Best deal for SIM card in USA (mainland and Hawaii) and Canada if possible

Any ideas on current deals for SIM card (data and calls) that can bs used in Hawaii (Oahu and Maui) as well as Seattle, Sacramento and Chico and the finally in Vancouver

David,

I use Datago here in Australia for an ATT card for $60/month which (call and datawise) suits me and is cheaper than getting it from ATT in the US but gives me access to an ATT online account. There are a few others that are similar. You can have the SIM delivered inside a week if you are travelling soon. You can activate it the day before you go so it is ready when you arrive

I use a T-mobile pre-paid sim but not the tourist one which expires after 30 days or so.

Depends where you will spend most of your time in the US. AT&T are the Telstra of the US. T-Mobile easy and popular. You want a US sim that is easy to reload. West coast and Easts coast have different providers. Don’t take a Aussie prepaid, waste of money.

How long are you away for? If you're out of contract here, Vodaphone has a good option where you can use your current plan in the US for an additional $5 a day. So you could transfer to them then stay or go when you get back.

AT&T are absolutely the network to go with. They have recently changed their operational areas to include Canada & Mexico for no extra cost. Having once made the mistake of believing we'd just "pick up a SIM" when we arrived in the USA (like you can everywhere else .... including Russia), we now buy a couple of AT&T SIMs off the Internet from an Australian seller who includes set-up instructions for before you go to ensure they will work when you land in the USA (and yes, Hawaii IS part of the USA :-)

However .... be aware you just about need to give them your inside-leg measurement as well as specific codes from your (unlocked) phone to be able to register online. Then when you attempt to pre-load US$60 via the website you will eventually give up and make a phone call directly to AT&T in the USA .... select whatever menu level that gets you through to a human being, then, declining all the other offers they will put to you, take the 30 day $60 once-off plan (plus Sales Tax plus conversion rates of course). It sounds like a bit of a chore ... and it is, but it 100% worth it if you want fabulous phone and data coverage in all the places you are going.

Then ... DON'T turn the phone on (with the AT&T SIM) until you land ... at which time you should experience 30 days of near-perfect coverage and quality, with the option to extend for a further 30 days at a time as you require.

You most certainly can walk into an AT&T store now and pick up a sim. It changed a couple of years back. But why would you waste up to 1/2 a day doing that when you can have the same thing delivered to your door before leaving home.

Open Signal shows that your post is incorrect. T-Mobile has been ace-ing the USA market for speed and coverage particularly over the past 12 months. If you choose to doubt, then I suggest you have a look at: http://opensignal.com/reports/2018/01/usa/state-of-the-mobile-network

From Open Signal's introductory remarks : "Verizon and AT&T have averted the capacity crunch brought on by their reintroduction of unlimited plans. Both operators have halted their declines in 4G speed, and Verizon's speeds returned to their pre-unlimited levels at the end of 2017. But while Verizon and AT&T were dealing with their capacity issues, T-Mobile and Sprint were by no means idle. T-Mobile established itself as the dominant operator in speed, and won nearly every OpenSignal performance award in the 4th quarter. Meanwhile Sprint has reasserted itself, making big gains in several of our core metrics."