GSM carrier in USA for Arduino tinkering

Using Arduino Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

I picked up a gsm shield to tinker with and am wondering if anyone knows a cheap pre-paid carrier in the US. A few years ago I got a CDMA activation/number off eBay for lik .99¢, and it came with a 100 free minutes good for 3 months. I'd like to find some kind of pre paid SIM card on the GSM network, but the cheapest I've found is more like 10-15$ a month.
Thanks,

2

I use ATT GoPhone. Purchased the SIM for $10, purchased the per-minute plan with $20 unlimited SMS per month. Will never use minutes so only pay $20 each month. Put the SIM in the GSM shield, go to the ATT website and follow directions. The biggest challenge is getting the ATT mygophone login password to activate the account and SIM. You have to be able to read the SMS messages received because the ATT systems sends a "new temp password" to the SIM/Shield. You cannot complete activation of the card until entering the Temp password.
Hope this helps.

Radio Shack sells the ATT GoPhone SIM cards, $10. You will also need the EMEI number from your SIM900 shield. It's more expensive than you prefer, but it works and is the only solution I know of.

3

Thanks for the info.

4

T-mobile is pretty cheap too. They often run free activation kits deals:

http://dealsea.com/view-deal/133711

Last time I bought two but have not used them yet. Totally free kits :slight_smile:

5

Thanks. I got a couple free activation kits. I see you can get a $10 card that last 3 months so that not bad to test out a shield for 25¢ a text.

6

No problem! I think they also have cheap 2G plan or something. Worth giving it a try. You can log sensor data to a server :slight_smile:

7

I'm a GPRS newbie, and about to go down this road - did you just use the Serial Monitor to read the "temp password" from the incoming SMS from ATT?
If I buy the card at an ATT store, can they activate it there for me in a phone they have in the store?

Thanks. --adam

JayStel:
I use ATT GoPhone. Purchased the SIM for $10, purchased the per-minute plan with $20 unlimited SMS per month. Will never use minutes so only pay $20 each month. Put the SIM in the GSM shield, go to the ATT website and follow directions. The biggest challenge is getting the ATT mygophone login password to activate the account and SIM. You have to be able to read the SMS messages received because the ATT systems sends a "new temp password" to the SIM/Shield. You cannot complete activation of the card until entering the Temp password.

8

Has anyone tried: http://www.truphone.com/ROW/Personal/Tru-SIM/Overview/ ?