Here's the deal: I have a Blackberry Pearl that gets GSM signals (AT&T/Cingular). I am guessing that I can therefore use it in UK. This brings up questions, and I'd be grateful for your help:

(1) Am I right that the US purchased Pearl that gets GSM signal will work in the UK?

(2) If the answer to (1) is yes, can I just purchase a UK SIM card and install the bugger in my phone while I'm in UK?

(3) If the answer to (1) and (2) are yes, are there reputable deals for SIM cards on ebay.co.uk? I've heard the SIM cards can cost around $40 (27 GBP).

(4) And if I've hit the trifecta so far, how do I set up an account with T-Mobile/O2/Orange/Virgin Mobile, etc.?

Thanks in advance.

1) The phone needs to have the right "band" for the UK. Is it new-ish? Do you know if it is "tri-band" or "quad band" (if so, it likely will work in the UK)

2) No - unless the phone is "unlocked" (that is, not tied to a particular US cell phone company). If you've had your AT&T account for some time, they will likely unlock it for you.

3) and 4) Not my territory!

Well I don't know the phone model but there are two questions...

1. Is the phone unlocked?

2. Does the phone have either 900 mhz and/or 1800 mhz

If the answers to 1 and 2 are yes, you're all set.

You can get T Mobile UK sim cards for free if you go to their web site and search a bit (www.tmobile.co.uk). It will be sent to a British address so ask your hotel if they will hold mail for you. It will arrive with no credit on it but includes a swipe card which you take to any shop (chemist, grocery chain, phone, petrol stations) and top up. Once you top up as soon as you make your first call, the account is set up and good to go. T Mobile UK has a tie in with a firm called yourcallworld (www.yourcallworld.com) which will describe how to make calls to outside the UK for as little as 3p/minute. Best deal right now.

2. If you need to know the number immediately, I have found ebay merchants selling T Mobile UK sim cards for as little as $6 postage included. It will come with no credit so the above note applies.

3. Upon arrival in the UK, most of the mobile phone stores are selling sim card packs of most of the major companies (t mobile, O2, Orange, Vodafone) for free with a £10 top up....orange has a good plan called camel which allows you to call the USA and I believe Canada for 6p/minute twice the cost of the T Mobile UK tie in with ycw but you would dial directly and not through a calling card type situation where you dial a local London number first (3p/minute) and then dial the foreign number ending with # instead of send....also there is an MVNO called Talk Mobile which uses Vodafone towers that allows direct dialed calls to the USA for 4p/minute. All include free reception of calls within the UK, all will roam throughout the rest of Europe using the eu caps. Can't help you with data...I use my sim cards only for voice communication.

You can also walk into any T-Mobile shop and get a SIM for £5 that has £5 worth of service on it, and use Web'n'Walk for 5 days £2.50.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/m...on-your-phone/

You can also pick up very cheap pay-as-you-go phones if you are worried about using your own here. My own phone (to my son's horror) cost £10 (including SIM) from a supermarket. No fancy features, no camera, just calls and texts, and suits me fine.

The pearl is a quadband phone. Call AT&T to get the unlock code. They should give it for free as long as you've been a customer in good standing for at least 90 days. As others suggested, get to UK and put one of the UK sims in your phone and you are all set.

Excellent. Thanks to all for your help.

<i>They should give it for free as long as you've been a customer in good standing for at least 90 days. </i>

I think AT&T will only give you the unlock code if you've been a customer for a year or two.

If the phone is locked, or you can't get it unlocked you can get it unlocked in the UK for about £10.

I love my blackberry pearl.

sf7307, No. AT&T will unlock your code after 90 days of service in good standing. I am 100% sure. I have unlocked 5 phones from AT&T in the last year an half. Unlike tmobile that will only unlock 1 phone for you every 90 days, you can unlock unlimited number of phones via AT&T.

See this discusson.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...7#post11492997

<I>sf7307 on Mar 11, 09 at 06:50 PM

I think AT&T will only give you the unlock code if you've been a customer for a year or two.</i>

It's hit-and-miss. I bought a GoPhone (prepaid) last year, and they unlocked it the next day when I told them I'd be traveling to a country where they didn't sell international roaming (I think I said a cruise in the Windward Islands).

My phone's old enough to have Cingular network coding. AT&T bought Cingular. I've had the phone since before my son debuted in the world, so it's been more than 19 months.

And I don't miss payments. So I'm probably off to the AT&T store this weekend to get the unlock code.

BigRuss, don't bother - they don't know how to do it at the store. Call them, and they'll walk you through it on the phone.

