Mobile Phones

[RichardPacey]

Can you help with info about using phones from the UK in Florida as I've been reading that the US have changed the way their networks operate and our phones might not connect to the networks - I believe this is a fairly recent thing.

Obviously with MDE and use of ubers and lyft these days having a mobile/data connection is important and I don't want to rely on there maybe being free wifi.

The article I read seemed to be suggesting it was a phone/hardware thing not necessarily to do with your sim/network.

I was going to get a PAYG sim from 3 (currently with SMARTY) for our time over there?

Can anyone throw any light on all of this? How can I check that it is all going to work?
I'm all stressed out about not having my phone work over there.

 

[MarkleB]

The recent change appears to be the phasing-out of 3G networks. Depending on the age of your phone, this probably doesn't affect you much, as it's typically used for voice calls and SMS texts. In order to make voice calls, US phones will need to make use of Voice over LTE, or VoLTE. This uses a 4G LTE data network to make voice calls. Your phone may need a firmware update to support VoLTE, and/or some settings changes. But if you're not going to be making voice calls, it may not be worth your time worrying about.

Of course, without knowing what article you're referring to, I can only possibly guess.

The US uses different frequencies than Europe uses. Additionally, different carriers in the US also use different frequencies. And some carriers even have different frequencies in different regions.

You need to make sure that your exact phone model (some times there are variants that are extremely close but have different radios) is compatible with with the carrier you're planning to use in region you're planning to use it.

Three appears to partner with AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. You can see the bands T-Mobile uses at https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network or AT&T at https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1008740/. If you google for T-Mobile or AT&T compatibility checkers, you can see how likely it is that your phone is supported.

I used a T-Mobile SIM while I was over. My phone showed a 100% compatibility with T-Mobile's 2G and 3G radios, but only a 40% compatibility with their 4G LTE radios. As 3G has apparently been decommissioned, there was a better-than-average chance I wouldn't be able to use my phone, but I took the gamble. Luckily, I was able to use LTE fine in Orlando. (For the curious, my phone supports band 2 1900 MHz PCS and band 4 1700/2100 MHz AWS1, and this was enough for LTE speeds in Orlando on the T-Mobile network. If your phone can use these bands and T-Mobile, you should be fine in Orlando.)

 

[Karnor00]

I struggled to understand how my existing UK mobile contract would work in the US and what charges I would get - so I ended up just buying a US T-Mobile SIM off amazon to use in the US instead. It cost me around £30 for a 30 day unlimited data SIM - I probably could have saved a few £ getting something like a 50GB data package but I preferred the peace of mind of no limit (even tho I know I'm never going to get anywhere near 50GB!). There are shorter packages too depending how long your trip is.

It worked fine for me - I'm using an iphone 11 if that helps, but I think most reasonably up to date phones would work. Just make sure the phone is unlocked otherwise you probably won't be able to use the new SIM card.

Also it did mean I had a new US number while I was out there, which I guess could have been an issue if anyone had tried calling my UK number (which obviously wouldn't have worked because the SIM card wasn't in the phone).

 

[gavvy]

Three PAYG offer free USA Roaming still, I think it is capped at 10GB per month and I think it costs £10 for that amount. You can buy them off Amazon.
I think the I phone supports Esim as well so worth looking into that, there are a few that offer usa data.

If you have the top plans on EE (used to be called max plans maybe different now) you have swappable extras and you can swap one for a roam further pass that will give you free calls and data. I think the top vodafone plans offer the same, however you are prob paying over £50pm for these type of plans

 

[jf256]

EE also have an add on pass that is much cheaper for one off travel than getting (what in my opinion) a substantailly more expensive contract - when most people have family netflix, loads of data to use games, streaming etc anyway. https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/roam...ing-data-add-ons/what-is-the-roam-abroad-pass

 

[cheryl.UK]

Dependant on your contract, EE actually have 'free' texts and data in that you can use your existing package just as you would in the UK. This saved us a ton of money last year

 

[jf256]

Even without the max plan or smart benefits its £10 for the month - but rolls on automatically so make sure to cancel it after. Seems like a pretty decent deal to me tbh.

Dependant on your contract, EE actually have 'free' texts and data in that you can use your existing package just as you would in the UK. This saved us a ton of money last year

 

[AdamDVCdad]

Holafly is a fantastic option for USA mobile use. You get a new number which masks your old one and a data usage. All virtual too

 

[GlasgowBelle]

This is worrying. I just assumed my year old mobile would work without issues in the US. Can anyone who has been there recently confirm if UK mobiles will work or not??

 

[csimon]

This is worrying. I just assumed my year old mobile would work without issues in the US. Can anyone who has been there recently confirm if UK mobiles will work or not??

I'm in WDW at the moment, have a 4-yr old Sony XZ2 Compact with Android 10, Asda Mobile PAYG and it all works fine. Provdidng the acces point name APN is set up correctly for the SIM, that's what the phone does wgen it says it's downloading network settings for the SIM. It's connecting to t-mobile and is able to use 4G.

 

[gismo1554]

This is worrying. I just assumed my year old mobile would work without issues in the US. Can anyone who has been there recently confirm if UK mobiles will work or not??

So its not that it wont work its that you may end up being charged a fortune to use it. And for some reason quite a few WDW restaurants when you give them the UK number can't actually send a text to say your table is ready

 

[cheryl.UK]

We found that this actually worked in our favour last summer. Because they couldn't text us we had to hang around, which seemed to get us in quicker.

 

[Tony Toon]

DS and his wife used the 3 PAYG Sim with their iPhone 13s when we visited recently. Worked perfectly (also while ashore on our Disney Cruise). Husband and I opted to put our phones into flight mode and used the free wifi. We had no problems at all except in the Vineland Premium Outlets where we couldn't get on to their free wifi. We were still able to keep in contact by using the individual connections available in the shops. Just a bit of a nuisance logging on in each shop. Cracker Barrel have no free wifi either so we weren't contactable there either. Otherwise no issues.

Mrs TT