Update 27th April 2012 – AT&T have changed their plans and it really has screwed over tourists, as they require a monthly plan (minimum $25 per month), to have data on a smartphone. It is still possible to have data, but it just costs more. However, for travellers, it is still cheaper than using their own SIM whilst roaming, and that is what I’m going to analyse right now. The only downside, is that it isn’t as EASY to achieve what we’ve achieved before.

So, $25 for the month, plus $5, $15, or $25 for data, giving you varying amounts of data from 50MB up to 1GB. On average, it is £6 per MB if you’re roaming on a UK network. So for the lowest package, and saying you do use 50MB, that is working out at £300! 1GB of data is a whopping £6000. Talk about bill shock. I personally would just add that package on and carry on using my phone as normal. But, how do you achieve that now.

1 – Choose $25 per month tariff
2 – Choose Data Bundle
3 – Enjoy Vacation
4 – At airport, when leaving, call AT&T and change back to 10¢ per minute plan.

So, to put it into context and a total price, the costs of data are now the following

50MB = $30 / £20
200MB = $40 / £25
1GB = $50 / £32.50

For a weeks holiday, £32.50 for peace of mind isn’t that bad, and if you don’t intend to use the sim again, just make sure there is little credit left on it, and let it expire. If like me, you want to re use the number, then you’re going to have to remember to change the plan back. I’ll incorporate all this new information in the old guide that is below, and make sure it is up to date as soon as I have a bit more time.

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Using your Unlocked iPhone in the USA. (updated 30th May 2011)

This article is aimed at people from other countries, who are wanting to save money on data costs abroad. There are a number of assumptions taken into account, and they are the following

• You have an iPhone which is factory unlocked or unlocked by your operator.
• You want to know how to go about getting an AT&T sim card or microsim card for it.
• You are reasonably technically literate.

Step One: Getting a SIM Card.

eBay is the best bet. I just did a quick search on ebay.co.uk for AT&T Go Phone and found a number of sellers that will ship to the UK, at varying prices. Just go with the cheapest, or what is available. If have an iPhone 4, then you must make sure you choose a microsim, or if you’re confident, get a cheap one and cut it down. I bought a sim cutter to cut down my old sim, and it works fine.

Step Two: Activation

Once you receive your SIM card, you have to activate it. This is easily done online, and you don’t need to speak to anyone on the phone. You will need a zip code and e-mail address for activation. Bear in mind, if you chose a NYC Zip Code, you’ll get an NYC based number. If you choose an LA zip code, you get an LA number, and so on and so forth. A Mobile in the US, is still given a local number, hence incoming calls are charged for. If you don’t know one, just google the address of a hotel in any large city, and there you go! Last time I activated a SIM online, I used 10002 as the ZIP and got a 347 area code

1. Activation of the SIM Card – go to https://www.wireless.att.com/activations/
2. Enter the 16 Digit SIM CARD # found on the card and hit “Continue”
3. Your Zip Code will Select the Area Code of your mobile number. Enter a zip code and IMEI. If you dont know of have an IMEI put in 000000000000000.
4. Enter your e-mail address, nothing else is required
5. Select a plan – if you do not plan on making local calls, and are using data/sms only, choose the 0.10¢ simple plan. If you plan on making 20. minutes of local calls each day, then the $2 per day plan is a better option for you, and it includes unlimited texts.
6. Review your information then press the “Submit” button and wait until the SIM is activated.

Step Three: Topping Up

Now you have activated your SIM Card, you need to top it up with some form of PAYG Credit.

http://www.pinzoo.com is where I buy my top ups from, mainly because then I get them at a discounted price, however, for your first purchase, you will need to have a USA number to receive a phone call, to be able to speak to them for them to authorize your payment. Skype is a good option to get a temporary US number, but it will cost a bit of money.

