It doesn’t matter if you’re a tourist or you came to America a long time — one thing is for sure: you can’t do anything without cellular communication and the Internet in 2025.
In this article, we will help you understand the facts about cellular data and the Internet that are available for connection in America and find the best sim cards for the USA. After reading this, you’ll be able to choose the easiest and most profitable option.
Choosing the Best Sim Cards for the USA: Goal Dependent
The main questions that you should consider when choosing a SIM card are:
- At what time did you arrive in the USA?
- What exactly will be most useful to you: calls or the Internet connection?
Based on answers to these questions, we have compiled the main facts about the best sim cards for the USA for 2025.
Connect a SIM Card in the USA if You’re a Tourist
If you’re a tourist you have several options to stay connected in the USA.
National sim card? You must have a credit history if you want to buy a national sim card in the USA. You do not have any credit history because you are a tourist.
Roaming? The rates of your home operator in roaming may be too high. For example, for Brussels mobile operators, it is about $6-9 per minute.
What is left for you if you do not use a SIM card for a contract and roaming? Read on — there are cool and profitable options.
Prepaid sim? The eternal question of all tourists in the USA:
Are there any simple options for temporary tourists, such as travel sim? For example, you are on vacation in the USA for about 2 months. We need constant data roaming. Do mobile operators sell SIM cards for tourists, that is, without a residency permit?
Yes! They sell almost everywhere! Even in supermarkets, you can buy a prepaid SIM at the checkout. But the quality of communication will be poor and the price, of course, is the most unprofitable.
What we have in total:
— US national SIM cards are not available for temporary tourists
— Prepaid SIM has a lot of disadvantages
— Roaming is very expensive
What do we recommend choosing if you’re a tourist in the USA? An eSIM!
The most obvious and easiest way to connect cellular communication and the Internet in the USA in a couple of minutes is to use a virtual SIM card, like esimplus, for example.
This is the most convenient, fast, and profitable solution if you are looking for the best sim cards for the USA to travel around the country.
By the way: With Esim plus, you simply buy the right package, go to the mobile app to connect it, and track detailed statistics on Internet spending. In the ESIM PLUS app, you can ask a question to support, top up your balance, monitor expenses, etc.
In the 4th last section of this article, we tell you more about eSim, how to connect it, what its advantages are and on which devices it works.
Cellular Communication and Internet in America if You’re Here for a Long Time
If you have come to the USA for a long time, then we advise many to use the services of national operators. They are no better than Esim and require a more thorough approach to connection.
There are four main operators in the USA:
- AT&T;
- T-Mobile;
- Verizon;
- AT&T
You can buy a regular AT&T communication+ Internet package at various shopping malls and even gas stations. By the way, some points of sale add their commission for sales services to the operator’s package.
There are such options for AT&T prepaid sim connections:
Price, $ | Internet | Cellular connection |
30 | unlimited | |
35 | 1 GB | unlimited |
50 | 8 GB | unlimited in US, Mexico, Canada |
- T-Mobile
T-Mobile doesn’t have as much coverage as AT&T, but it has loyal prices.
Price, $ | Internet | Cellular connection |
15 | 2 GB | unlimited |
25 | 5 GB | unlimited |
40 | 10 GB | unlimited |
- Verizon
Verizon packages include unlimited calls and SMS within the network, as well as traffic for 30 days:
Price, $ | Internet | Cellular connection |
35 | 1 GB | unlimited |
40 | 6 GB | unlimited |
50 | 16 GB | unlimited |
$35 — 1 GB
$40 — 6 GB
$50 — 16 GB
Communication in the USA, if You Are in the Country Temporarily, but Do Not Know for How Long
The easiest thing is to buy a simple prepaid sim if you don’t know exactly how long you are here. In the USA, only money is needed for a prepaid SIM card, and more (50-100 dollars of Prepaid are sold in any Target and a bunch of other places. They don’t even ask for a passport.
What Is the Problem With Prepaid Sim Cards?
The difficulty may be different – whether your phone supports American LTE frequencies, as well as VoLTE. Many phones bought in Europe, for example, do not support this. AT&T simply won’t let such phones into the network (and will block the SIM card). T-Mobile will register in 2g, which will not work for data.
You need to check each of the phone’s abilities separately.
Esim Cards for Traveling in the USA: The Easiest, Most Advanced, and Universal Way to Stay Connected in the USA.
Thanks to eSim, you can now buy and pay for Internet in the USA from anywhere in the world – and this will be significantly more economical than staying in “native” roaming.
Benefits of eSim:
— Passport data is not needed, and the registration process is simplified. eSim plus, for example, does not store or transmit your data to anyone.
— You can buy one or more packages right at the final location, for example, using Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby and turning on it by installing it on your phone.
— It is cheaper. ESIMPLUS for the USA can buy 1 gigabyte of mobile Internet (which is 45 hours of communication via any messenger) for 4.5 euros.
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