Are you visiting the U.S. from an exotic foreign land? Need cell phone service? T-Mobile has your back. Our Readers' Choice this year for prepaid wireless carriers, T-Mobile is trying to get the word out about its "Monthly 4G" prepaid plans, and the company sees visitors as a potential growth market.
"I think it's a great market, one we want to serve, and one we're set up extroardinarily well to serve," said Mike Katz, T-Mobile's head of prepaid. "T-Mobile is a big international brand, and we do a lot of business within that group today."
The U.S. prepaid market is growing, and it's very competitive. T-Mobile competes with MetroPCS, Cricket, Sprint's Virgin and Boost brands, TracFone with its Straight Talk and Net10 brands, and smaller virtual carriers like Simple Mobile and H2O Wireless.
T-Mobile's data network is faster than MetroPCS's, Cricket's, Virgin's, and Boost's, according to our 20-city tests, but the company runs into some trouble competing with Simple Mobile and Straight Talk - they actually use T-Mobile's network for at least some of their service.
But T-Mobile has the advantage because "we've got a really wide distribution platform with Monthly 4G, and Simple [Mobile] is really focused in one channel of distribution," mostly in big cities, Katz said. Similarly, Straight Talk is exclusive to Wal-Mart.
Considering they all sell through the Internet, though, it's hard to make that distribution argument for informed, U.S.-based consumers. For inbound travelers, on the other hand, it helps that T-Mobile stores are clearly signed, that the service is compatible with unlocked GSM phones, and that they're everywhere.
There's one catch, though: to hit 4G speeds right now, phones used on T-Mobile's Monthly 4G must support the relatively rare AWS frequency band. That's not a problem if you buy a phone from T-Mobile, but it means many foreign phones will be stuck on 2G EDGE.
SIMs from AT&T and some Straight Talk SIMs use the 850/1900 bands for 3G, which many more phones support. That advantage will narrow as T-Mobile "refarms" its spectrum to shift 3G coverage to the 850/1900 bands over the next two years.
"A lot of customers will see a benefit as the refarm rolls out," Katz said.
Comparing Plans for Travelers to the U.S.
If you're traveling to the U.S. and have an unlocked, U.S. compatible phone (one that supports the 850 and 1900Mhz GSM bands) you can go to any AT&T or T-Mobile store to buy a SIM card for your phone.
On T-Mobile, $50 gets you unlimited calling to U.S.-based phones, unlimited incoming calls, unlimited text, and unlimited data for a month. The first 100MB of data is at 4G speeds, and the rest is at EDGE speeds.
Available in some cities but working nationwide, Simple Mobile undercuts that with a $40 unlimited plan, although all your data will be at roughly UMTS speeds. Remember Simple Mobile requires the AWS band for 3G speeds just like T-Mobile does.
AT&T's plan is more confusing. For unlimited calling you can pay $50 per month or $2 per day, and on smartphones you have to pay an extra $5 for 50MB, $15 for 200MB, or $25 for 1GB. But AT&T supports 3G on the iPhone; T-Mobile iPhones are stuck on EDGE.
If you can find a store selling H20 Wireless, that company uses AT&T's network - so it's compatible with 3G on the iPhone - and its $50 plan includes unlimited calls, texting, and 500MB of data for the month. After 500MB, you just get cut off, no more data.
If you don't have a U.S.-compatible phone, your choices are wider: you can buy a phone from Boost, Virgin, MetroPCS or other no-contract providers. Check out our mobile phone reviews for those carriers.
