Tech

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US Pay As You Go SIM Card For My iPhone

I really like my iPhone. It’s like carrying a smaller version of my iPad and parts of my computer with me all the time, keeping info I need right at hand. I really didn’t want to put it away for the winter and get a new phone in the US and then again in Mexico. Surely it was possible to get a SIM card in each country while maintaining all my phone settings?

I called SaskTel and they said I could unlock my phone for $50. I made sure that unlocking the phone meant that I could use the phone with SIM cards from carriers in other countries. Yup, that’s exactly what unlocking does. I’m still newish to this whole cell phone thing, okay? Don’t look at me like that. 😀

I got to Billings last night and went to a Walmart because I knew that they sell pay as you go service and that would likely be the cheapest and easiest option. The boy who served me was obviously in the right department. I asked for a pay as you go service for my iPhone and he ran me through a battery of questions to make sure the pay as you go service they sell, ‘GoPhone’ from AT&T would work with my SaskTel iPhone, including that I have a GSM phone. He handled my phone for a bit, pulled up a few screens, and confirmed that GoPhone would work for me. I had a choice of $40 for limited talk and text and 1GB of data, or $60 for unlimited talk in the US, unlimited text to/from Canada and Mexico, and 2.5GB of data. Pricey, but it is a pay as you go service! I went for the $60 option, plus $10 for the SIM card.

When I got back to my truck, I realised that I had forgotten to bring Apple’s super high tech (not) iPhone paperclip for accessing the SIM card! I was tired and decided to go back to Walmart in the morning to ask the service desk for a paperclip. But in the middle of the night, I had an epiphany. An earring worked great at opening up the little SIM drawer. 😀

Setting up the GoPhone SIM was pretty simple, but I don’t know if it can be done without a computer and internet access. I inserted the SIM card and was told to connect to iTunes. I did and got an ‘unlock successful!’ message (so far, so good!).  I then went online to activate the SIM card and get a US phone number. I then had to reboot the phone. After that, I was able to continue in the online screens to enter the PIN number for my pay as you go top up card. I was not able to do that through the phone for some reason.

I do need to put my SaskTel card back into the phone so I can call them toll free to suspend my account, but research tells me that I can carefully go back and forth between registered SIMS without an fuss. We shall see…

That’s it! I now have US service, enough data to Netflix in the evenings, and I can text my mother in Canada every so often to let her know I didn’t get eaten by Bigfoot. 😀

I’m off to get an oil change, and then going to get closer to Old Faithful so I don’t have a huge drive tomorrow and can enjoy an outdoorsy day. At this point, I have no intention of doing any more super long days like I did yesterday. I’m in no rush.

The truck was super comfy last night and I slept well! I will sleep in the truck the next two nights as long as the weather holds. I was actually too warm last night and had to throw off blankets! I will be getting a hotel for the weekend, though. I need to do some Priceline.com research to find something under $50 a night. Since I don’t have a preferred city location for the hotel, just something between Old Faithful and Springdale, UT, that shouldn’t be hard. I found the perfect hotel in Pocatello for $54 a night base price, so I’ll probably start bidding in that area as I might be able to get something under $40. I love Priceline!

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A Non-Intrusive Way of Bringing Cables Into an RV

All of last summer, winter, and spring, I brought my internet antenna cable in through the office window, sealing the gap as best as I could with tape and, in the coldest month, towels. Bugs and cold still managed to get in. This summer, I was determined to find a better, yet non-intrusive, way to bring cables into my RV.

My impetus was moving to a new type of cellular booster. I’m not ready to blog about that as my system is not working as well as expected and I’m still exploring other options. So while I wanted to bring the cable in in such a way that bugs and cold couldn’t get in, I didn’t want to make any holes since I’m not sure my booster system is what I’m going to end up using permanently here.

If I ever get this booster working as well as I believed it would, I will likely put a hole in the roof over a cabinet, install the booster in there, and run the cable to it. But for now, the cable is out of my way and this is working out well.

My coax cable is in two sections, with its connector being at ground level. So when I had to move Miranda in a hurry a few weeks ago, I was able to show Caroline where the junction was and leave her to disconnect the two bits and coiling the part attached to the RV around the ladder while I did other things instead of my having to disconnect the booster from inside and scramble onto the roof to yank the wire out of the way. Unintentional, but perfect, design!

