Semester Abroad in London
 

Hi! I'm studying abroad this semester in london and was wondering what to about cell phone usage there.

I have a tri band (850/1800/1900) samsung phone and plan on unlocking it before leaving. what sim card/UK carrier would be recommended, where could i buy it, or is it better to buy a new phone in london?

thanks!

You might do better with a title like "using triband phone in London"

With the lack of 900MHz band, you can only use SIM card from Orange, T-Mobile and other virtual network that use T-M infrastructure such as Virgin. You won't go wrong with any of them as coverage is very good in most of the country, except remote mountainous areas. SIM card is very cheap from newsagents, bargain shops etc selling from £1 (or they are occasionally given away free - I got several myself this year - but only online).

London is full of mobile phone shops (main chains not tied to carriers are Carphone Warehouse, The Link and Phones4U), and if you have an unlocked phone, there should be no problem about getting a SIM card for a pay-as-you-go deal. Rates vary between carriers, so you should ask what they are in the light of your likely usage. Bear in mind that cheaper ones may not be usable outside the UK, so if you're planning to go abroad while you're here you might need to check that out. I'm with Virgin, which does allow "roaming" (at a cost!) in most European countries.

I responded in the other thread you posted...

Check out
http://www.yourcallworld.com/default.aspx

They explain how to get a T Mobile UK sim card for next to nothing and how you can use it to call almost anywhere in the civilized world including the USA and Canada for 3p/minute. Calls withn the UK are, I believe, 15p per minute even to other network mobiles.

And since T Mobile UK operate almost exclusively in 1800, your lack of 900 should not present much of a problem.