Which prepaid service for half a year in california?

Willy44

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Hi!

I'm searching a good prepaid service for half a year in california (San Diego) or a contract fort his time (don't know whether this is possible). My cellphone is a Lumia 720 (GSM-Quadband (850/900/1800/1900) and UMTS-Quadband (850/900/1900/2100)). Important is a data plan which I can use sometimes for skype calls! Somewhre I read that AT&T charged the international skype calls as normal calls through their voice plan - can someone confirm this? Are there any experiences with other carriers and skype calls?
I have no idea how many minutes and text messages I will need...

Thanks
 

ninjaap

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I've always heard that T-Mobile is a good (meaning cheaper) option for pre-paid plans. And they specialize in international phones - your faster bands will more than likely work better with T-Mobile than ATT.
 

inteller

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Get a Straight Talk SIM. Unlimited everything on T-Mobile. You can buy a 6-mo card from them for $255 and you are done.
 

rdubmu

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I would go with whichever carrier has the bands you can use with your phone. Straight talk has both T-Mobile and At&t, you just need the right sim card.
 

myrandex

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Look at the frequencies of your phone. Anything TMo means no 3G / 4G service, only EDGE. Do yourself a favor and pick a prepaid carrier that runs on thew ATT network. It is great when I've visited CA.

You can purchase Net10 Sim cards off of Amazon that are compatible with the ATT network for pretty cheap (under $10) and they have unlimited everything plans with local usage for around $45 a month. They also have cheap plans inclusive of international calling. And with unlimited data (just don't go crazy with it) you can use Skype for your calls as I saw mentioned.

Jason

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myrandex

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I would go with whichever carrier has the bands you can use with your phone. Straight talk has both T-Mobile and At&t, you just need the right sim card.

FYI you cannot buy straight talk cards compatible with ATT anymore from them the last I checked. Amazon sells those cards too, but they are quite expensive.

Jason

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mogelijk

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Actually, T-Mobile refarmed their network in most cities to work on AT&Ts 3G frequencies -- this was done last year before they sold the iPhone, they were trying to get iPhone/AT&T customers onto T-Mobile. In California; San Diego, the LA metro area (including Orange county), and the Bay area all are refarmed to get 3G/HSPA+ speeds on the 1900 Mhz band (AT&T).

As far as coverage outside of cities, most international phones will not get 3G/HSPA+ service on T-Mobile as they need to use both the 1700 and 2100 Mhz frequencies.
 

Willy44

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Thanks for the answers!

I found this at the t-mobile site (SIM Card details from T-Mobile)

"Only 3G phones that support the 1700-MHz band are compatible (not all 3G phones support it). If you own a 3G phone that does not support the 1700-MHz band, it will operate at 2G (EDGE) speeds on our network.
Not all iPhones? and iPads are compatible with the T-Mobile network. Except for with unlocked iPhone 5, T-Mobile cannot currently support Apple products that originated from Verizon? or Sprint?.
iPhones in most markets operate at 2G (EDGE) speeds on the T-Mobile network because of issues with the device design.
We’re upgrading our network to make our 4G network compatible with a more devices, including the iPhone, in 2013."

@mogelijk: You are sure that 3G is possible with the Lumia 720 without the 1700 band in San Diego?
 

mogelijk

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According to this map, which has tracked the refarm, it should work without the 1700 Mhz band. And here is a document from T-Mobile that explains the refarming and a list of cities that would be refarmed (it includes San Diego).
 

inteller

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Straight Talk is a different animal. They have agreements in place with both ATT and T-Mo. I have never had my ATT SIM roam off of the network and onto a T-Mobile network so I can't say if data roams or not, but I leave my data roaming on and have never had any problem.
 

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