Prepaid sim cards for iPhone 4 in USA?

No U.S. carrier offers a prepaid SIM for the iPhone. Month-to-month plans, which are an option, generally require a credit check and valid U.S. ID.

Your choices are poor. AT&T is not very friendly to travelers using an iPhone. They have disabled data on all of their pre-paid sims for use in an iPhone. They will want you to sign up for month-to-month service...can only be done at an AT&T store...called a post paid plan. Other than that, your only other choice is T-Mobile. They sell pre-paid micro sims, but their 3G network is not compatible with the iPhone, so you're stuck on Edge. Like I said, your choices are all poor.

Meg St._Clair wrote:

No U.S. carrier offers a prepaid SIM for the iPhone.

Not true, T-Mobile does.

Good to know. I was unaware of that. I'm assuming, though, that it has the same limitations that using a iPhone on post-paid TMobile does?

Last quarter, T-Mobile lost over 800,000 contract customers. Currently, they have over 1 million iPhone customers using their network. Fact is, the only growth area they have is iPhone customers. That's why they started selling micro sims in the first place.

Do you have any insight as to why AT&T are so unfriendly towards travellers? Have you ever heard their reasoning for this?

The number of people who visit the US with their unlocked smartphone (from Europe and elsewhere) must be worthy of attention and rising all the time. As the only nationwide GSM network, surely catering for these customers would be good for business and their image? Even if they sold pre-paid one-month "traveller only" SIMs at airports with a set amount of data, at slightly inflated rates they could make money...

Over here in Europe, travellers can get suitable Pay-As-You-Go SIMs for next to nothing, from virtually any network store, newsagent, or supermarket, at the same prices as residents.

I'd rather not discuss in a public forum owned & run by Apple.

Verizon doesn't do much prepaid for any smartphones, either, not just iPhones. Obviously, the situation is a bit different with a CDMA phone. In the U.S., prepaid tends to be marketed more toward people who don't have good credit. Carriers just don't make as much money with prepaid service, as I understand it.

Some of the smaller, budget carriers (e.g. Crickett, MetroPCS) offer more prepaid smartphone options. However, they have much smaller networks.

Does it mean that with T-Mobile I can't do with cellular data? means that I can't check my email, FB, etc? I am using iPhone 4s.

I am planning to go to east coast in the next few days, and still looking for prepaid sim card that can do call, text message, maps, and internet (data).

According to my experienced back in US one month ago, with my iPhone 4S bought in Saudi, my friend bought me the prepaid T-Mobile number worth $50. And do you know what I get, free national calls, free national short message, and free 4G internet until some capacity (I forget) - but after reached the maximum capacity I still can use the internet with lower speed.

So, my account still more than $30 when I get back home, it was only use for called our parents in Indonesia, if not, my account will still remained $50...! Really worth it!

I just came into LAX in LA from Asia, I bought my Iphone 4S in Hong Kong unlocked and have used prepaid through out Asia without difficulty. Then came back to the States. I texted my provider to do roaming in the US as the suggested, but the phone went directly to AT&T's network and they will not let you use it without a plan from them. I have to use roaming then long distance numbers just to call out of country still and in the US. I know that there is a card cutter to resize regular sims to micro sims can this help? Or is it just the monoply of AT&T.

What about using Simple Mobile? http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Mobile-Micro-Activation-iPhone/dp/B0060816EK/ref=sr _1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1339488604&sr=1-1

Have any of you tried this and had success?

I use a Straight Talk SIM with my iPhone 4S. The SIM cost is $14.99 USD with nationwide service at $45.00 per month for unlimited everything. It works beautifully (they use the AT&T network) with excellent service.

You'll be prompted for the Zip Code where you plan to use the phone. Any major city's Zip should work; 90010 will do if you're unsure.

straighttalksim.com

Enjoy your visit!

The reason that AT&T are unfriendly to non-USA visitors goes back to the times when AT&T and Apple had exclusive access to the iPhone in the USA.

If someone wanted to use a prepaid sim card in an iPhone then it meant that (a) the person had stolen the iPhone and wanted a quick prepaid sim card or (b) the person was in breach of their contract with AT&T in trying to use it on prepaid. So AT&T just made a blanket ban on using iPhones on pre-paid.

Let me set the record straight - you CAN use your iPhone on AT&T prepaid. It does NOT need to be jailbroken. You CAN get prepaid 3G/4G data too! I've done this several times in the USA when I've visited (I'm from Australia). It's great! You just need to pick yourself up an AT&T sim card before you get there because AT&T will likely refuse to give you a prepaid sim if you go into a store.

In Australia I bought a micro sim card from a local seller here www.usaprepaidsimcard.com.au. I'm not sure for other countries. You can buy on eBay but just be very careful because most of the sellers manually cut up a regular sim and turn it into a micro sim - and that can damage the sim card (it damaged the first sim card I bought off eBay).

The only thing you need to do is then go to unlockit.co.nz on your iPhone and download the APN setting for AT&T. But after that you're good to go!