best SIM card to replace 6 month trial T-Mobile card

[EasternLI]

I'm coming to the end of my 6 month trial and i've seen several people post different pre-paid and service plan options for replacement SIM cards. I'm thinking of going the pre-paid route and was curious if any cards offer better service or features then the others. Also if you could post links of where to get the cards it would be appreciated. Also is the SIM a mini or micro size ?

[jkc1985]

interested in this as well.

[itlnstallion818]

I have a 13 a4 s line. What's the word on getting 4g lte?

I thought I read they have it in Europe

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[drob23]

I use this - http://www.truphone.com/US/Personal/...-SIM/Overview/ - I've used $1.50 of the 15 initial credit since May, but only use it to grab addresses and do google voice searches like 2 times a month. Each time it runs like 5 cents lol. Took a little finesse to get it working off T-Mobile 3g, as it defaults to AT&T 2g. Works great now, very straight forward.

[EasternLI]

What do you mean by "finesse" ? Is there some MMI setting changes that make it work ?

[drob23]

There's no way to select the network with the MMI, only APN and login info. So I moved the SIM into a t-mobile phone and switched default provider. Took a few power cycles but now it always goes to T-Mobile 3g, not sure what the magic step was. Search here or google and you should be able to find specifics.

[AudiS4TW]

I tested using a 4G LTE capable AT&T SIM card in my car's MMI and got it to work only in 3G mode. This is a limitation in the MMI unit itself. I canceled the AT&T data plan immediately and wasn't billed a single cent. At least I know the AT&T SIM card works. I think I would stick to t-mobile since it's cheaper and the data plan isn't capped.

[bbhbba]

I've been using the sim card from Truphone since the 6-month trial expired and I'm very happy with it.

http://www.truphone.com/US/Personal/...-SIM/Overview/

[Heresy]

Ptel. Very easy and works great.

https://www.ptel.com/plans

Select Real Paygo. You pay for what you use. The sim card arrives in 3 or 4 days.

[Quix]

I would stay away from Ptel. They have terrible customer service. My data connection has "broken" twice, i.e. stopped working despite having available funds. They have to manually reset it and this can take quite some time as they are fairly unresponsive. Don't try to get them on the phone, you'll be on hold for the rest of your life. If they don't fix it soon then it's Truphone for me.

[AudiS4TW]

I'm not sure if there's any benefit to using these lesser known carriers' SIM cards. You're mainly using the service for data. Just ask yourself this question: who runs and controls the cell towers? You have the big three: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Whose 3G connection would be more reliable? Depends on where you live, of course. SIM cards are generally used with GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile.

[RickFLS4]

I use ptel and there is another thread here somewhere if you search. The reason to use them (or other SIM cards) is price and no need to commit for multiple years to get the cost down like Tmobile. My avg cost for first four months of use was under $10/mo. and I simply left it in / Google maps on all the time - no managing of cost at all. I have not had customer service, connection or expiring prepaid minute issues that others have reported but have heard about service issues from others here. There is less than 5 minutes of account management online every 3-4 months to load a prepaid card. Whether ptel or someone else, prepaid is a far better value for moderate use. If you have kids in the car using the wifi Tmobile would be the way to go because it provides unlimited data.

[EasternLI]

Is the SIM card micro or mini ?

[drob23]

I'm not sure if there's any benefit to using these lesser known carriers' SIM cards. You're mainly using the service for data. Just ask yourself this question: who runs and controls the cell towers? You have the big three: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Whose 3G connection would be more reliable? Depends on where you live, of course. SIM cards are generally used with GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile.

Just echoing Rick...why commit to any contract when you can just pay per MB. If you have a service provider that allows you to easily add a sim card and take from a pool of data with no added cost, then that's a great solution. I have verizon so it's a no go. If you turn off the google earth satellite stuff, with moderate usage your charges will be 50 cents/month. GSM networks are fine for me, it's not like this is critical functionality. Agreed that if your kids want to use wifi you need something better.

[RickFLS4]

Is the SIM card micro or mini ?

Still not sure I figured that out. I ordered the combi card, took out my Tmobile SIM in the car and was able to figure out the part of the combi card to use. I'm don't remember if that portion is called mini or micro sorry. (It just pops out of combi card so combi card works.)

