I’m traveling across Europe or India and got my mobile phone always very close to me. Sure, I want to stay connected to the internet to check my emails, post photos, communicate with my customers and so on.

So what I’m doing every time I arrive in a new country is the most important thing for me: Get a local prepaid mobile sim card with the chance to connect to the internet. This works amazingly well I haven’t discovered any problems so far. Sure, India supports only EDGE if you are in luck and you have to pay a daily rate for a specific amount of data but at the end, it works!

Now keep in mind that I’m using an iPhone with microsim which seems to make this a bit complicate in the US.

As soon as I have arrived in LA I headed over to the closest AT&T store to buy a prepaid card for my iPhone with internet access. Guess what, I wasn’t welcome over there with my request. I have tried the same at a Sprint and T-Mobile store but here the same story.

No support for the iPhone 4 with a prepaid sim card in combination with internet access. WOW!

I didn’t knew that this won’t be possible. I thought I’m not the only one looking for a solution. What about other tourists or business travelers? How do they handle that? Using roaming via 3G is a very expensive solution which I have used just a couple of times.

I currently don’t understand the situation about such a missing offer to customers but I really hope some mobile providers will rethink their strategy. Get your product developers back on track and find a solution for tourists and business travelers.

In India, it’s very easy, just go to the next elephant shop and pick up your mobile sim card. The sim card will automatically expire with the end of your visa! Now that is interesting!

I understand that this could be a difficult task to solve in the states as you won’t need a visa as a regular tourist. But here is the simple idea: Let those special prepaid cards expire after 30 days. Easy.

It was really frustrating to look up for the next free WiFi spot to get connected to the internet. So many missed check-ins via foursquare, unanswered mails, missed Skype calls, etc etc. I can’t imagine that there isn’t any solution for, I need to say it again, iPhone 4 users.

I wouldn’t care about cutting a regular sim card to the size of a microsim just to get it working but this isn’t an ideal solution.

Please, dear mobile providers of the US, rethink your product range and drive more customers to your business.

Social Media? Forget about it as tourist if you don’t want to end up with a huge bill from your mobile provider.

There is one thing I have to say “Thank you AT&T”. At some very touristic spots AT&T is offering free WiFi access, now that’s something I’m missing in Germany.

Let’s see what happens in the future and if any mobile provider will get down to the customer who is begging for a prepaid microsim card with internet access. Hope you can see me

Did you had any problems in the US as tourist or business traveler? What is your solution? Please let me know.

There was just one drawback in using Dropbox: The folder structure

In Dropbox you have to create  a single folder which is taking care of all your files. So if you want to get your files into the cloud, you have to move them into the Dropbox folder. This was not enough for my needs, I wanted to keep my own structure on my Mac.

Just a few days ago I have found SugarSync (referral link) which comes around the corner with some great features. By the way, I have a great offer for everyone who is interested in SugarSync – more at the bottom of this article.

You should know that you have to download a client of SugarSync as well.

To give you a quick jump-in, have a look at their (!) comparsion chart:

The list looks pretty amazing and so far I’m really quite happy with it.

Most features are speaking for themselve so I’m not going into each feature.

To be honest, I could write down a whole manual which would be actual good for my writing skills and comment attraction but SugarSync is really really easy and I found myself quite happy each time I have found a new feature. So I will leave you with your own impressions.

Again, what I really love is choosing different folders and keep my own structure, it is that simple, have a look at the slideshow:

I just made a clean install with my MacBook and added it to the device list on SugarSync. All folders which I have connected to my MacBook have been automatically created and downloaded. So this IS pretty easy and fantastic.

Everything has something missing in it’s features list and the same goes with SugarSync:

Your files are encrypted on their server via 128bit AES protection only, which is in fact great but some competitors offer 256bit AES encryption. While talking with their support team, they have mentioned that this will maybe upgraded soon. So it is up to you if 128bit AES encryption is enough or not. Before uploading your files to their server via TLS encryption they get already temporary encrypted in SugarSync’s local database.

There are some filetypes not supported by SugarSync:

Snippet from their website:

SugarSync has also a “Magic Briefcase” which is simillar to the Dropbox folder, it get’s synced everywhere. Other folder have to be given the permission manually. A great thing as you won’t replicate all your data on all devices.

So far that’s all I have found out during the past days.

Now let’s get back to the above mentioned offer.

I hope you found a useful alternative here, if you use any other service, please let me know via your comment.