Getting a sim card for an unlocked cell phone in any country shouldn't be a problem. At least that's what we thought at the beginning of our trip.
Shortly after entering Canada, we started looking for a suitable cell phone contract for us and had to realize that as a European, you are really spoiled. And this despite the fact that since a few years in Austria you also have to prove your identity for a prepaid card (reason: "prevention of terrorism").
Once you have recovered from the first price shock after studying the Canadian "offers" for telephony and internet, there is the next hurdle to overcome. A provider must be found that not only has a regional offering and uses roaming in the rest of the country. Then comes the technical part to decide. Do we go for 3G, 4G or 5G? And if anyone is still thinking "What is 3G?!", they are not alone here. In Europe, the first countries are already starting to switch off the 3G frequency band.
But that's not all the decisions that need to be made. Finally, there is the question of how much data volume you really need. Is 500 MB (megabytes is not a spelling mistake here!) enough? Which apps do we really need and how much data volume do they require? Prepaid or contract tariff? What is possible?
In Montreal, we went to a small FIDO cell phone store with the intention of signing a suitable prepaid contract, because according to our previous internet research, it is not possible for travelers in Canada to get a normal contract. However, the friendly lady at the Fido store made us a tempting offer and had a pleasant surprise for us. As long as you have a valid ETA number, a photo ID (preferably your passport) and a credit card, you can get a contract with Fido even if you are a traveler. In our case, the first place of residence was sufficient to indicate the place of residence.
We received the following offer. A contract with cancellation at any time, unlimited SMS and calls within Canada and 10GB per month for a measly 50 CAD. 50 CAD was not quite right. Here, a few CAD for some provincial emergency levy and of course the taxes still come on top. For Canada, however, about 60 CAD sounded almost cheap in the end, and so we bought it.
One month later we were already regular customers and after taking advantage of the Fido Thursday offers we got another 5GB data volume per month for free. Apart from that, FIDO worked perfectly for us. We were able to make the monthly payments conveniently via app and the cancellation worked with a quick call to the hotline. In case the 15GB data volume per month is not enough, there is a one-time option per month to activate unlimited high-speed Internet for one hour. In summary, Canada was expensive in terms of telephone and Internet, but everything worked without any problems.
USA
First try in the USA
Arrived in Alaska, we tried to get a prepaid contract again or the information whether there was not a similar telephone contract as in Canada also for travelers. This undertaking mutated for us into a true odyssey in the "supposedly most developed country in the world".
But let's start at the beginning. At the time of our trip (year 2022), there were four network operators in the USA, of which the providers "Verizon" and "AT&T" partly use a different cell phone standard than the rest of the world, which unfortunately did not always work with our (European) cell phones. So the only options left were: to choose one of the two remaining providers "Sprint" or "T-Mobile" (or even one of the discounters that use their network) or to buy a new cell phone that would work in the other two networks. All this sounds quite simple - doesn't it?
In fact, unfortunately, it wasn't that simple for us. The provider T-Mobile has no branches in Alaska and then there is the famous "fine print" in the offers. One should really read everything carefully here. Here are a few of our "experiences".
The idea with the "cheap" cell phone works with most providers only conditionally. You can get prepaid unlimited contracts (i.e., prepaid cards with unlimited data volume) from these providers, too. However, the use of a hotspot is usually limited to 5 or 10 GB. So if you need a hotspot for your laptop or tablet to upload your pictures/videos, you will quickly be at the end.
For all those who like to watch a movie in HD in between - that will unfortunately also be nothing. HD costs extra per month.
The nice term "unlimited" also has a lot of small feet and is anything but unlimited. Depending on the contract, some apps (Whatsapp, Instagram) are partially excluded or limited.
After a long search, however, we found two online providers that did not have hotspot restrictions and for "only" USD 40. So still well within our budget.
All it takes to sign a contract with an online provider is an address to which the sim card will be sent within 2 days. No problem for us, we thought - after all we wanted to spend some time here in Alaska anyway. So we started a first attempt. We got as far as the payment process. After entering our credit card information, we were told that the order could not be completed. There can be problems with one credit card, so we tried a second time with another credit card. The result remained the same. We had just as little luck with the second provider.
Since it costs nothing to ask questions, Andreas tried to get some answers in the nice "can-I-help-you chat". The friendly employee on the other end of the line explained that European credit cards are not accepted, because you are never sure if the payment process works. Astonished faces on our side and wild thoughts buzzed through our heads. >>What?! I want a prepaid contract with the simple logic: pay first, make calls later. If the payment doesn't go through, you don't get service!" Apparently, the American phone providers don't all see it that way, though. In the end, we had to forgo the good contracts and keep looking. We don't always have to understand everything!
