pay as you go sim cards in US ?

[Shaun Stuart]

I am going to florida in a couple of weeks on vacation and wanted to know if I could purchase a US pay as you go sim card for my phone.

My phone is not locked to any network so should be able to use a US sim card. I have seen a couple of websites offering pay as you go sims for Tmobile USA but wanted to check with someone US based before going ahead.

My real need is for a decent data price so I can still access the web and check emails on my phone - can any one recommend a provider with cheap and quick data plan (I could use 3G, Edge or GPRS) ?

Thanks

[Sven Johannsen]

Wait for some other corroboration, but I don't believe either of the two big GSM carriers, ATT and T-Mobile, support data on their Pay-As-You-Go plans. I have a T-Mobile one, I keep around for company, and while I can get a little data, like buying wallpaper and ringtones, and a few WAP sites within T-Mobile, there seems to be no facility for getting on the general internet.

Hope I'm wrong and someone can give you some better news.

[Brad Adrian]

I've got an AT&T/Cingular pay-as-you-go account for my daughter, and I do NOT believe there's a way to include data services.

[martin_ayton]

Oh, man. You must *hate* your carriers. You'd think that adding data to a pay-as-you-go package would, in that market, be a great way to stand out in the marketplace and grab some market share or, even better, grow the market. The fact that nobody is offering that hints at just how free and competitive the US market really is.

Of course, I could feel really smug if the UK mobile market was perfect, but... <sigh> :roll:

[Brad Adrian]

You'd think that adding data to a pay-as-you-go package would be a great way to stand out...
I totally agree. Offering it would prompt at least SOME additional customers to use the data services, but without the carriers taking a huge hit to their bandwidth.

Unless there's something in that scenario that could somehow reduce the HUGE amount of money they make from SMS (but I can't imagine there is).

[Sven Johannsen]

You'd think that adding data to a pay-as-you-go package would be a great way to stand out...
I totally agree. Offering it would prompt at least SOME additional customers to use the data services, but without the carriers taking a huge hit to their bandwidth.

Unless there's something in that scenario that could somehow reduce the HUGE amount of money they make from SMS (but I can't imagine there is).

I can view my remaining authorization in time or T-Mobile dollars. Wouldn't bother me in the least if they billed dollars for MBytes, and time for talking. My jaded view is that they probably don't think that folks using Pay-as-you-go are the type to be using the internet. I don't think that is valid, but statistically it may be.