AT&T or T-Mobile users in the US?

[Beverly]

I am located in California and have been researching using prepaid phones through AT&T or T-Mobile. Neither company sells any of the phones that have been proved to be compatible with FrontlineSMS.

1. Is anyone here using AT&T or T-Mobile? Which phone are you using?
2. If you have bought an "unlocked GSM phone," which one did you buy and where did you buy it from?

Thanks so much.

[Adrian Aguilera]

I purchased the Motorola PEBL U6 on overstock.com for around $90. I then activated it at an AT&T store. They gave me a free SIM card to use and the start up fee is $25. They have unlimited SMS plans for $20 a month that you can use without having to use voice call minutes. They also have a $10 a month for 1000 SMS which I started out with to test.

Check out this thread: http://frontlinesms.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2052630%3ATopic%3A...

[Pablo A. Destefanis]

Using both a KRZR and a Wavecomm modem (much better).
If you look for cellphones in eBay, you'll find loads, as for the specific models, there were a couple threads here discussing that.

Cheers,

Pablo

[Edward]

Does the Motorola KRZR work with no problem? I am trying to find a phone that can use t-mob network and do have access to a krzr.

[Marc Maxson]

We've been having the same problem. We even bought a GSM modem off ebay and it wouldn't accept our sim cards. Ken said it was probably locked (even though it came from a chinese company and took a friggin MONTH to get here!).

So Pablo - you recommend KRZR and wavecomm modem as best solution?

We want to start with an SMS-to-web portal based in DC but accept texts from Kenya and elsewhere. There's no way to cover 130 countries with 130 local portals at first, but that is our goal.

You can real about the deeper significance of allowing villages to text in what they think about a globalgiving project at our blog (http://blog.globalgiving.com) I'll be posting something about "real time feedback" on there this morning, cause we're presenting a paper on this at Oxford today the at the Skoll ISIRC conference (social investors and social entrepreneurs from all over the world)

[Pablo A. Destefanis]

Use the Wavecomm, but make sure to test from each location. The fact that you can text from carrier A in country B does not been that another carrier in the same or different country will work. With a global app, you will run into that problem.
Some carriers will not let you text outside the country, and still you have to mind the costs for the users.

Pablo

[Anthony Papillion]

Hi Marc,

It definitely sounds like the modem was locked. I've run into a few of these in my work where the website says everything is unlocked, things should work on any GSM carrier, and then it just won't accept the SIM. It's usually either a bad SIM (doubtful), a bad modem/phone (more likely), or the modem/phone is still locked (likely). Of course there are cheap ways to get these devices unlocked so that might not be a big problem after all.

As to your country to country SMS system, it's going to be a rocky road and you'll have to do a lot of testing. Like Pablo said, it's going to be very specific to carrier and, sometimes, even countries. Even when you're receiving text from within a specific country, don't assume you're universally accessible there because you probably won't be.

What you *might* do to reduce the problems with this is place a GSM modem inside each country you serve and connect it to a carrier that you *know* can send to the USA. Have everyone in that country text that number, thereby assuring delivery, then have the modem deliver the message to the USA. Sure, it's more complex and a bit more costly but, IMHO, one of the only ways to assure that you're going to be able to get everyone's message. Even then, mobile service can be flakey in some countries so you might miss a message or two.

Global Giving sounds very interesting. If I can be of any help at all. Feel free to get in touch. My direct email is [e-mail] or [e-mail].

Thanks,
Anthony

[Marco Amador]

The nokia 6102i works great. You can find these phones used or for cheap on internet, even try craigslist. Get data cable with drivers. You can call att and buy a sim card from them and activate it, it runs about 40 bucks a months for unlimited text.