AT&T Sim Card is the Best Choice for Tourists?

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What is more of a blessing than getting the perfect sim card for your travel? A sim card that has everything, perfect data, and offers calls and texts. Staying connected with home is really important, and if the connection is not distorted or delayed, the trip becomes easier and more fun. Hence, I always recommend that purchasing a sim card, must be your first priority once your plane lands on foreign land.

Many sim cards provider in the USA, like T-Mobile, have special offers for tourists, but AT&T does not have any special offers, there regular prepaid, which are good enough for both tourist use and regular use. But before we go into the depth of AT&T, we should cover a few more important details.

AT&T Sim Card Prepaid

Unlike Singapore or any other countries airport where tourists can purchase a sim card at terminals, finding sim card providers in USA airports is hard. If lucky, you may find one or two shops; in some cases, you may find a sim card vending machine for sim cards of whatever service provider you want. And if luck is not at all with you, you will need to roam around shops, like large-scale and popular retail stores. Small-scale retailers in the USA don’t sell sim cards.

You can also purchase the sim online, but you will need a billing address for the USA. This is the best possible option, as once you are at home, you can easily research which sim card you think is best for you, purchase it online, and have it delivered to your address. It will save you from Hassel roaming around the streets looking for one.

Another option is that you can put AT&T on Google map, and it will lead you to their retail outlet

AT&T Tourist Sim Card

Purchasing a sim card is necessary, and it does not matter what kind of stay you are having, either a holiday, a work tour, or for study. You will need a sim card to stay connected to your friends and family in either scenario. There are options of roaming on other sim cards, in which you can call or text internationally, but they are very expensive.

The cheapest way is to use data, as all sim cards have wonderful data offers, so you can have live video calls or text via Whatsapp or Instagram or even do a voice call through social media applications.

Features of AT&T:

AT&T is the only sim card provider that provides connections in rural areas. To be fair, it has better service in rural areas than any other one. AT&T is the only network in the USA that can be accessed or activated on international phones; hence no need to change devices to use a sim card. On the other hand, most of the other sim card providers are have poor coverage and are not accessible on international phones

They provide 3G, 4G/LTE service, and 5G but activating 5G costs extra. They also provide roaming offers in Canada and Mexico, but you will need to pay extra for that. The three best offers for roaming cost $65, $85, and $50.

AT&T Travel Plans

As discussed before, that when traveling, data is a very important asset. It is the cheapest way to stay connected to your family and friend who you left back home; hence, we will only discuss the best possible data offers AT&T have.

For $25, you will get 8GB of data, with a facility of hotspot, video streaming, and roaming in Mexico and Canada
For $30, you will get 5GB of data, with the facility of the hotspot, and for data, roaming will need to pay extra
For $40, you will get 15GB of data with the facility of the hotspot and roaming in Mexico and Canada
In $50, you will get unlimited data and roaming in Mexico and Canada
For $50, you will get 8GB of data
In $65, you will get unlimited data with 3MBPS speed and no hotspot
For $85, you will get unlimited data with sharing of 10GB inside the USA
In $30, you will get 1GB of data along with a hotspot facility and HD video streaming for up to 1080P
In $40, you can get 8GB of data along with a hotspot facility, online video stream, and roaming in Mexico and Canada, including data, calls, and texts
At $55, you will get unlimited data with roaming in Mexico and Canada, data, calls, and texts.
For $75, you will get unlimited data, 10GB for hotspot, video streaming in 1080P, and roaming in Mexico and Canada for data, calla, and text

There are not so many add on’s like there are in T-Mobile, but you can pay $10 to get an extra 1GB or $20 for 3GB on your $50 plan. For an add-on, on the $30 plan, you can get 250MB for $5.

All the plans mentioned above are only valid for 30 days, whereas the sim will expire within 150 days after activation.

Cons:

AT&T does not offer any international calls. Except that you can call an international landline for around 250 minutes for $5. To use this, you will need to add it to your portal after arriving in the USA.

Activation is quite lengthy; it includes small steps but many of them.

You will have to pay taxes.

Pros:

Their coverage is widespread in the USA, including rural areas, and provides high-speed internet with 3G, 4G/LTE data connection. In some regions, you can also enjoy a 5G connection

They also provide roaming in Canada and Mexico; hence, you will not have to purchase a new sim card if you ever plan to visit.

How to activate:

It’s not that hard to activate an AT&T sim card, and it may be quite long, but not long. Here I will explain it to you as it is a piece of cake. Just follow the steps below, and you will be good to go:

Firstly, purchase the sim card, or else you won’t have anything to activate.
Go to the AT&T website to activate.
Select activate your device
Click Continue
Choose whichever plan is suitable to you ( the plan is only going to last for 30 days)
Pay for it
Once you land in the USA, the sim will automatically be activated. Just unlock your phone.

If this is not working for you, make sure that your phone supports the AT&T sim card, and for that:

Go to device support
Change the settings
Select view all solution> insert sim card
If still not able to activate it, then call customer support or visit any of their retail outlets. You may even want to re-do all steps above.

AT&T Internet Coverage

AT&T provides wider coverage all over the USA, even in rural areas, which is not that common among the service providers in the USA. They have the fastest service, something a tourist will need. They only provide service in Canada and Mexico outside the USA, but no other country.

AT&T Expiry Date

All packages mention above only last for 30 days, whereas the sim card will stick with you for around 150 days straight. However, they expiration date those depend on your initial investment, e.g., for $10 to $24 30 days, for $25 to $99 90 days, and for $100 longer than one year

You can even extend the days for sim cancelation by keep adding money. For $60, you can extend 90 days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get just a sim card from AT&T?

For security reasons, you can only get the sim card once the retailer or the account owner has authorized. Only then you will be able to activate the sim card on your phone.

Is there a difference between AT&T sim cards?

There is hardly any difference between prepaid and postpaid sim card of AT&T but I would never recommend a tourist for purchasing a postpaid sim.

Is there any activation fee for AT&T sim cards?

Yes there is an activation fee of $30, this fee is abit lesser for the employees, but somehow we are not, we are tourist.

Can you just swap sim card on AT&T phones?

You cannot just move sim device to device easily, you will need to visit the store or call at customer support.

Can I purchase AT&T prepaid phone and activate AT&T sim card on it?

When you purchase them and the Wal-Mart you can activate it there just by paying activation fee of $50, $60 or, $30 depending on which plan you are considering.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that sim cards are necessary for our tours ant AT&T is a good option, I know that they may not offer any special service for a tourist like many other service providers, but their prepaid sim data offers may also help you get your way, thus not a bad choice and very suitable for short visits. It is also a perfect option for people planning to visit Mexico or Canada afterward, due to the roaming option.