iphone plans carriers

[jimbrewer]

I used to keep up with consumer electronics stuff, then baby came along and I never caught up. Now I have become my parents.

"baby" is now in college in LA. I somewhat impulsively bought her an iPhone for Christmas. I didn't know there was more than one kind. I asked the nice man at Best Buy what the "sweet spot" was, you know, all the good features and none of the frou-frou and he sold me a 16 Gig iphone 5s--looks like he did me right.

She can exchange it for no restocking fee, so she can go with any carrier. What do you guys recommend? She travels quite a bit, but not too much to unpopulated places. Her previous phone was a prepaid phone using the AT&T network. She had a chronic problem with late voice messages and lost a couple of good internships because of this. Is this a problem with AT&T or any of the other carriers?

She's going Junior Year Abroad to some commie country where they have exorbitant rates, so she will need a no-contract plan. She's not a heavy talker and probably even a low-end data user. Any suggestions? I'm particularly interested in hearing from Angelenos.

 

[JHZR2]

So you want an unlocked iPhone. She may be able to use the Tmobile one, which isn't carrier subsidized and thus is unlocked. Apple also sells a true unlocked one I think.

 

[Rand]

if you get one with a sim card cant you just buy a prepaid sim overseas and use it on their network?(no idea)

I think that was what was behind the old "global phones" people used to pay extra for on craigslist.

you are most likely going to want an unsubsidized phone (500-600$)

 

[dparm]

All of the iPhone 5s phones use SIM cards (for LTE).

I would do some research on each carrier's international roaming rates.

 

[Rand]

its usually much cheaper to not roam, and use a local carrier.
Roaming is usually in excess of 1$ a min.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

If she travels abroad and doesn't want to be tethered to a contract, T-Mobile is the only way to go. Disclaimer, I am a former RF engineer for TMO and mildly biased. I've also worked for Sprint and Verizon.

Prices/plans cannot be beat. Truly unlimited data. Sprint is the only other carrier that offers unlimited data, but their LTE is sparse, slow, and poorly implemented, and international CDMA coverage is paltry compared to GSM.

Speeds cannot be beat. MY TMO 3G(HPSA+/AWS) on my Nexus 4 is on par or faster than Verizon's LTE in most areas.

TMO is the only carrier that offers global coverage at no additional charge.

Food for thought.

 

[Azeem]

When it comes to overseas, GSM-compatible phones jumps to the image, because that's how the rest of the world rolls.Buy a local sim card at the airport and swap it with T-mo or AT&T .

I'm not an iphone guy, but I know there is unlocked iphones that can be purchased online or in the stores like BB.Always steer away from carrier-locked ones ,but be prepared to pay north of $500.

A magic Jack won't hurt either to take with so she can call US #s for FREE.

 

[901Memphis]

Return it and get a phone with the proper amount of features.

 

[jimbrewer]

You guys are so helpful.

Sounds like T-Mobile is her best bet. From the coverage maps, it looks like her area of L.A. has better T-Mobile than anything else. You pay a penalty when you are in some parts of the Styx, though.

The Magic Jack thing sounds like its worth a try. The place she's going, if she doesn't get arrested for using it, it might be a solution.

 

[dparm]

Alternatively, stuff like Skype would work well if she can get on a wifi network and needs to make calls. They have clients for all of the smartphone OSes.