Rogers phone on Verizon

[fizi]

I'm travelling down to Vegas in January for CES and I'd like to pickup a Verizon pre-paid plan. They appear to offer one month, contract free of unlimited data, 450min talk time and unlimited texting. This would work perfectly for me so my friends I'm going with who are from the US can text me at no additional charge and I can use data on my phone for e-mail and web-browsing.

My questions are:

Has anyone done this? Unlocked their Rogers phone, gone to the US, picked up a Verizon SIM with a no-contract plan. Did it work? Is there anything I should know about doing this? I ask because a friend of mine took their iPhone 4 to the US and AT&T wouldn't sell them a SIM card or a plan.

I've got a Rogers Blackberry Torch 9800 and I'll be unlocking it before I leave Canada. Will my Torch work on Verizons network?

Is there a better way to do this I'm not thinking of?

[ridesno159]

Verizon doesn't use SIM cards. Rogers (GSM) network is incompatible with Verizon's (CDMA).

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[fizi]

Crud. I knew something didn't add up.

Do any other GSM US carriers offer pre-paid, no contract plans?

[ridesno159]

Look into Tmobile. I'm not really too familiar with their plans, but I think you might be able to get a no contract SIM from them. Like I said I'm not really sure, but I think they offer the closest thing to a pre-paid plan here in the US. I think you're even able to get a blackberry data plan with one of their plans, which is hard to get here in the US.

Maybe someone else can come along and give you more concrete information.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[fizi]

I just spoke with a T-Mobile Rep and got my answer.

I need to purchase an activation kit which includes a SIM card for $10.

I then have my pick of three plans:

• 1500 talk and text with 30 MB of data for $30
• Unlimited talk and text with 100 MB of data for $50
• Unlimited talk and text with 2 GB of data for $70

They said being Canadian won't be a problem and all they need is a Credit Card and my date of birth.

[fizi]

Follow-up question.

T-Mobile uses 1700/2100 Mhz for 3G and my Torch supports 2100 Mhz but not 1700 Mhz.

Does this mean I'm out of luck for 3G data and will be stuck using Edge? or is supporting one frequency enough to get 3G data?

[ridesno159]

You will NOT get 3G on your Rogers Torch using Tmobile, only EDGE. You can get 3G with Att, but I know that their pre-paid options aren't as good as Tmobile offers.

Something to look into if 3G is really important to you I guess...

[fizi]

Originally Posted by ridesno159

You will NOT get 3G on your Rogers Torch using Tmobile, only EDGE. You can get 3G with Att, but I know that their pre-paid options aren't as good as Tmobile offers.

Something to look into if 3G is really important to you I guess...

Thanks! I can live with out 3G. I'll just limit myself to e-mail while I'm there and save some money with the 200MB plan. I can upload photos from the hotels WiFi.