swede50

Will spend 2 weeks in England in 3 different locations. We like to keep in touch with our Englishs friends and our home in US. What will be the best phone choice. We use Sprint in the US. Is there a international phone service we can use? Thanks.

tttman

Go to Tesco, buy a T-Mobile Samsung E1150i for about 14 quid and a T-Mobile Sim Pak. Tell the retail specialist to top it off the sim with 20 quid. Then call the USA via www.yourcallworld.com, and pay 3p a minute which deducts off the 20 you put on your T-Mobile Sim Pak.

Seamus

Your Sprint phone will likely not work in the UK as it uses a different type of technology. If you do not have one laying around, you can pick up an unlocked quad band phone on ebay or craigslist for cheap, then when you get to UK buy a local SIM card which are sold just about everywhere (I used Lebara and was pleased.) On return, tuck the phone in a drawer for use on next trip.

xyz123

Lots of stuff here...for the most part English sim cards are FREE like in FREE...You do need to put an initial value onthem called opping up....go to ebay and purchase an unlocked gsm quad band phone...you can get them for $20 or so....on arrival in the UK you might find at LHR folks handing out FREE tmobile sim cards if not, walk into any t mobile or carphone warehouse store and ask for a sim card...they will require an initial top up...£5 will do....insert the sim card....to call the USA dial 290379....the message will tell you to dial the number with the full international code which is 00 so to call the number in the USA 1 212 345 6789 you would dial 001 212 345 6799 and press the # key, do not press send and the call will cost 3p/minuite timed to the next highest SECOND not the next highest minute.....calls within the UK vary..those plans change all the time but yo can check it out when you get there...you will receive calls for FREE while in the UK.

A tad less of a "hassle" if you consider the above to be a hassle, you can sign up for the T Mobile international plan. In that way you can make the calls to the USA directly by dialing 001 212 345 6789 or +1 212 345 6789 followed by send but you will pay 5p/minute..

Hard to beat that

swede50

Thanks for all your info!

OldeBrit

We are also looking for a phone we could use (just for emergencies only) while we are touring Devon and Cornwall next year. The instructions above are a little complicated (we're seniors) could someone please explain in simpler terms - sorry to seem so dense.

Alec

When you arrive in UK, just walk into any mobile phone shop (there are 100s) and buy a pay-as-you-go mobile, which costs you from around £10 upwards. You then top it up (minmum £5 to £10). You are now set to make and receive calls with a UK number. Tell your friends and familes your number, reminding them to use international access code for UK 44 and drop the first 0. It costs you nothing to receive. To make a call, just dial the normal way for UK calls - it will cost around 15 to 20p a min and will be deducted from your credit. To call US, just prefix by 001 and then the rest of the number. It will cost you anything from 20p to £1 a min or more, so it's best to sign up with an international calling plan. Ask the shop for details on what's available and how to sign up.

xyz123

Just to clarify.......if you are using t mobile UK, Orange UK (soon to merge with t mobile, or 3, you don't have to sign up for yourcallworld.......you just dial the number above 29 03 79 to call the USA or any foreign country....otherwise with t mobile you have to sign up for their international plan to have calls to international point be dirt cheap.....since t mobile is merging with orange, you can use both orange and t mobile towers with a t mobile sim card which makes coverage, especially in London, very very good.

kodi

OldeBrit, do you have an Iphone at home? I called Bell Canada and bought a block of minutes . But in a real emergency, I'd just plan on using my phone. The minutes will be expensive, but it't the easiest thing to do in case of emergency. Good luck. Hopefully you won't need to use it.

OldeBrit

Thank you all for taking the time to reply - much appreciated. I think Alec has the best solution for us during our stay in England. We just need the ability to call our friends and/or if necessary, the hotels/car breakdown during our tour. I like the idea "it costs nothing to receive calls" in the UK - it would be nice if that was also the case on our cell phones in the US! We have the International access numbers but I'm sure it must cost to receive calls from the US whilst in the UK?
Thanks again.

flanneruk

" I'm sure it must cost to receive calls from the US whilst in the UK? "

Receiving on a £10 (or any other) British phone? No.
On a call made to a US mobile phone, being used in Britain? Yes. Usually, lots.

xyz123

It's just something to understand the concepts behind mobile (cell) phones developed differently in Europe than in North America. In North America, one pays for air time whether making a call or receiving a call. Most people don't realize that or really care as most non pay as you go plans have so many minutes and things like unlimited weekends, unlimited evenings that it doesn't matter. For that reason, in North America, calls to cell phones cost the same as calls to land lines. Also by looking at a phone number, as it has developed, you can't tell whether the number is a cello numbger, a beeper number or a land line (at the start of this revolution, in some jurisdictions they set aside specifric area codes for cell phones and the like, for example, in New York City area code 917 was originally for that purpose only. Now a call to NYC area code 917 could be a cwll phonw oe VWWPWE OE JUAR ewfulE Lnslinw. Perhaps in North America the biggest problem for some, at least for med, is you cannot tell from a phone number unless you're a walking encyclopedia of area codes, whether a phone number is in the USA which might be included under a plan, or to Canada or to the Caribean which can be much more expensive.

Now in the UK as well as much of the rest of the world, mobile phones get special numbers and do not include a city code...land lines have city codes. In the UK, all mobile phone numbers start with a "7"..it doesn't matter if the phone was bought in London or Edinburgh or Belfast, the phone numbers are the same. The concept is the caller pays a surcharge for calls to mobile phones, the recipiet pays nothing; it doesn't matter where the call originates. Therefore if you ever look at US international tariffs it might say calls to the UK cost 7¢/minute and then in fine print it might say there is a surcharge of 22¢/minute to mobile phones which is why when you receive a call in the UK on a UK mbile, you pay nothing, the caller has paid a surcharge and alon on UK tariff sheets, all calls to the USA or Canada are considered andline calls and are charged the same whether it's a cell phone recipient or not.

mrcamp

Well said xyz123! It's free to receive calls on mobiles in the UK and most of the rest of the world, but the caller pays a HEFTY premium to call those mobiles. OTOH, callers pay the same to call US mobiles and landlines.

xyz123

Just a quick correction...with a UK sim card, you will receive calls for free in the UK...throughout the rest of the eu, you will pay to receive calls although the eu has been working to cap these rates and it has come down tremendously from what it once was...it may be down to as little as 11p/minute but don't hold me to that. The goal of the UK is to eliminate this completelhy by 2015...(after the first 30 seconds, the eu requires these calls to be timed to the second)....there are some international cards which allow free reception of calls in dozens of countries including the whole eu...th eu capping has had a devastating effect on what many international companies used to provide but that's for another time and place.