BigRuss-
I had my Cingular/AT&T Pearl unlocked, it was easy. Just call AT&T and they will email you the code and directions. If you are reluctant to do it yourself, google "cellphone service" in your area and there will be places that will do it for a few bucks (but it really isn't difficult.)
Once it is unlocked you are free to put into it any SIM you choose. I have one from www.callineurope.com for use in France, and just ordered one from www.lebara.com for us in the UK.

My turn please?

First, a big thanks to Seamus for pointing out Lebara. It is exactly what I want - free mobile to mobile and reasonable UK and phone home rates. I have questions for you - stay tuned.

I called AT&T today - we have been with them for about 9 years - they said 'they will look into' unlocking two of our phones and will get back to us with a decision in 5-7 days. WTF?

=====> IF they say no, we'll take it higher. BUT I would like some advice on how to search for unlocked phones on ebay (hanging head in shame). I ought know how to search. I don't know what to search for, I'm a little technically challenged on this one. Heck I just found out last week what a mobile dongle was for the UK, since we don't have them here in the states. How much should I expect to pay for simple bare bones phones?

======> IF they say yes and we are good to go - Seamus - where do I buy the Lebara SIMS? I would prefer to have them mailed to my USA address or better yet pick them up at a store, not mailed to a hotel. I looked at Lebara's website, there is a phones4U store by my hotel, but I can't find hours or a phone number, AND the prices is waaaaay too high. Lebara has 5 quid SIMS, hey, can I buy ONE for paid phone call, and buy a 2.99 quid, empty SIM for the free mobile to mobile (we are going to use the phones primarily to keep track of each other if we split up in London, family of four)

Thanks!

Hi...

Are you just going to the UK....or will you be travelling to any other place in Europe this summer?

The reason I ask is that vodafone UK has announced a promotion for the summer months (01 June to 31 August) where they will basically allow you free roaming throughout almost all of Europe. That means you will be able to receive calls for free throughout all of Europe this summer. You will have a UK (+44) number. Calls from the UK to the USA have also been lowered to 5p/minute. You can easily get vodafone UK sim cards for less than $5 (shipping included) on ebay.

As far as the phone, ebay does a good job in allowing you to search through. Just do a search for cell phones and along the left side you will see a whole bunch of check boxes. Do you want a camera and an MP3 player quad band. Sony Ericsson has several phones for around $125....you can get cheaper phones without the camera, without the MP3 player. You can indicate buy it now instead of auctions, new never opened and even set your price range. For the UK, you need a phone with the frequency bands 900 and 1800....in the USA they use 850 and 1900 hence a quad band will work in both Europe and North America...it really all depends how many bells and whistles you want.

Given my druthers, at least for this summer, I would go with vodafone over lebara (after all, the more support vodafone gets for this promotion, the more likely they are to extend it beyond 31 August and/or to get other British or other European telcoms to match....

Hi xyz123!!!

To answer your ?s to help me....

UK only, two weeks. I think that is how we will travel in the future, one country at a time. DH is more comfortable with that. I have no problem with a SIM for every country, and by the time we go elsewhere next year, the promotions will change.

Bells/whistles: just a bare bones phone, no camera/mp3, maybe some texting. I want to use these as 'walkie talkies' mostly.

Back to ebay:

UK or USA website?
Search criteria: 'unlocked mobile' or 'unlocked cell phone' then narrow from there?
I know about the buy it now vs auction stuff.

Here, it's a slow night so:

You want a lebara sim card for less than $5.(including shipping)..try http://tinyurl.com/p6kyr9

Also, if you do an ebay search for vodafone UK sim card, you will find one merchant offering a vodafone UK sim card for a similar price (BTW the vodafone sim card comes with £1 credit)....

As noted, since vodafone is international, I would go with them at least for this summer....also you will have to sign up for vodafone passport to get the promotion for the summer...their web site will explain how to text to sign up for passport....

If getting the card is important to you and you don't want to trust having free ones sent to your hotel address in London (I don't see the problem with that, they're free)...these are probably the best deals I can suggest, at least for today.

You never know if O2 and Orange will be forced to match these offers. So far they haven't but we'll see how much business they lose to vodafone.

BTW...the merchant of the above, has a link on the page to his store and he is selling also vodafone UK, orange and T Mobile sim cards for similar prices with cheap shipping to the USA.

(Laker/Nugget game almost over, a bit distracted)

Ebay phones too much $$, I can buy PAYG at Orange for 10 quid.

I'm not sure whether I should trust the hotel or not. If it as a five star, yup. This is a two star....even if they are free, if they aren't there when I get there, I'm spending time looking for another when I could be at Westminster Abbey

I'll look at the Vodafone website.

I may come back with more questions....too fried for tonight.