Our daughter is going to be spending a school year (9 months) studying in London. We would like her to have a cell phone while she is there. Using her current U.S. cell phone would result in a $1.29 per minute roaming charge. We are looking for something cheaper she could use to make local calls and occasional calls home. Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

She should buy one when she gets there. Carphone Warehouse is a large chain and I purchased mine there for about 40 GBP, including about 10 GBP of talk time. It is much cheaper to buy one there, and you know it will work properly, as is not always the case with global phones purchased through eBay or the like. She won't need a phone contract--she'll just go online or to a kiosk and top up her phone when the minutes are running low. It's very easy!

A very, very, strong endorsement of kswl.

Pay as you go mobile phones in any British High Street shop run £25-£40. They can can be topped up practicaly anywhere - at petrol stations, at cashpoints, at any convenience shop or post office. Or even online, if you're really locked into old-fashioned systems. There's no point recommending a brand since this is a fashion product and what's good value today will be overtaken sometime in the next half hour. Even thinking of buying a phone abroad - especially in a country that's in the third world as far as mobiles are concerned - is utterly doolally.

If she's not able to make that decision for herself, she really shouldn't be trusted outside your front porch.

Hi there--
I spent a year abroad in the UK last year. I bought a phone once there--- 40-6- GBP should be enough to purchase the phone. I did top up as well-- it's very simple (she can actually just attach a credit card to her phone so that she can replenish it wherever). I would advise her to then purchase a long distance phone card specifically for calls abroad.. (don't bother buying her one here-- most won't work ).. Whenever I called home I used a phone card-- it definitely saves you money.
I think I spent about 20-25 pounds a month on talk time for local calls. I was pretty thrifty with it.
Hope this helps.
Make sure she doesn't buy the phone used (this might be a no-brainer to some) but I didn't have many options where I was-- I was ripped off.
I'm sure some Londoners will have some advice of good shops.

Actually I have found prices at Carphone Warehouse for unlocked (sim free) phones are somewhat higher than I can do at some internet merchants here.

If you take a look at www.mobilebee.com, you can get good prices on some Nokia models. The phones are new and are tri band with the proper European frequencies (900/1800/1900); what you have to be careful about, especially when buying GSM phones in the US, is not to get the US models which lack the 900 frequency. You can get a perfectly good Nokia 3100 for around $100 or for a few bucks more a Nokia 3120 which is the same model but a little newer. Or if she wants a camer phone, you might consider the Nokia 3220. The chain stores in London will have newer models with a few more whistles but you will pay a good deal more. The nokia models are fine for a basic phone with a couple of whistles.

Then I would start her out with a Virgin mobile sim pack obtainable from www.L8shop.net. They charge around £3 for the sim pack and £3 to ship to the USA. In London, the same sim pack usually goes for £10. While some are not happy with Virgin mobile coverage in certain parts of the UK, it is absolutely fine in London.

The sim pack comes with:

1. The actual phone number.

2. No need to register. As soon as yuo pop the sim card into the phone, you're in.

3. You get an electronic swipe card for topping up.

Virgin mobile has a very simple tariff plane: 15p/minute for calls within the UK for the first 5 minutes of usage each day and then 5p/minute thereafter. All calls are timed to the second i.e. talk for 67 seconds and pay for 67 seconds not 2 minutes which US mobile carriers pull. All calls are subject to a 5p minimum charge.

Calls to North America (US and Canada) cost 20p/minute again timed to the second and count towards the 5 minutes indicated above again subject to a 5p minimum.

Calls to voice mail are free.

And as with other gsm carriers, she will pay nothing to receive calls, you will pay a surcharge when you call her over the rates listed on most carriers.

Now when you send her off, she might find that many of her friends are on a different network and since the British mobile carriers charge high rates to call other networks, she can always change carrier easily enough while she's there since the phone will be unlocked and all she has to do is switch sim cards and let you know her new phone number.

That is what I would do....nice and simple and neat.

Again the advantage of using virgin mobile are the cheap calls to North America (other than Orange, the other British carriers charge much more to call North America) and the fact she will have her phone number before leaving!

I did forget to mention, the virgin mobile sim pack comes with £5 worth of call credit to start.

To top up, she brings the swipe card into any chain grocery, drug store, mobile phone store, hands the clerk the swipe card tells him she wants whatever say £5 worth of credit and voila done. Nice and simple.

xyz, the phone I purchased was the Nokia, and it came with the Virgin sim pack, just as you described. The shop assistant put the sim card in, made me do it, too, and I also had a phone number all ready with no waiting for a phone number--it was there, printed on the top-up swipe card.

The problem with students ordering merchandise off the internet is that, occasionally, there won't be a porter to receive the package at the residence hall. IMO it is much easier, and from your description not a bit more costly, to go to a shop and get it there.

No..my understanding is she has not left yet and is still in the US and the dad wants to get everything in order before she leaves.

I agree, if she's already in London, she might as well just go to a shop and have it done....

My experience is that sim free phones in London are somewhat more expensive that what is available in the US on the net; but I agree that it is very easy to buy a locked phone say on Virgin then wander down Oxford Street and fine shop after shop that will unlock it (or use the free Nokia unlock code generator on the net).

xyz