Hi

Would like to get a sim card when I arrive in London. Is it possible to buy on at Heathrow when I land?

Thanks

I'm sure but you will pay....O2, T Mobile, Vodafone and Orange all have information on their web sites where they will send one or more sim cards to any UK address so you could use your hotel address to receive the sim cards...other than vodafone they won't have any credit (vodafone has £1 or has had in the past) but they're easy to top up, very easy. Also UK sim cards are readilly available on ebay for Less than $5 US shipping included if having the number beforehand is important. You'll have to top them up upon arrival but again no big deal.....

Why do you need one IMMEDIATELY on arrival?

I'm pretty sure it's NOT possible (practically all Heathrow shops are accessible to departing passengers only) - but no-one's infallible about Heathrow and facilities are changing all the time.

But assume it's not possible for you unless someone comes on here and says yes they know for absolute certain a passenger arriving at the terminal you're using can buy a SIM, gives you the specific location and you've double-checked it's:
a) a location you can sensibly access (a shop in T4 is completely useless if you're arriving in T5 and a vending machine at the T1-3 tube station is pretty useless if you're collecting a hire car at T4), and
b) still trading.

99.9999% of all shops in Britain outside LHR sell either SIMs or phones almost as cheap as a SIM. For most people it makes most sense either to buy a UK SIM/phone in a British city or suburb, or pre-buy on Ebay before leaving.

Yes it is possible. I arrived at T1, Oct 2010, and there was a vending machine before you reach immigration. SIM costs 10 GBP.

<<< SIM costs 10 GBP >>>

And phone shops give them away for free. Or if you can't be bothered small independent traders & Pound shops sell them for a £1

...or you can go to the individual web sites and have them delivered to your first hotel for FREE.

The OP posted this a year ago - he either already has his phone/sim card -- or didn't go to London (and he hasn't been back to Fodors since posting this).

Gareth registered today and somehow found this thread to top (instead of one of the countless more recent cell phone threads)