Just got back from London where I used my unlocked BB Bold with a local SIM from Lebara. Internet access did not work. Voice and text worked fine. Calls within UK and back to US are cheap - 4 pence (about .06 US cents) per minute. You can pick it up at any of the gazillion mobile phone stores or even order it in advance at www.lebara.com. Have used this same company's SIM in an unlocked Motorola RAZR in the past, worked fine.

Unlocking - got the code from A&T prior to departure. I've been a customer for years so they gave it to me "as a favor" the same day I asked, said that usually one must request and wait a week or more for a reply. There are scads of places that will unlock your phone for a small fee - google cell phone repair in (your location) or look on craig's list under cell phones, there are always lots of shops that advertise there. I used one of them to unlock he RAZR mentioned above.

Beautiful. Exactly the information I needed and in a timely manner!

According to that website there appears to be a location in each of the terminals at LHR to buy a card. It looks like you buy the sim card for 3 pounds and then put as much as you want on it. With those rates as low as they are, I was thinking that 10 pounds is plenty to start.

I think I'll call AT&T and ask them if they'll unlock the RAZR. If not, I will check out your other suggestions. Thank you!

Call AT&T. You should be easily able to unlock either/both phones. Over 23 nights, you'll likely have occasions to want to contact each other. If you get your iPhone unlocked, be sure you know how to turn off data.

SIMs in the UK are a real bargain compared to using AT&T.

I went into the local AT&T store today. They told me to call customer service to get the RAZR unlocked, and that unlocking the iphone would invalidate the warranty. So I just got off the phone with AT&T and they told me how to unlock the RAZR and gave me the 8 digit code. I guess I won't know if it actually works until we get there, but he said there is no reason it shouldn't. Thanks to both of you for helping me.

Regarding finding a place at LHR to buy the SIM, do these descriptions (Oasis, Rainbow) mean anything to you? Or should we just wait until we arrive at Bath and get a SIM our first morning in Bath?:


Travelex 1008
Heathrow; Terminal 4 Oasis

Travelex 1021
Heathrow; Terminal 3 Rainbow

Travelex 1402
Heathrow; Terminal 4 Landside Arrivals

Travel Information Centre
Terminal 1 Arrivals

Getting British sim cards couldn't be easier...

If you go to the web sites of any of the big 4 mobile companies (T Mobile UK, O2 UK, Vodafone UK, Orange UK), you will see that they will post free sims to any UK address including your hotel...only the vodafone one will have any credit on it but they can easily be topped up at most any convenience store, drug store, grocery store, gas station whatever.

2. Some of the companies hand out free sims either at company stores or as yu get off the train at St. Pancreas or Victoria.

3. For a very small investment, and I mean very small, you can get British sims either on the US ebay site or on the ebay uk web site....I see each of the telcoms listed with sim cards costing next to nothing with not to expensive shipping. Total investment, about $5...again most except Vodafgone will have no credit but they can be topped up at the airport. This way, except for Orange, you will know your UK number; I saw a listing on the ebay uk site (www.ebay.co.uk) for 2 vodafone sim cards with credit on them also for ortange sim cards with credit on them. For $5, how can you go wrong???? As I said, you will know your number.

Vodafone UK, if calling back to the USA or Canada is a key, has a plan you have to register for (Vodafone International) allowing 5p/minute calls to the USA and Canada and much of tyhe rest of the civilized world. Orange camel features 6p/minute calls to the USA. T Mobile UK has a plan for 5p/minute calls to the USA..Lebarra, a virtual carrier, features 4p/minute calls to the USA...they all have pretty competitive prices for calls within the UK (you can check all of their web sites for the various local plans)....all have free reception of calls within the Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)..both Orange UK and T Mobile UK (as well as 3) tie in with a firm called yourcallworld (www.yourcallworld.com) which would enable you to call throughout much of the world for 3p/minute although it is a tad more inconvenient to make the call as it acts much like a calling card...that is you have to call a triggering number and then enter the number you are calling but it works and works easily.

All the cards feature European roaming rates as dictated by the eu and each has a separate way of getting lower cost roaming within Europe (consult the web site)...for example with Orange UK, for £5 for one month you can get free reception of calls throughout the eu although you won't get the dirt cheap international calls.

Finally bear in mind that people calling you on the British sim card will pay a surcharge to call you and most ld carriers in the USA charge about 30¢/minute give or take to call a British cell phone number....what I have found is an outfit called localphone (www.localphone.com)...for $3 and 99¢/minth (again dirt cheap) they can give you a local number in just about any area code in either the USA or Canada (I think it's called a did number)....that can be programmed on the web to ring to your British mobile number...your caller pays whtever their carrier charges to call your local number, you pay 12¢/minute...transmission is quick and it works well.

Finally, for the most part British sim cards are easy to keep active...all you need do is send 1 text message every 180 days and since they all allow roaming in the USA (you wouldn't want to make or receive calls on the British sim, too expensive) but sending a text message is relatively inexpensive. I have had the same British sim card and hence British number for the past 8 years yes I do visit London quite a bit but have been able to keep the card active via test messaging myself.

