Published on : 06 July 20203 min reading time
Before, we didn’t really ask ourselves how to stay reachable when we went abroad. But since the rise of the mobile phone and the smartphone, it has become difficult to part with your mobile, at the risk of ending up with hallucinating bills. However, it is possible to stay reachable and have access to the Internet without having to pay for it when you go to the United States; they explain how to do it.
The telephone
Not all mobiles are compatible with the American network, it is mandatory to have a phone operating in 3G and/or 4G, so antiques can stay at home.
Buy a local SIM card
The easiest solution is to buy a SIM card on site from one of the local operators such as AT&T, Virgin Mobile or T-Mobile in one of their shops or even when you arrive at the airport (Visit https://www.simoptions.com for more information). A new number is then assigned to you and will be the only one in use, unless your phone can accommodate two SIM cards. Once the card has been paid for, it is valid for one month and can be recharged every month. After 2 months of inactivity, it is invalidated.
On the price side, at AT&T you need to count 35$ for unlimited SMS calls and 1Gb of data or add 10$ or 45$ to reach 6Gb of data.
The operation is so simple that you enter the store and leave it immediately, as if you had bought a bottle of water.
Attention! Your phone must be unlocked for this to work. An operation to be planned before leaving if this is not the case, with in particular its RIO code.
This solution is especially interesting if you stay in the United States for a long period of time and intend to call a lot on the spot. All your calls are considered local, instead of international if you keep your French package.
Prepaid card
It is also possible to buy a prepaid card from France. Explod used to do it before, by assigning an American number and we used it successfully on our last American roadtrip. They changed their technique in 2018 and now use an English number, which no longer offers the same advantage for the United States. But the competition is there and there is Sim-usa.mobi, with packages from 25 euros (1 month and 1 GB of data).
Mobile applications Skype, What’s app…
Of course, if you are abroad, you can always wait until you are in a Wi-Fi zone to use one of the many mobile applications such as Skype or WhatsApp and therefore at no cost. It is the most economical solution, whatever the country, but requires access to Wi-Fi, which is of course easily the case in the United States or most hotels, but especially restaurants and bars offer free Wi-Fi access when you consume would only be a drink. The only obligation is that your interlocutor must also have this application on his phone. And when you’re in the middle of nowhere, you can’t make a phone call.