Hi, any cell phone recommendations for hacker-entrepreneurs visiting the u.s. who visit regularly but not enough to justify having a monthly contract?<p>I'd like to play with the latest mobile apps etc while using a local #, and without dealing w/ data roaming charges etc.<p>Previously I've done T-Mobile $100 prepaid for 1000 minutes for a year -- just voice. But I would like to have something I can use w/ some data plans (e.g. messing around w/ iPhone/Android apps) when I am hanging around w/ Silicon Valley friends...<p>Anyone else in a similar situation? What's worked for you?
I just happened to be researching this. While I haven't done it myself, the consensus seems to be that the prepaid AT&T "Go Phone" is the best solution for low cost data in the US without a contract. The data itself is very expensive by global standards ($20/100MB) but the entry cost is very low presuming you already have a compatible GSM device. But if you're mostly playing around in Silicon Valley, you can probably arrange to have most of your data delivered by unmetered WiFi.<p>This link has good information:
<a href="http://forum.brighthand.com/smartphones/268235-payg-dataplan-can-work.html" rel="nofollow">http://forum.brighthand.com/smartphones/268235-payg-dataplan...</a><p>This is iPhone specific, but might help too:
<a href="http://theappleblog.com/2010/07/26/how-to-give-your-old-iphone-new-life-with-prepaid-data-and-minutes/" rel="nofollow">http://theappleblog.com/2010/07/26/how-to-give-your-old-ipho...</a>