[handyandylasvegas]

Hi All

Coming over from Australian for 10 days on an exploratory visit checking your real estate situation.

Whilst in Vegas I will need browse the net fairly extensively and also make local calls,

The gear I will have with me is the HTC Desire mobile phone and my laptop both are Wifi capable.

I was planning to get a prepaid phone card that provides substantial calls (local) and data allowance and obviously is reliable throughout the Vegas area.

The HTC can act as a modem so by plugging it to my laptop I can browse the web when away from a Wifi hotspot.

I can also run Skype on the HTC so I can forward all Australian calls from my Aust based mobile to a Skype account to still receive these calls on the HTC. Basically it's a Skype to Skype connection with forwarding to the first Skype account. This will need a very reliable data connection.

So given my criteria, which prepaid phone company is the best one to use (obviously would still be a price/benefit proposition)

Thanks in advance.

[MediocreButArrogant]

I take it you have an unlocked, GSM version of the HTC Desire? So what you want to do is get a prepaid SIM for a GSM provider in the USA and use it while you are here? AT&T and T-Mobile are the major GSM providers in the USA. AT&T sucks, so that leaves T-Mobile. You can buy a prepaid SIM for T-Mobile for $9.95 (or even free if you buy online I think) and then add minutes in $10-$25-$100 increments with cards you can buy in any drugstore. I use a prepaid T-Mobile SIM in an unlocked GSM phone as my emergency mobile phone.

Just noticed you also need data. I don't have experience with prepaid plans with data. Someone in the cell phone forum can probably give you an answer. Looks like AT&T Go Phone (brand for their prepaid plans) has a $75 plan that includes 200MB of data. Prepaid plans with data are not really used that much here - mobile providers would prefer to lock you into a long term postpaid plan with a high monthly cost.

[Ryuji]

PrePaidGSM: United States of America (http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/usa.html - broken link) might help a bit.