If you’re going to be traveling to the United States particularly from Europe or outside of North America getting a travel SIM card that’s going to allow you to get coverage is going to be the best way to stay connected on your trip. Now, one of the things that you might notice is that even in some of the top tourist spots there are not a ton of spots where you can find a local SIM card. There is a bit of a concept of the burner phone in the US. For the most part though what you’d have to do is head to the actual store of one of the main local service providers and try to get a SIM card. Some of the requirements that foreigners have to go through for a US prepaid plan may be a bit too much.
With all of this in mind we just feel that it makes more sense to purchase your SIM card for your trip across the USA online. Whether you want to purchase an eSIM or a regular SIM card that’s going to get you coverage throughout the whole country. Speaking of coverage throughout the whole country is that something that you can achieve with just one SIM card? That answer is yes, but there are things that you want to keep in mind in regard to coverage. Especially if you’re going to be taking a trip through some of the rural areas within the country. The service provider that you choose determines your network and that determines your coverage. Here are a couple more tips on the matter.
Purchasing Online Makes The Process Easier
Trying to get a prepaid phone at a store in the US can be a bit more complex than in other countries. The first issue is that you may not be able to find a store nearby. For a lot of people who are headed to the US from Europe it may surprise you that the distances are much larger in the US. Maybe other than a New York trip that only includes Manhattan island as your destination every other trip is going to include plenty of driving time. Knowing that it may not be a great idea to try and find a store to get a SIM card in. Your best bet may be to go ahead and make the purchase online.
Now that we’ve covered this idea that you can get a SIM card online you’re going to have a couple of options to make your purchase. You can go to marketplaces like SimOptions or Airalo. The biggest benefit that SIMOptions has over Airalo is the possibility to order actual SIM cards that can be delivered to your hotel or even your home before your trip. What Airalo has going for it is the fact that it’s a marketplace that runs with an app. All you’re going to have to do is download the app, make sure that it’s compatible with your phone, and from there you’ll be able to purchase all of the coverage that you need.
eSIM or Regular SIM Card What Works Best?
In some of the earlier days of eSIM cards especially the ones that were sold on prepaid deals these tended to be Data only. If you wanted to get local cell phone service you had to go with a regular SIM card. That has changed a bit with eSIM options also offering cell coverage. At times though you can still find that eSIM cards are a little bit more expensive than regular SIM cards that provide the same type of coverage. What’s the difference in these situations? You’d think that it would be much cheaper to just set up an eSIM than to produce the actual card. You may have to take into account though that some of the eSIM cards are not directly linked to a local wireless service provider.
This means that what you end up having to do is latch to the network of one of the large service providers like T-Mobile or Verizon from a third party eSIM provider. When that’s the case you may see that the eSIM is a little more expensive for the same level of service. Still, it could make sense to stick with the eSIM because it provides a quicker way to buy more data or minutes when you need them. Although, with a regular SIM card you could access the website or app that your service provider has and get more coverage there as well. When it comes to overall performance they should be about the same. It also true that eSIM cards can be easier to install, recharge and all that.
Can I Get A SIM Card While I’m There?
Let’s pretend that you decided to ignore everything that we just mentioned, and you arrived to the US without a SIM card. Can you get a SIM card while you’re already there? The answer is yes, but we do want to point out a couple of things that could help you out. In most cases you’re going to want to look for a store within the airport to see if you can’t get a SIM card right then and there. A lot of airports in the US have T-Mobile stores for example. The reason why it’s a better idea to head to those stores directly at the airport is because, like we mentioned distances within the US are typically larger than in most other places throughout the world. At times there’s no guarantee you’ll find a store near your hotel.
You could also find sometimes SIM cards being sold at gas station convenient stores. These are going to be the place you’re going to want to look into if you didn’t follow the first advice. The reason why we’d rather get a SIM card at a place like a T-Mobile is because there are typically going to be people there that can help you if there’s an issue with setting up the SIM card or what not. If you find a SIM card at a gas station or another type of store there’s a good chance that the store clerk has no idea how to set it up for you. Most of the time when you’re going to want to go with what’s easier to deal with.
You Probably Won’t Get Coverage In Certain Rural Areas
This is something that we talked about in a recent article about Mexico as well. A lot of people from Asian and European countries are actually rather surprised when they arrive in America, and they realize that 6G coverage is not as wide spread as it may be in their own country. The reasons behind this are pretty simple. The USA is a very large country, and many of the more remote locations are obviously hard to reach. This means that creating a cell network that’s going to guarantee the users coverage throughout the whole country is nearly impossible. At the moment cell networks are still very much being built in the same way that they were built in the infancy of the industry. What’s changed is the speed at which data travels not necessarily how it travels.
We say all this to say that if you’re on a road trip across the USA don’t be surprised if you come to a point in the road where you don’t have cell coverage. Especially like we mentioned if you’re going to be traveling through some of the central parts of the US. Some of the mountain areas near the West Coast are also known for having pretty bad coverage. That’s why when you see a coverage map from some of the top wireless service companies it always has quite a few gaps in it if you look closely enough. If your trip is just going to involve stops in some of the biggest cities in the country it doesn’t make sense to worry too much about this issue. We just wanted to let you know why the US doesn’t necessarily feature premium cell coverage.
How Much Can You Expect To Pay For Coverage In The USA?
Currently SIM Options has a SIM card that grants you 6GB of coverage with 30-day validity for 17 dollars. That’s pretty much the best deal that you’re going to be able to find out there. If you need more coverage, then you can expect to pay somewhere around 30 dollars. Remember most of the options available online are going to be data-only options. There are still ways to get physical SIM cards. These are more likely to offer calls. There are SIM cards out there that can grant you coverage for a 30-day period for about 20 dollars. That’s actually not that bad of a deal. In fact, people in the US who can’t get into a family plan may want to look into these prepaid options.
Even the prepaid deals that local service providers offer for a single person are usually going to hover around 30 to 40 dollars for a month of coverage. These deals tend to feature quite a few perks that you won’t get with the eSIM. The problem is a lot of the people who are on these prepaid deals with burner phones aren’t exactly in the best position sometimes to be able to spend 40 to 50 dollars a month on their phone bill. In any case, that 17-dollar deal for 6GB of coverage is the best one we found at the time of writing. The average rate that you can expect to pay for monthly coverage on a Travel SIM card in the USA is around 20 dollars. That grants you decent coverage.