<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am going to be an international student this fall.</p>
<p>My questions are:</p>
<p>How should I go about purchasing a cellphone in the United States? </p>
<p>What sort of phones should I be considering?</p>
<p>What are the major phone companies?</p>
<p>Is there anything else I should know?</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>How should I go about purchasing a cellphone in the United States?
It depends. Are you staying for an extended amount of time or just visiting to study abroad for a semester or two? If it's the latter, you might want to consider short-term cellphone loans - that way, you don't get wrapped into a year long contract.
If you're staying long-term, then just visit any cellphone provider and they should be able to assist.</p>
<p>What sort of phones should I be considering?
It doesn't matter which phone you get. The type of plan you get is what matters. I'm assuming you'll be calling home, so look for a plan that either has free international or cheap international calls. Or, look into buying international calling cards. </p>
<p>What are the major phone companies?
Verizon, Sprint, T-mobile, Cingular, and Alltel</p>
<p>Is there anything else I should know?
Check to see which provider works best with wherever you're staying. For example, Sprint has almost no reception in the Northern Adirondacks while Verizon does.</p>
<p>"Is there anything else I should know?"</p>
<p>You need a social security number to get a cell phone contract. If you don't have one yet, it will take a few weeks to arrive once you apply for it. If you don't want to wait so long, get a pre-paid cell phone.</p>
<p>So if I'm not going to work while in university, could i still be able to request a SSN, or do any of you know what international students use for things like this?</p>
<p>where are you going to be going?? a lot of this stuff depends on the country...</p>
<p>i'd advise you to get skype to talk to your family and friends internationally--it's ridiculously inexpensive. use your cell phone for domestic calls.</p>
<p>Actually skype has some plans that like for 4 euros a month, you can make unilimited calls to phones in an specific country or like for 8 euros a month to all the world (in the US is fixed and cell phones, in other places just fixed landlines). You also get a local internet number from any place in the world you want, and you can redirect your calls. It would work like this.</p>
<p>Someone calls your local internet number (you'd choose one like in the city you live in) ---> the call goes to skype ---> skype redirects the call to any phone you want to, so let's say to your US cell phone. (In this case you should get a US unlimited plan for 4 euros a month, and that's it, it's so damn cheap.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help so far!</p>
<p>I’ld recommend getting an unlocked phone. That way you can use it internationally (though you’ll have to change the SIM card if you travel to a different country, which isn’t too difficult).</p>