Talk:United States/@comment-32853647-20180416062119

After trying T-mobile my experience is not that positive and it works worse than what is described here:

I receved the SIM-card from Ebay (I live in Europe) and wanted to activate it. Activating it on t-mobile.com timed out in the process and gave a server error. Reloading said it was in the process of beeing acivated and that there were some technical problems... I never managed to reach the final "add funds" page.

After it was finally acivated (I received an SMS with the new mobile number) I could not access or create my profile on t-mobile.com. When creating a profile you have to give your mobile number so they can send an activation code. It said the code was sent but it never arrived. Only after I found their page (elsewhere) to add funds to the number was I able to receive their acivation code SMS (bad technical solution). I could not add money with my mastercard but with my VISA credit card it worked.

I finally added the $3/month plan but contrary to what is stated here you can't add the data pack on ma.web2go.com. I couldn't login at all but from googling it wouldn't have worked anyway. Also there are confusing concepts on T-mobile.com with username, number, short PIN (4 digits), normal PIN (6-20 digits), password and it's a mix which can be used where and when.

So ma.web2go.com doesn''t work and you can't call 611 from abroad, so I was unable to add the data pack from outside the US.

When I arived in the US I found out that for 611 you have to talk to the system (you can press number for some answers but not all it seems?) and after five minutes on the line it told me I had only $8.5 left and couldn't add a data pack. It seems T-mobile charged me for trying to call 611 and the recharge line from abroad? Thanks! And you can only add a minimum $10 to your account. Also you need to enter the PIN that you gave during the (failed) acivation process.

Luckily I also ordered the Red Pocket (AT&T) SIM which I also activated at home before going to the US. Adding the $15 plan online worked fine using my (international) mastercard. The SIM doesn't roam though but I just put it in the phone and after a minute or so from landing in the US it was online with my new number and my new data plan. 4G worked fine.

A few days later I added another $10 to my T-mobile SIM just to try it (wasted money I know...), then it technically worked fine after taking the 5 minutes or so on 611 to activate the data pack. Only problem is that there is some internet filtering enabled and you have to prove that you are over 18 to disable it. You have to enter your american SSN and so on which I of course don't have. I tried to enter it anyway but it always failed with "age verification server timeout" after a while. Really bad.

So stay away from T-mobile unless you have specific requirements or plan to buy the tourist plan in a shop. But for me who needed mobile internet right off the plane it didn't work out at all.