Mobile phones in USA

[andrewNZ]

I'm travelling from New Zealand to go to Coachella and going to spend some more time in California while I'm there, I want to get a mobile phone to get around with, can I just take my GSM phone from here and buy a SIM card in LA? Or do I need to buy a new phone over there? Which is the best network to go with? Keep in mind I'll only be there 17 days... cheers hope someone can help

Andrew

[bballarl]

Just buy one of those Virgin prepaid ones. Paul Tollett/Richard Branson will thank you.

[hangthedj112]

You can purchase a pay as you go phone for fairly cheap, with some minutes it should run you about 60-80$

[chiapet]

I think US GSM uses 850MHz or 1900Mhz band. NZ phones are usually 900MHz & 1800MHz. If you have a tri or quad band phone, it's possible it may work, though I don't know how much coverage there is once you get outside of Los Angeles.

[bballarl]

Droppin' science like Galileo dropped the orange.

[JustSteve]

you can go from the u.s to europe with some providers, you just have to call them to activate the service...can the same be done in nz?

[chiapet]

you can go from the u.s to europe with some providers, you just have to call them to activate the service...can the same be done in nz?

Yes, but it depends on the phone. A lot of the phones sold in the US are tri-band (or quad-band) and include one of the bands that works for European providers.

The US sucks and doesn't use the standards the rest of the world uses.

[PotVsKtl]

The rest of the world seems content to speak American.