Pre paid phone SIM's

[Troutster]

Hi all, me and the guys are planning our penultimate or even final trip to Vegas as the current group for Super Bowl weekend Feb 2011.
Over the last few trips we've made the fatal error of not taking our phones out due to ridiculous call charges in the US (from our UK carriers), so we've come up with the plan to buy a couple of pre paid sims when we hit the States, so we can keep track if each other.
Is there anywhere you could recommend to pick these up? Airports/on the Strip/ Malls etc
All suggestions greatly welcome!!

[vansteffo]

Depending on where your staying, somewhere like Fashion Show Mall has cell stores..

[Troutster]

I was thinking about somewhere like FSM, or maybe at the airport during my connection (got a 2 1/2 hour wait in Atlanta)
Are the SIMs easy to come by on their own, or would I have to buy a phone along with it?

[nateisgreat]

I've not been to Vegas yet so I'm not sure about particular locations there, or anything, but in general for the USA, T-Mobile might be your best bet if you're looking for a SIM to use with your phone (and even then, probably a T-Mobile corporate store rather than a independent reseller). Most retail stores I've seen sell prepaid phones only, not SIMs separately (and 50% of the major cell phone networks here aren't even compatible with GSM.) Of course, a place like Vegas with lots of international visitors might have more options than I have where I'm located.

Worst case scenario though, you would just have to buy a $20-$30 crap phone to use on a prepaid service here.

[vansteffo]

You should be able to buy like an AT&T sim for $5. In fact, last time I got one it was free because I bought a prepaid card, which I assume you would as well.

[Troutster]

Yeah, I'm looking at buying around $50 credit along with the SIM.
What carriers do you guys recommend?
I know AT&T and T-Mobile have been mentioned.
I've got a couple of Quad Band GSM phones i'm looking at taking, just for basic text and call use.

[Matt]

I just used my phone and didn't let it bother me. Admittedly I did wind up spending 60 quid on texts and phone calls over 5 days, but I used my phone constantly keeping in touch with the other guys from the forum.

[Bralo20]

I have also a question:

Are there also prepaid sim's availabe with a Blackberry Internet Service activated?

I don't care about my phonebill when I'm in the USA since I have a corporate phone and I'm allowed to call as much as I like and anywhere I like but unfortunately dataservices aren't included... Even with our discount we have it seems that data services outside the country are extremely expensive (I once racked up over 500 GBP when staying a weekend in London )...

So I wonder if there are prepaid options for Blackberry available in the US? If this is the case I can replace the sim from my Blackberry with the prepaid sim and put my Belgian sim my spare cellphone.

[vansteffo]

You can get data with your prepaid sim as well, yes. If your bringing a phone from overseas though, you will more than likely need to create a new access point in your phone settings with the US providers credentials.

[Mr. Randy Foster]

Wal Mart, theyre like 20 bucks and come with a phone as well, and depending on when you buy they often include minutes with them as well as a promotional thing! They also ofer a variety of different carriers At&t, T-mobile, Virgin.. etc