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Mobile (cell) phones - to rent or buy?
My family and I are visiting the USA for 11 weeks starting
26/3. We want to have a cell phone during our trip, which covers many different parts of the country. I've been researching this online, and there are clearly a few different options for getting a phone when we arrive. I'm starting to think that for a stay of 11 weeks it may well be better to buy rather than rent. Can anyone tell me whether one can buy or rent a handset and/or SIM card in LA airport? If so, would these stores tend to charge more for the same thing than could be obtained elsewhere in the city? Thanks, Dom |
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Mobile (cell) phones - to rent or buy?
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Mobile (cell) phones - to rent or buy?
Dominic - a few things you may not expect.
#1. US phone companies charge for receiving calls as well as originating them. #2. Your number will be location specific. So acquire a phone in Los Angeles - and you will get an LA number. All calls outside your local area are then long distance calls. All calls from outside the LA area to your mobile will also be long distance. #3. GSM networks there have very poor coverage. GSM phones are not the norm in North America - and the frequency their GSM's use is 1900 - so a 900/1800 phone from the rest of the world is useless in North America. Tri-band phones are OK. Having said that we used our triband phone in Canada, (which uses USA phone standards and practices) with a Fido sim, and found it a great convenience. We linked our number to a callback service - I'd recommend you look at callback. There are many providers, all based in the USA - we used CallbackWorld - a Google will turn up dozens. "Dominic Kelly" wrote in message ... My family and I are visiting the USA for 11 weeks starting 26/3. We want to have a cell phone during our trip, which covers many different parts of the country. I've been researching this online, and there are clearly a few different options for getting a phone when we arrive. I'm starting to think that for a stay of 11 weeks it may well be better to buy rather than rent. Can anyone tell me whether one can buy or rent a handset and/or SIM card in LA airport? If so, would these stores tend to charge more for the same thing than could be obtained elsewhere in the city? Thanks, Dom |
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Mobile (cell) phones - to rent or buy?
"Dominic Kelly" wrote in message
... My family and I are visiting the USA for 11 weeks starting Suggest asking in rec.travel.usa-canada Daniel -- Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia Email: dbowen at custard dot net dot au http://www.danielbowen.com/ |
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Mobile (cell) phones - to rent or buy?
Thanks Daniel - I did that too, but I posted here also as I thought it might
be more use asking in a forum where there were more Aussies. There are some on rec.travel.usa-canada but many more Brits, other EU types and Yanks, of course. Still, with the feedback from the two groups I now have some useful ideas. Dom Dom "Daniel Bowen" wrote in message . .. "Dominic Kelly" wrote in message ... My family and I are visiting the USA for 11 weeks starting Suggest asking in rec.travel.usa-canada Daniel -- Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia Email: dbowen at custard dot net dot au http://www.danielbowen.com/ |
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