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[AudiS4TW]

I use ptel and there is another thread here somewhere if you search. The reason to use them (or other SIM cards) is price and no need to commit for multiple years to get the cost down like Tmobile. My avg cost for first four months of use was under $10/mo. and I simply left it in / Google maps on all the time - no managing of cost at all. I have not had customer service, connection or expiring prepaid minute issues that others have reported but have heard about service issues from others here. There is less than 5 minutes of account management online every 3-4 months to load a prepaid card. Whether ptel or someone else, prepaid is a far better value for moderate use. If you have kids in the car using the wifi Tmobile would be the way to go because it provides unlimited data.

I can understand that from a cost-cutting perspective, but how much is the transfer rate affected? Even for navigation, there's still considerable amount of data that's downloaded as the Google Earth map is updated in real-time as you're driving, wouldn't it? As for a contract, if you already have plan with say AT&T for your smartphones, then the additional SIM card that's a "shared data" plan only is just a matter of adding another device (like when you get a data plan for a tablet). I agree also that T-mobile would be a keeper if you stream a lot of data because you have kids that like to watch shows on Netflix.

[RickFLS4]

I can understand that from a cost-cutting perspective, but how much is the transfer rate affected? Even for navigation, there's still considerable amount of data that's downloaded as the Google Earth map is updated in real-time as you're driving, wouldn't it? As for a contract, if you already have plan with say AT&T for your smartphones, then the additional SIM card that's a "shared data" plan only is just a matter of adding another device (like when you get a data plan for a tablet). I agree also that T-mobile would be a keeper if you stream a lot of data because you have kids that like to watch shows on Netflix.

Honestly I don't notice a difference between Tmobile and Ptel - they are both slow to me (for online searching using voice when going 80 MPH) and I believe Ptel is basically reselling data on Tmobile's network. I don't think the radio in the car would work with AT&T or if it does work is not 3G speed (but please correct me if I'm wrong because I do have an AT&T share plan).

[AudiS4TW]

Is the SIM card micro or mini ?

The SIM card is a mini. Micro SIM cards are the ones found on modern smartphones.

[mcoomer]

I'm not sure if there's any benefit to using these lesser known carriers' SIM cards. You're mainly using the service for data. Just ask yourself this question: who runs and controls the cell towers? You have the big three: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Whose 3G connection would be more reliable? Depends on where you live, of course. SIM cards are generally used with GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile.

I'm using PTel in my car. It runs on the T-Mobile network and I've experienced zero down time.

Mike

[AudiS4TW]

Honestly I don't notice a difference between Tmobile and Ptel - they are both slow to me (for online searching using voice when going 80 MPH) and I believe Ptel is basically reselling data on Tmobile's network. I don't think the radio in the car would work with AT&T or if it does work is not 3G speed (but please correct me if I'm wrong because I do have an AT&T share plan).

I tried this before when I got my car back in September. At the time I wasn't sure if the 3G indicator on the MMI display was only because the SIM card was just for 3G, so I went ahead and got a 4G LTE mini SIM card from AT&T with the 3GB data plan only. I explained to them what I was planning to do so they told me that if it didn't work, I could cancel within 30 days from date of purchase of the plan. Well, sure enough when I inserted the SIM card, all I could get was 3G speeds, which confirmed that this is in fact a limitations in the MMI. So I canceled that plan with the new SIM card and put back the one from T-Mobile.

[mcoomer]

I'm hoping that the newly announced 4G MMI will retrofit our cars. Hopefully it's as simple as a module swap. That would be sweet.

[saxon]

I wish we could get Verizon like the new mb's

[Heresy]

I would stay away from Ptel. They have terrible customer service. My data connection has "broken" twice, i.e. stopped working despite having available funds. They have to manually reset it and this can take quite some time as they are fairly unresponsive. Don't try to get them on the phone, you'll be on hold for the rest of your life. If they don't fix it soon then it's Truphone for me.

No issues so far with PTel.

[RickFLS4]

Prepaid ptel finally stopped working for me for the same broken connection issue. Fortunately I read the post above and sent in an email last night, with a request to reset my data connection. They did that and responded a little while ago, after which I removed the SIM, started the car and put the SIM back in. Up and running again!

So, if you have the same problem, just email in and ask them to reset the data connection rather than trying to go back and forth to diagnose the problem.

