Forum Discussion

viajero's avatar
viajero
Roaming Rookie
Hace 2 años

buy prepaid t mobile card to travel to USA

Voy a viajar a USA (costa oeste) y me han recomendado que compre una sim de prepago, pero para no tener que buscar una tienda cuando llegue a LAX queria saber si podria comprarla de otra forma ; espe...
t-mobile
  • HeavenM's avatar
    HeavenM
    Hace 2 años

    Thanks for reaching out! Sounds like we have three questions. How can you buy a T-Mobile SIM card? Will your phone work with a T-Mobile SIM card while you are in the US? Can you use that phone with your original carrier SIM card on our network through roaming?

    T-Mobile SIM cards are available to purchase through many retailers. I don't think Walmart and Target are international so Amazon may be the best option. Just make sure you purchase a United States version and not the German version. 

    Network compatibility can be confusing and changes as technology evolves. Hopefully I can shed a little light on things to make it easier. Cell towers broadcast frequencies and your phone has to have the right antenna to pick up what is broadcast. When your phone picks up the frequency, the software in your phone has to be able to process it to actually send and receive calls and text messages.

    1. I found the specs for the oppo A54S online and it should be able to pick up 5 of the frequencies that T-Mobile uses. 
    2.  What we can't verify is if your phone is capable of VoLTE. If it does have VoLTE, then you can get the T-Mobile SIM card and use your oppo A54S while you travel. If it doesn't, then that phone would not get service with the T-Mobile SIM card. 

    If your cellphone provider and T-Mobile have a roaming agreement, then it is likely that you will get some kind of service while in the US. It is hard to say what will and won't work because the phone is not built with the US network top of mind. You will most likely be able to send and receive text messages and get some data. If the phone is not VoLTE capable, then calls may not go through at all with either SIM card. 

    It is a bit of a long answer but hopefully this helps. 

viajero's avatar
viajero
Roaming Rookie
Hace 2 años
gramps28 wrote:
viajero wrote:
HeavenM wrote:
viajero wrote:
fireguy_6364 wrote:

you would need to confirm this with that Spanish company..LTE=4G/5g data...which for TMO the phone must be able to make data calls (voice over LTE)..since your phone does not have this it will not work with TMO..you’ll need to check with that Spanish company to see who they have roaming agreements with and if they have a IMEI checker on their end to see if your phone will work or not.

I have spoken with OPPO and with the SIM card company and both confirmed that my IMEI (mobile) and SIM support Volte without any problem; please can you help me

The information that you shared yesterday said "Sorry, we are having technical difficulties. We are unable to check the compatibility of this device at this time, please try again later. The device name is not available." This does not mean that your device is not compatible, but that we could not find information about the device through that checker. You have done a great job by researching the device and technologies to see if it is compatible. We require a device to have certain frequencies and VoLTE. Since your devices have that, you should be able to roam with no problems.

I know you are looking for a clean cut yes or no, but these technologies can be nuanced and service cannot be guaranteed for all phones in all areas. The information you provided makes me optimistic that things will work fine, but the only way to know for sure is to try it out. 

The strangest thing, apart from the fact that today they told me that I had a volte, is that last year when I initially had to travel to the US, I changed my mobile because the previous one was on a page that allows you to see if your mobile is compatible with the frequencies of the US operators told me that it was not, and this one tells me that it is; in 5 out of 6 in the case of T mobile frequencies, that's why I'm surprised that now that the frequencies say that they are optimal when I go to verify the compatibility of my mobile indicating the IMEI on the T Mobile page, it tells me no. That's why I'm wrong. In any case and if nothing else occurs to you, thank you very much to the entire community

You need to find a person who's currently using that phone with Tmobile, which is why I suggested the XDA forums. You can also try the reddit Tmobile board. Until there's no firm answer.

But that is impossible to find, that has the same model as me; what is the reddit tmobile board