Dunno if this will help or hinder, but took my PAYG (O2) tri-bander to the US of A a couple of months ago. When arriving, just switched it on and it picked up an available carrier who had a roaming agreement with O2. But this is where it got a bit confusing. When first arrived, I understood from O2 that carriers would be either AT&T Wireless or Bell South and that was so for the first week. After that however, the "default" carrier displayed on the phone was T-Mobile :/ Didn`t make any difference to the cost of calling home or to the method of making the call. Did find however, that it was cheaper to buy a pre-paid landline card from one the supermarkets (Albertsons or Wal-Mart). So just kept the tri-bander as an emergency in case the hired car broke down in the wilds somewhere. (apologies for long winded post :D )
JohnF
I bought a T-Mobile US\Canada sim early in the year, to discover that T-Mobile had no coverage in Canada & none in the US regions I was in, when I could be bothered to turn on my phone as a result of being jaded. I bought it from Scan who had a choice of two (the other being US only).
You can also get hold of a Mint or Minit prepay card, but it did seem quite expensive to buy & use.
I did ring home using Orange\Rodgers in Canada however at a premium price for the privildge.
After that debacle (& getting a refund from Scan - who since amended the website), the best advice I can give is walk around the Malls & buy a PrePay Sim from a local shop, I think I was quoted $C35. The name Fido springs to mind as a independent carrier\prepay operator (Canada only?).
You normally have at least a Tandy & one or two TV\cable\phone company shops in any mall, so dont buy the first one.
Hope it helps.
This item was edited on Friday, 24th September 2004, 14:02