<p>Hey! I'm sure most of you would be moving from your hometown to somewhere else for college. What mobile provider do you plan to use?</p>
<p>I'm an International student who will be going to Furman University. Does anyone have an idea which provider works best there? And will the cellphone from foreign countries work as same as unlocked phones bought in the US?</p>
<p>If you want to use an unlocked phone from home, you are limited to two providers: AT&T and T-Mobile. Those are the only two American carriers that use sim card technology. Other carriers program the phone information right onto the phone, so you’d have to get a new phone that will only work with that one carrier. </p>
<p>Just make sure that your phone will work on American cell phone frequencies, which most newer models do.</p>
<p>T-Mobile has a “secret” $30 a month pre-paid plan, that you can only get if you purchase the sim card from Walmart. You’d get 5GB of data, unlimited texting and 100 talk minutes a month. (Note: in the US, you are charged for incoming calls as well as outgoing ones.)</p>
<p>@b@r!um I hear that Verizon has a better network in South Carolina. Is it true? And is that “5GB of data, unlimited texting and 100 talk minutes a month” thing valid for every month or is it only for the first month after you get the sim?</p>
<p>I don’t know about the coverage in South Carolina. I’d recommend you ask current students at your university about the coverage of different providers. (There’s probably a Facebook group for incoming students at Furman.)</p>
<p>The $30 T-Mobile plan will stay active as long as you add money to your account to cover the cost of the plan each month. (Or until the terms of service change. There’s no guarantee that this plan will still be available in 4 years, but it should be available for the foreseeable future.) I’ve had this plan myself for a few months now and I’ve been happy with it. It’s super-cheap with lots of data and good coverage where I live, and I can live with the limitations on the number of call minutes each month. I am also happy that T-Mobile uses monthly plans with no contract commitment. (For comparison, a monthly plan with 500MB of data from Verizon costs $70. And you are locked into a 2-year contract. 5GB of data from Verizon would cost $120 a month, but you’d also get unlimited talk minutes.) </p>