How to get mobile data in the United States
The US is where the headline roaming bills come from, and coverage outside the cities is patchier than Europeans expect. What visitors need, and why a road trip changes the sizing.
Daniel de NieuweOct 21, 20265 minute read
Do not roam here on a non-US plan without checking the rate first. The US is the country where the headline bills come from, and the gap between doing it right and doing nothing is larger than anywhere else in this series. A travel plan for the US installed before you fly removes the whole question.
Why the US is the sharp end of this
Most countries punish you mildly for roaming. The US punishes you in a way that makes the news.
Without an international plan attached to the line, some US operators bill data at around $15 per megabyte, which is roughly $15,000 per gigabyte. That rate works in both directions: it is what an American pays abroad, and comparable arrangements catch visitors whose home operator has no US agreement.
Two cases from last year, both publicly reported, both T-Mobile customers abroad: bills of $78,240 and $143,442, the second for about 9.5 GB over three weeks of sending photos home. The mechanism is identical to what can happen to a visitor here on the wrong tariff, and it is covered in full in how to avoid roaming charges abroad.
There is no warning screen and no cap by default. The meter runs at a rate nobody has in their head.
If you are visiting the US and your home operator does not include it, you need something else. This is not a convenience argument.
The options
| Verdict | |
|---|---|
| Travel eSIM | Simplest. Install at home, works on arrival, no store, no ID |
| US prepaid SIM | Workable. Sold in supermarkets, pharmacies and carrier stores. Takes an hour and your own number goes offline unless you run two lines |
| Roaming on your home plan | Check the rate before you rely on it. EU roaming does not cover the US, and most European daily passes exclude it or price it separately |
| Hotel and cafe Wi-Fi | Widely available and genuinely useful. Not a plan |
One structural wrinkle, if you have a recent US-market iPhone: it has no SIM tray at all, so the local-SIM option does not exist for you. It has to be an eSIM.
Coverage, which is not what Europeans expect
Three networks matter: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Everything else resells one of them.
Coverage is excellent in cities and along the interstates, and genuinely patchy elsewhere. The country is large and empty in a way that surprises people whose mental model is Europe.
| Where | What to expect |
|---|---|
Cities and suburbs | Strong, 5G common |
Interstates and main highways | Reliable, with gaps |
National parks | Frequently nothing. Yellowstone, Death Valley, much of Utah |
Rural west and mountain roads | Long dead zones, sometimes an hour or more |
Amtrak long-distance routes | Intermittent at best |
If you are doing a road trip, this is the planning item. Download offline maps for the whole route before you leave the city, not when the bars disappear. Download your music and podcasts too. Tell someone your route if you are driving somewhere remote, because you may be out of contact for hours and that is normal rather than alarming.
What you will use data for
More than in Europe, for one structural reason: you will be driving, and everything about driving in the US runs through the phone.
- Navigation for hours at a time, often with live traffic
- Fuel and charging stop lookups
- Hotel and motel booking on the move
- Restaurant hours, because distances mean arriving at a closed door costs you an hour
- Parking apps, which are the default in most cities and often the only option
Add to that the tipping calculations, the ride-hailing in cities, and the fact that a surprising amount of US infrastructure assumes you have a connection.
A two-week US road trip uses considerably more than a two-week city break in Europe. Size accordingly.
Practical details
Tolls and parking are increasingly app-based. Several states have gone cashless on tolls, and city parking frequently has no coin option. Both need a connection at the moment you need them.
US numbers for verification. Some US services will only send a code to a US number, which a data-only travel plan does not give you. If you need one, that is an argument for a local prepaid SIM rather than a plan, and it is worth knowing before you arrive rather than at a rental car desk.
Wi-Fi is everywhere and it is fine. Hotels, cafes, restaurants, many public spaces. It covers the evenings comfortably. It does not cover the driving, which is where the data goes.
Check your home plan's small print specifically for the US. European daily roaming passes frequently exclude it or charge a different rate, and "worldwide" rarely means worldwide.
What to do
- Check what your home operator charges for US data. If the answer is vague, treat the line as unsafe here. The full comparison sits in eSIM vs SIM card vs roaming.
- Buy a plan for the US before you fly, sized for driving rather than for a city break.
- Turn off mobile data on your home line, and the data-abroad setting with it.
- Download offline maps for the entire route, not just the first city.
- If you need a US phone number for verification, plan for a local prepaid SIM instead, and check your phone has a SIM tray.
Key facts
- Without an international plan, some operators bill around $15 per megabyte. Two publicly reported bills last year: $78,240 and $143,442.
- EU roaming does not cover the US. Check your own plan rather than assuming.
- Coverage is excellent in cities, patchy to absent in national parks and the rural west.
- A road trip is the high-usage case. Download offline maps for the whole route.
- Recent US-market iPhones have no SIM tray, so a local SIM is not an option on them.
- A data-only plan gives you no US number, which some services require.
Sources
- Phandroid, 28 August 2025 - This family's $78,000 T-Mobile data roaming bill should be a lesson for us all
- PhoneArena - This T-Mobile customer got a $143,442.74 bill after a three-week Switzerland vacation
The $15 per megabyte pay-per-use rate is T-Mobile's, as reported in that coverage. Rates differ by operator and change over time, so check your own operator's current figure rather than assuming this one.