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[Epixman]

nice, I'm approaching my 6 months soon

so looks like good choices are

Ptel and Truphone

[dbX79]

So can we just pop in these PTEL and Truphone SIM cards and that's it? I want to get my connection going again but not sure if it works. The customer service people know absolutely nothing about how it works in out cars.

[drob23]

So can we just pop in these PTEL and Truphone SIM cards and that's it? I want to get my connection going again but not sure if it works. The customer service people know absolutely nothing about how it works in out cars.

You have to mess a little with the account settings and I had a brief problem with auto-connecting to AT&T 2G, but nothing more than 20 minutes of fidgeting and a couple google searches. I never needed to contact customer service (using tru sim).

[RickFLS4]

Phone - Settings - Connections - Data Connection - Connection Settings:



Here is the SIM (popped out for pic, but obviously needs to be in):



Other than changing the SIM and those settings I don't think there is anything else to do. Ptel's customer service won't be able to help with configuration.

Edit: My guess is tru is identical or very similar.

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[Brooklyn]

Truphone here as well in my A6. Works as advertised, though mine seems stuck on AT&T 2G.

[drob23]

Truphone here as well in my A6. Works as advertised, though mine seems stuck on AT&T 2G.

I brought the tru sim to a tmobile retailer and had them boot up on their phone and connect to tmobile. Somehow reset the default provider to tmobile again. I think there is some kind of flash memory within the SIM that retains this setting, only way to explain it.

[dbX79]

You have to mess a little with the account settings and I had a brief problem with auto-connecting to AT&T 2G, but nothing more than 20 minutes of fidgeting and a couple google searches. I never needed to contact customer service (using tru sim).

Sorry to ask but what data plan did you get? They had different packages and I'm guessing you can use it until it runs out. I need to pick the right plan.

[BadBadDog]

Bought a PTEL card 2 weeks ago. Found these instructions somewhere here:

On a computer:
went to ptel.com/activation
Entered SIM number
Entered Activation number
Received confirmation

In my S4:
took out the old SIM
turned on the ignition
waiting for MMI to fully boot
put in new ptel SIM
Went to Telephone - Settings
Click on Connections
Click on Data Connection
Click on Connection Settings.
APN was set to the factory T-Mobile settings.
I changed the APN to "wholesale" (don't enter the quotes)
kept everything else blank

Up and running in 10 minutes. Works like a charm.

[noshadow]

I have a grandfathered AT&T data unlimited plan for my iPad, I never use it on data anymore, I wonder if I could get it to work with the car! Anyone ever try that before?

[RickFLS4]

Guessing it might give you 2G speed based on earlier posts about using AT&T in other threads. It might be difficult to tell because I think the 3G signal on the MMI screen is just letting you know the radio is working, not telling you actual service speed (i.e. No way for it to change). I had a SIM in the car with the data service not working and the 3G icon still displayed.

Are you still paying for it even though you aren't using it? If so, probably worth a try.

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[drkstrA4]

ptel works perfectly

[karrera4]

Bought a PTEL card 2 weeks ago. Found these instructions somewhere here:

On a computer:
went to ptel.com/activation
Entered SIM number
Entered Activation number
Received confirmation

In my S4:
took out the old SIM
turned on the ignition
waiting for MMI to fully boot
put in new ptel SIM
Went to Telephone - Settings
Click on Connections
Click on Data Connection
Click on Connection Settings.
APN was set to the factory T-Mobile settings.
I changed the APN to "wholesale" (don't enter the quotes)
kept everything else blank

Up and running in 10 minutes. Works like a charm.

Just did ptel using these exact instructions...worked perfectly. Thanks.

[karrera4]

Mine said 3G after my ATT plan expired as well...but there were plenty of times when it was active and I was driving thru a lesser service area that the MMI would change from 3G to 2G. Just changed out the ATT sim for PTEL and its working great.

[SeaBassHWD]

My cell has a wireless hot spot. Anyone know if I'm able to tether it to the MMI system or is a Sim card the only way I can connect to the interwebs?

[RickFLS4]

No way I know to tether or use BT to utilize phone data plan. Need a SIM.

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[jpbadonk]

Has anyone hooked up with oen of the newer AT&T pooled data plans? I think the SIM would add about $10/month to the plan -- which it seems is about what some spend using the Ptel option.