Sim

This arrived in the post. It's our new AT&T Sim Card. It's going to keep us in touch with the world during our 6 weeks across America.

You'd have thought that America, leader of the free world, one of the most technological advanced countries, home to Microsoft, home to Apple, home to Google, home to Facebook, the list goes on, would be advanced in the world of mobile broadband.... think again. It doesn't seem to exist in the USA unless you want to tie yourself to costly 24 month contracts.

In the UK you can pick up a relatively cheap dongle and top up with a tenner for a gigabyte and away you go. In America the best deal I could find was 100mb for $19.99.

It's not enough data to continuously browse the web or upload photos and videos, but it's enough for the occasional tweet, blip and search of Google Maps. It should be ok, one of the rules I set when searching for accommodation on our travels were that the places we stay should have wi-fi. This SIM will be for keeping us up to date on the road.