It appears that neither Cingular nor T-Mobile will sell you a prepaid SIM in the US without a phone. If you poke around on their web sites, all the prepaid plans include a phone. I realize there's no technical reason that you couldn't just pop in a new SIM like you can in Europe, but if they won't, they won't. My guess would be that there are so few unlocked GSM phones in the US and even fewer people who understand what they are that it's not worth the hassle of supporting them.
A regular subscription phone is no good, since the subscriptions are all for at least a year with a large penalty if you cancel early.
Agreed. With a credit card and a passport it shouldn't be a problem.
That used to be true, but Cingular is rapidly switching their whole network to GSM, to the extent that they're selling GSM-only phones now. If you have a GSM phone, particularly if it's both GSM 850/1900, it should work all over the place.
Hey, my US GSM phone worked great in Argentina. The rates weren't great, but that's a separate issue. I looked at the phones that Cingular and T-Mobile sell, and was surprised how many of them, not just the ones sold as world phones, handle 900 or 1800 as well as 850 and 1900. But if you can unlock your Australian phone, you don't care.
Agreed. You can buy a used phone for what it costs to rent one for a week.
R's,
John