| Joseph 2005-06-15, 6:55 am |
| On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:35:58 +0000, izoneiz
<izoneiz.1qn9j3@news.cellbanter.com> wrote:
quote:
>
>Dear Cellbanters,
>
>I am in dire need of your help.
>
>I am off to the USA for 10 weeks very soon, and wanted to organise
>myself a USA sim card before I left.
>
>Prices were high, so I purchased an AT&T sim card on ebay from a
>reputable guy with 2000+ feedback. The card went cheap because the guy
>had no idea what phone number the card used, or how much credit was on
>it (he said he presumed non). When the card arrived, it was still in
>its credit-card sized plastic holder, so I presume it has never been
>used.
I'm afraid you may have spent money on something that you will not be
able to use. The only "pay as you go" service that AT&T Wireless had
(I say had since AT&T Wireless was bought out by cingular wireless in
October of 2004.) The service that AT&T Wireless had was called "Go
Phone" and didn't work as completely as one might expect a prepaid or
pay as you go phone to work. What you should have done was look at
eBay and gotten a T-Mobile prepaid account which can be had for as
little as $12.
quote:
>Im still in the UK, but I shoved it into my phone just to see what
>happens.
>
>The phone accepted my card, searched for a network for a while (which I
>know it shouldnt find as in in the UK), and then where the network-name
>should be displayed, it prints INACTIVE SIM.
Indeed it is inactive and because it is no network(s) could be
detected. The same thing would happen if you put an inactive O2,
Orange or T-Mobile card in it. Contrary to the way pay as you go
works in Europe the number is not preassigned. If you get a brand new
prepaid account you have to call the provider and they will activate
your account with an over the air update to your SIM. Don't get your
hopes too high that you'll be able to activate the AT&T Wireless SIM
card. Not only is that company really "not in business" cingular
would have you purchase their "Go Phone" package. I'm not even sure
that they'd allow you to buy just the SIM since GoPhone is generally
sold as a package with a phone along with the SIM.
quote:
>I'm not sure how GSM works in the states, but do I need to activate the
>card somehow?
Unless you buy an activated prepaid account such as through an eBay
auction you need to call the provider to activate the account.
quote:
>If so, where do I do this? Can it be done by phone?
From the UK? Not likely.
quote:
>Have I been sold a "blank" sim card, or is it in fact a prepay that
>just hasnt been activated yet? I hope it is a prepay since the seller
>was very professional and had a huge online ebay store.
He may not have intentionally given you a bad sale, but unless you can
get cingular to activate your AT&T Wireless gophone account you pretty
much have a useless SIM.
quote:
>Also, how does one go about adding credit to the card, and finding out
>its number?
Once it's activated you will be given the number.
quote:
>So to summarise:
>
>1) Does such a card need to be activated, and if so how? (Or does it
>print INACTIVE SIM since im in the UK)
The provider needs to activate it.
quote:
>2) How do I add credit to it?
Likely from the phone there's a key code that you enter, It's likely
that you can get refill voucher minutes at "convenience" stores such
as 7-11, Circle K, etc. It also may be able to add minutes with a
credit card to the service.
quote:
>3) How do I find out the number?
It will be assigned when the account is activated.
quote:
>Many thanks chaps, I am indebted to you for your help. The UK GSM
>system seems to run quite differently to that in the USA!
Actually, GSM is GSM. Only in the US it's on different frequencies
and also calls are charged both incoming and outgoing as opposed to
just outgoing in the UK.
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