Finally, British sim cards as I noted at the beginning are extremely easy to top up...most come with a swipe card which looks like a credit card...you go into a convenience store, grocery store, drug store, give the clerk the card, the clerk runs it through his terminal, you pay the money (you can usually top up for as little as 5 uuid which goes as we've seen a long way) and one nice thing about British sim cards is that the language problem is minimal because after all English is a pretty closely allied language to American...incidentally if you order the sim card before, you can pop it into the phone and if indeed the phone has been unlocked, it will register on a US network, either T Mobile or AT&T...if the unlocking did not work you will get a message the sim card is unauthorized....you just cdan't lose on this deal.

"Getting British sim cards couldn't be easier..."

Ah hahahaha! After reading all that was written after that beginning sentence of yours, I have to laugh!

Seriously, that is some excellent information and I sincerely appreciate it. I am AMAZED that there are companies like the one you mentioned (www.localphone.com), and that I can come to Fodors and learn of its existence! I will read what you wrote a few times and let it sink in (only then does it make more sense, because I am oblivious when it comes to much of the technology available-in fact I am one of the rare ones who doesn't "text"!)

I'm just glad that it couldn't be tougher easier! Thank you!

Very helpful to me as well. Thank you very much xyz123!

xyz123: As Always, you are a wealth of information and a million thanks to you for taking the time to provide it!

I'm wondering why unlocking the phone would invalidate the warranty?

When you enter the code, you should receive a message that the phone was successfully unlocked. Otherwise, insert any SIM, even an expired one, and if you don't get a message something like "this SIM cannot be used is this phone", you're good to go.

Or you could just buy a cheap phone either when you land or have one delivered to your accommodation. The only advantage of doing it this way is if unlocking your phone invalidates the warranty.A sim card costs £1-3, you can get a phone for £5 - if you top up £10 - which you will probably do anywhere

http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.1999105/Nr.99.aspx?Ns=P_HIDDEN_Stock_Available|1||P_SORT_Price&btnResultSort.x=34&btnResultSort.y=7

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/pay-as-you-go/deal-finder?&dealType=PPAY&phonePrice=0:20

the person who told you that unlocking the phone would have invalidated the warranty was probably talking about the iphone, it is true of the iphone.

THey would tell you that!

just get it unlocked anywhere in UK - no problem

If you have a laptop you can get a 3G pre-pay "dongle anywhere for about 10 or 20 quid with quite a bit stacked on it.

Just to clarify, you can roam on the iphone (using your current phone number and paying ATT a premium), but you can't "unlock" it and put in a new sim card (giving you a new phone number and cheaper rates), at least without "jailbreaking" it.

yes, the store was talking about the iphone warranty, I've only had it a few months...but as djk said, with all of that time we may want to call each other at one point or another, and having a cheap cell may make sense-for future European trips too.

wow sashh, that is incredible. That is an option I may want to pursue. Does that mean I can walk into one of the phone stores and find a phone for 10 pounds or are phones like that usually purchased on line only?

I would not risk unlocking the iPhone, and you are correct that you may want to both have phones. My husband and I found that quite useful as he had business--but even if he did not we sometimes want to do different things and meet up later. I bought my SIM for my unlocked phone in London in a store that sold phones as well. You can find one on ebay if you'd like to have it taken care of in advance.
And one last encouragement on the unlocking, using the SIM, etc. I am no techno expert either, but I hate giving the phone companies money they do not deserve, so it is a great solution! They give directions, and once you have done it once it is so second nature you'll be able to do it without English on future trips.

Rather than unlocking the iPhone, it wouldn't be expensive to buy a second hand phone and there are plenty of shops selling them. When travelling with a friend I find it is useful to both have mobiles. One person goes off to do a bit of shopping, how do you get back in touch? How did we manage before mobile phones?

many people in the USA have gsm carriers (T Mobile and/or AT&T being the national ones but some smaller ones too). All, to remain competitive, allow upgrades of their phones on a yearly or 2 yearly basis. The old phone, can then be unlocked, and used with a different sim card (provided it has at least one of the European frequencies, 900 mhz or 1800 mhz preferably both)....

the "locking" is done by or on behalf of the phone companies, not iPhone so I can't see how it would affect guarantee. In UK you are legally allowed to do this after a certain period. furthermore the phone company will never know...right?

@ khunwilko
At present as per DMCA act unlocking has become illegal in USA.And there has been a petiton filed to make unlocking permanently legal.The petition has been filed in the name as "We the people" https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7

When you are on contract most of the phone company won't allow to unlock their phones that much easily when we contact them.But we can go for unlocking sites to get our phone unlocked easily.Sites such as http://www.onlinegsmunlock.com/unlock-your-phone/rs7wp2/ provide unlock codes to unlock our phone.Just select the phone manufacturer, model,country & network to which your phone is locked.Then provide the IMEI number when it is asked as IMEI number is the essential to generate the unlock code.

What on earth is going on in the US if it is now illegal to do what you want with your own phone?
Land of the free? Hmmm

US has always been way behind with "cellular" phones (they couldn't even think of a good name for them!)
You can get any phone unlocked in Thailand, I doubt that the US phone company would be interested in pursuing the matter if you simply return to using your contract on returning home?? How long IS your contract? How much discount do you receive on the retail price?