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Bell Mobility Mifi Impasse

It’s been three months since Bell Mobility sent me yet another Mifi device and that one has also bit the dust, right on schedule. I spent almost an hour on the phone with Bell this afternoon, most of it wasted after I got disconnected by them (I was in town, so it wasn’t my connection) and the people I had spoken with hadn’t taken notes. *sighs*

Bell’s position is that my warranty is expired, so if I want replacement devices until the end of my contract, I have to pay for them. I asked about canceling my contract (11 months left on it) and they said sure, with a steep penalty. I forget the exact amount, but it’s more than the total $110 in minimum monthly payments that I will pay if I ride out the contract.

My position is that if they’re going to lock me into a contract, they should provide me with a device that works. It’s not like I keep losing or dropping them! If they can’t do that, then they should allow me to cancel without penalty and go to Novatel for the cancellation cost. Needless to say, they weren’t hearing me very well.

They acknowledge that the device is crap and that they have nothing else to offer me for my current plan and told me that I should take my fight to the manufacturer, Novatel. Oh, you mean the company that is impossible to reach?

Not only has my Mifi died, but the SIM card has taken a lot of abuse from being pulled in and out of all the Mifis I’ve had and is no longer work. Bell said I could have a replacement at no charge and are sending one out tomorrow. I told them that I will be using it in a friend’s device.

But…

What Bell doesn’t have in its notes is that they have one really good supervisor on their team who sent me an extra Mifi several months ago. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

So I have a backup unit that I can use with the new SIM card. That should get me through till I leave in October, with about eight months left on the contract. Since I’m going to Mexico, I was already resigned to paying the minimum service fee over the winter, working device or not. When I get back next spring, the contract will have come due and I’ll be able to cancel without penalty.

Score one for the little guy.

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Miranda Back at Haven

I was done with the pressing work for today by 9:15 and immediately packed up to move. I wasn’t going far, so I just made sure the important stuff was secure inside, disconnected propane, put away the power cord, and, most important, remembered to put up my step!

It was too early to go ask Caroline to be a spotter and I decided that I could get out on my own. I got into trouble going into the spot because I underestimated how tight the turn would be. By backing straight out to just a few feet of the trees, I would clear the overhang and then be able to do the “wheels tight to one side, back up as far as possible, wheels tight to the other side, advance as far as possible” method of getting out of a tight spot with little manoeuvring room. It worked beautifully and I had zero trouble getting out!

Getting into Haven, however… Because so many trucks have been going in through the rear alley it never occurred to me that there was a giant branch in the way that I would not be able to clear! I wound up having to back out of the alley to the street, go around the block, and access Haven through a neighbour’s yard. Before I get any looks, that neighbour drives through his yard all the time, so I didn’t make any tracks that weren’t there already!

That put me in a better position to get onto the RV pad. The gravel isn’t level, so I did some back and forthing until I was positioned as best as possible and then used levelers to finish. It’s not perfect, but I suspect I will settle into the spot. At some point, I will ask Charles to help me put blocks under the axles as I am tired of rocking in the wind!

I was done by 10:30. Wow! I then did a quick run to town and had a celebratory lunch. When I got in, I sorted out the internet, managing to get full bars on my Mifi with the new booster and antenna, but zero bars on the iPhone. Very odd. It does have a decent signal strength and Siri is working, so I’ll try later to see if I can surf with it or not.

My front door is presently wide open and I’m off to dig my chairs out of Laura’s garage so that I can have a beer on my porch later. 🙂

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Solar Phone Charger

I love bargain hunting at the Willow Bunch Thrift Store, located just 10 minutes from Haven. 90% of my current wardrobe comes from there and I’m always finding little things for the rig or the property that are also a bargain.

In the electronics room today, I found a curious object:

I was fairly certain I was looking at a solar cell phone and small USB-powered device charger, but had no way of confirming my theory. So I gave the thrift store the grand sum of 50 cents for the device so I could try it out at home with my iPhone.

Well, I was right!!! I plugged the iPhone in, turned on the device, and I was rewarded with the ding that tells me the phone is charging! Wow!