Once on the pinzoo page, you need to choose how much you want to top up. Bear in mind, if you’re using this for data, the minimum you need is the $15, top up as the 100MB package has been reduced in price to $15. You could also opt for $25 which gives you 500MB. The smaller $5 for 10MB isn’t really worth it in my opinion on iPhones.

As you can see on the page, the $15 card expires after 30 days, while the $25, $50, and $75 cards expire after 90 days. What I do (as I normally try get to the USA twice a year, is to top up on the last day I’m in the US, and then that lasts me 3 months, then I have to top up once while in the UK, and I’ve then got $50 on my phone ready for when I hit the US. While at the airport before boarding my flight, I’ll activate my feature package of $25 for the data, so when I hit the US, I’m ready to go.

I’m sure you grasp the concept of pinzoo, and topping up your phone, once you get your pin, you log into your AT&T account here and then to the right, you just copy and paste the pin, and it tops up your phone. There is another option that automatically tops up your phone,  I’m not going to go into too much detail, as I’m pretty sure you understand everything I’m on about. Now, don’t do this 31 days before you arrive, if you’re doing a 30 day top up, etc etc.

Other ways to get a top up, are to just buy a voucher at various stores, AT&T, Duane Reade. You get a voucher, call the number, enter the code, and you’re away. This is easiest method for a first time top up, but you obviously won’t be able to use your phone when you’re leaving the airport, on the way to the hotel.

Step Four: Activating Data

Data. This is rather technical, so read through it once, and read it again if you don’t understand it.

Once you’ve slotted in your sim in, the iPhone itself recognises it as an AT&T sim, and like other SIM providers in the world, thinks it is a  contract phone, and defaults the APN to the contract APN. Now, with AT&T you then cannot change the APN manually. Normally there is no need. Because you have a GoPhone sim, not a contract sim, the APN is incorrect, and needs amending. You need to install a profile onto your phone for this to happen. This profile contains the correct APN information. It is really easy to do this, and only takes seconds, and once done, will temporarially disable the current APN, so remember to remove the profile once you arrive back home! (APN stands for Access Point Name)

There are a few ways you can do this. If you’re in the USA, and you are on a wifi network, it is easier to just browse to http://unlockit.co.nz , and then apply the profile directly. You must browse on your iPhone, as it won’t work on a normal computer. If you want to be prepared, you can browse to this website before hand, and e-mail yourself the profile, which once downloaded on your phone, you can apply at any time.

The website is simple to use, as it looks like iPhone menus, Click Continue on the first page

Then on the second, choose Custom APN, on the third page, click where it says Carrier – Blank and scroll down the list until you get to US – AT&T. Click Done, Click Create Profile.

Your iPhone will then switch around and display an Install Profile screen, all you do is click Install

It also adds on a web link to the website, which you can keep or delete.

If you do not do this final step, then you will not get any access to data on the move. This part is imperative to it all working, as it sets the APN.

Step Five: Reboot

With the latest software update from Apple (4.3), as soon as you install the profile, you need to switch off your iPhone, and back on again, to get data working. Press and hold the power button, Slide to turn off, wait. When off, turn the phone back on. Launch Safari, and browse to a website. Everything should work without issues.

So, in easy steps you’ve activated your sim card, added some credit onto it, and then changed your APN. Your iPhone will work in the USA, and make sure you keep an eye on your data usage by logging into your account on a regular basis. Once I got stung for $10 worth of data just by checking an e-mail, without a data package, AT&T charge $0.01¢ per 5 KB, so 1MB of data costs around $2.

Please bear in mind that I accept no responsibility for lost money, broken sim cards, non working iPhones while abroad, non working pinzoo pins, nor do I offer any other technical support apart from this post on my web page. If you have any questions feel free contact me, and if it is relevant, I will update this post with more information if I’ve missed out parts that people feel useful.

If you have a different phone, you can still use this guide and ignore the section on installing a profile, just remember to change your APN to wap.cingular and you should be up and running in no time.