carrier check their website for coverage maps to ensure you have good coverage where you spend most of your time.

I'm using this. $50 a month for loads of US minutes and data, plus $15 extra to get unlimited calls home to UK loved ones etc. They are literally amazed they don't need to worry about how long I call them for. They just call me for a couple of rings if they want me to call them back for some reason.

It's a good deal, even if the coverage is not great everywhere I go to.

Tip. If like me you retain a UK mobile account also, then work out how to access your voicemail from your second country. So I let calls on my uk number go to voicemail then call my voicemail from my t-mob US line (uses the unlimited mins) to pickup their voice message. Great

.....I'm not grasping what you're saying re: TMobil and GV
I do have both - but int'l calls are not free with either and both numbers are US numbers (which is what I need)...but maybe you're not saying calls to or from UK are free, are you?

Take your existing uk handset and get a AT&T pay and go SIM st start you off. That's what I did. I was up and running within a few hours of arriving

Ditto with the T-Mobile I mentioned above. I landed, grabbed my luggage and through customs then picked up hire car and asked the TomTom to get me to the T-Mobile shop I'd previously found on the internet. Within 20 mins of arrival at the shop I could make a call home

I am pretty sure I know the answer but just to be certain. An unlocked iPhone 5s purchased in the UK will be compatible with all US carrier options?

Yes that is the phone my wife has. No issues what so ever.

No, it won't. You will only be able to use your phone on ATT or T-Mobile networks. VZW only allow a phone with a registered ESN. Your UK purchased 5S won't have an ESN known to VZW. The same goes for Sprint.

Your British phone will also be lacking many of the LTE bands ATT & T-mobile use which means you will be stuck on HSPA+ a lot of the time. Given T-Mobile is converting large parts of their network from 2G straight to LTE, and missing out HSPA+, should be something you bear in mind.

So basically, yes it'll work within reason, but you should be purchasing a North American model when an appropriate opportunity arises.

More for the benefit of anyone else stumbling across this post, I ended up taking the advice of others and buying a US cell phone over here (Nexus 5 in the end).

We'd brought over 3 decent smartphones from the UK and none of them would work here thanks to different LTE bands, to check if your phone will work you can go to the manufacturers website and check which bands the phone has.

At the moment I'm on the $60 deal from T-Mobile which gives 3GB of data, plus for an extra $15 get unlimited calls back to the UK. $75 feels crazily expensive for what I'm getting so will hopefully move to another provider like Cricket pretty soon.

Make sure that Cricket covers everywhere where you want to be able to use your phone because Cricket network coverage is very patchy.