Any experiences with Truphone?

[abeagler]

So, I'm one of the many who'll be exiting AT&T with their discontinuation of data packages on paygo. I was wondering if anyone has experience with Truphone? Their data rate seems lower than the other GSM MVNOs, but I can't find anything on their website about top-up expirations, minimum top-ups, etc. And, I wonder about data speed. Anyone using them?

[Bob859]

I bought a Truphone SIM in February for my father-in-law, because I wanted him to always have a phone in his car when he travels. He is 80 and he rarely uses the phone, so I don't have a much experience to report. This is what I know:

I have contacted their customer service and it is very good.

The SIM needs an unlocked GSM phone.

I paid $30 for the SIM and that included $15 airtime.

The airtime is used at 17cents/minute.

There will be a $3 fee taken, if the phone is not used for 90 days, so it is important to use it at least once every 90 days.

I see on my account info that the account was charged this amount for data: 100 KBytes $0.02

[abeagler]

Thanks for your reply! I have an iPhone 3GS, and I make only very limited usage of it (30-40MB of data per month, maybe 10 texts and 10 minutes of calls). I emailed Tru today and got an impressively quick response, which I'll paste below:

Thank you for your email and for showing interest in purchasing TRU. As long as your phone is unlocked, i.e. you can put any SIM card in it, no matter which service provider it is, you will be able to use your Tru SIM card . When you activate the SIM card, you will be automatically given a number which will be assigned to your SIM card as your main number which depends in your country of residence. If, however, you decide that you would like to purchase any secondary Tru numbers for your SIM card, it will cost you £5 or $8 per month. There is no obligation to purchase any secondary numbers, it's just that you may find it easier for people to contact you if you have numbers from more than one country. Credits do not expire as long as the account is active. Denominations for top-ups 15,30,45,75 and 150. To keep the account active you need to send an sms or make a call once every 90days. I hope that this helps.

[Pabster]

Just got a new TRU SIM in will give it the rounds soon. They are pretty reasonable for a light user, certainly not feasible for a heavy user. 17c/MB is very competitive for essentially pay-go data (AT&T MVNO are twice that+) and the ability to use T-Mobile is a nice plus too. I can't comment on international use or rates at this time, strictly domestic USA.

[dmarkson]

Tru's preferred network is T-Mobile USA so it will end up there unless you can manually select AT&T and disable automatic mode somehow.

Tru uses T-Mobile 2G and 3G for data, but only uses AT&T 2G. Tru will not register on the AT&T HSDPA network. So you will have EDGE speeds only with your iPhone (unless you are in one of the few Tmo 1900 3g areas).

With AT&T pulling PAYG data on GoPhone I would not expect them to all of a sudden allow Tru data on 3G.

Also, Tru uses data in 100KB chunks. If you have a data connection and do not lose the signal then it will likely end up as one session and all is well. But if you turn it on and off and/or have a bad or intermittent signal you could get hit with a great number of 100KB charges.

[HF305]

Both of the phones I tried (RAZR V3 and unlocked original iPhone 2G) with a Tru SIM offered a menu option to set network to "Automatic" or force to AT&T or Tmobile (which appears as "Tru" in the menu) if you want.

Of course those are not 3G phones so I don't know what would happen there. You'd need to be careful with 3G at 17 cents / MB.

[abeagler]

Interesting comments. I don't know if I'd want to be stuck with EDGE data. Can anyone confirm if the "Force to AT&T" option allows you access to 3G data on a 3G phone?

[abeagler]

Well, rats, Truphone has confirmed that 3G data is not available. Their email reply is below:

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, you will not be able to use AT&T's 3G data connection. Upon checking on our records as well, you will only be able to use 2G connection on your IPhone regardless on whichever network you would connected while you are in the US.

[dmarkson]

Yes, this was an intentional move by AT&T it seems, in their move to NOT be the data pipe. Cost was probably prohibitive.

[cacophony555]

So even on a Tmo 1900 3g area I couldn't get a 3G connection with Truphone?

[dmarkson]

Tru has a 2G and 3G roaming agreement with Tmo so yes, if Tmo is running 3G on 1900 you would be able to use it. This was not always the case, when I first got Tru it would not register on Tmo 3G. It has worked since late last summer for me.

[Pabster]

TRU has never had 3G access on AT&T, despite rumors to the contrary. My old TRU SIM never had it and the new one I activated just last week does not, either. It is EDGE only. No big deal, and I can live with 17c/MB as I would so rarely need to use it.

With AT&T MVNOs in the 30c/MB+ range (if they offer pay-go at all) I think TRU is a decent deal, despite lack of access to AT&T 3G.

[Bob859]

Another thing that I noticed, when I was experimenting with the Tru SIM that I bought for my FIL, is that it allowed me to manually select T-Mobile or AT&T for voice. I didn't try doing that for data, so I don't know if manual selection will work for that.

[HF305]

It only tunes in one network at a time. The same network you select for voice will be used for data.

[Bob859]

It only tunes in one network at a time. The same network you select for voice will be used for data.

Yeah, I know that......I phrased my statement poorly. I should have just said that I did not try using data at all, so I don't know if it works on both of the networks that I tried. It probably does, but I didn't try to use data, at all.