We survived the first month in Alaska even without a sim card, since there was no reception in most of the areas we were in anyway.
By the way, we could have bought a weapon (pistol, hunting rifle or AK47?) in Alaska in an official store in only five minutes without any problems. The only requirement is a B2 tourist visa and enough cash or a corresponding limit on the credit card. In this case, there is then suddenly no problem that Visa and Mastercard forward the money to the seller.
Second try in the USA
Two months later, we try our luck again in Washington State. For a mere USD 60, we received an "unlimited" prepaid contract with a 10 GB hotspot at T-Mobile. When we asked whether the offer on the homepage to get a second number at the same conditions for USD 30 was still valid, we received a "No" as an answer. A few weeks later, in another T-Mobile store, it suddenly worked without any problems.
Apart from that, everything was very simple: an address from the phone book or from previous contracts was simply picked out as the address, no ID or credit card was required from us. The recharge was also done without any problems with cash payment and only with the disclosure of the phone number. So if you want to remain anonymous, that is possible here in the USA - you should only have enough "cash" with you. For us this was a bit strange, after all the European strict rules are adapted to the American standard - aren't they?!
With time, we also learned to live with the fact that in large parts of the western USA there is often no reception for hours. Not even enough for a single SMS. Not to mention internet reception.
Often we had to wait extremely long for an SMS from Austria (e.g. confirmation for a login) and we had to be glad if the message came right before the code contained in it expired. Probably one should not make so many demands on a USD-60 contract.
And once you contact customer service, you experience American customer orientation at its finest.
The following lines are summarized, but not pointed. The customer service department has already taken care of the negative punchlines itself.
Shortly after the start of our second month of contract, we had no network for two days. On the first day, we were still in the middle of nowhere and were therefore not very surprised. At least we should have reception again in the evening of the second day to be able to contact our family, because we were in a bigger city.
Arrived in this city on day two in the evening. No reception. Not a single bar on either of our phones. We tried many things. Airplane mode on and off, phone on and off. No better result. At the campsite we had WLan and so Andreas tried once more to get answers or help via chat.
After a short description of the problem to the chatbot, a nice (real) lady answered the chat. However, the conversation looked like this:
Lady from chat: Can you confirm that this is a prepaid rate?
Me: Yes. Can you check if my last payment was successful?
Lady from chat: Unfortunately, I don't have access to information of prepaid tariffs, but you can call a special number. There you will get all the information.
Me: Sorry, how can I call someone without reception? This is exactly the reason why I am chatting with you.
Lady from chat: I understand your frustration. Please call the special number with the landline.
Me: I don't have a landline. Only two cell phone contracts with you!
Lady from chat: I understand your frustration. Why don't you just use a friend's cell phone?
Me: I'm on the road and there's no one else around.
Lady from chat: I understand your frustration and hope I have helped you. Have a good evening! - Chat ended.
The frustration came with this result all the more! While Andreas was still trying not to throw his phone at the nearest tree in anger, a text message from T-Mobile trickled in. "Were you satisfied with our customer service? Answer with "1" if satisfied and with "0" if not!
Interesting - we still didn't have phone reception that evening, but the survey messages were able to reach us! We never complain about endless queues at Austrian phone providers anymore. At least you get help there sometimes!
Mexico
After several months in the "most developed country in the world", our trip took us to Mexico. If you need a new sim card here, you should plan on spending 10 minutes. In our case, 8 minutes were reserved for a nice conversation with the seller.
And it can be as simple as that: You go into an Oxxo (a chain of small stores), which you can find on every corner, into a gas station or into one of the hundreds of other stores and say "chip" (for a sim card) followed by the name of the phone provider (e.g. TelCel) and "cargar" for the first recharge. Then you put the money on the table and get the sim card.
Just a minute later after inserting the sim card into our phone, we were online. By the way, we got SMS from Austria for logins in Mexico within seconds after they were sent.
Prepaid contracts work really well in Mexico. You can recharge your prepaid card for different periods: from one day, up to one month there are different variants. If you need more internet data volume (e.g. for downloading street maps), there is also the possibility to increase it only for a few hours. If then the time limit or the credit expires, you get a notification beforehand and you can either recharge it online or simply go to one of the stores that do the recharging for you ("recarga" for recharging say and the desired amount). Duration: 2 minutes. So in contrast to the USA: it can be easy! In the USA it took us longer to get into the online account than in Mexico to have the credit recharged.
Of course, you should also consider your route beforehand. Not all providers have network coverage for all of Mexico. Not every area has enough reception. Our experience so far has been that when there was reception, it was quite stable. But let's see how this will develop on our trip - we will let you know then!
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