Which UK SIM card should I get?
 

Telestial offers SIM cards from Talk Mobile and IDT. Does anyone know if one or the other is better in terms of coverage, service or whatever?

In general, today, 05/08/08 at 1240 EDT in the USA...

The best UK sim card for use in both calling abroad and calling within the UK is T Mobile UK for a plethora of reasons.

1. They operate on 1800 mhz throughout the UK on 1800 mhz. which means both world wide tri band (900,1800,1900) and North American tri bands (850,1800,1900) will operate on T Mobile UK. Of course quad bands will too. It is very likely that if you have a gsm carrier wherever you are, you already have a phone capable of operating on T Mobile UK or you can easily pick one up either on ebay or upon arrival in the UK.

2. They will send a free sim card to your hotel if they will hold mail for you. Check out their web site for details.

3. They have a tie in with a company yourcall world. Check the web site (www.yourcallworld.com)...by dialing a triggering numbers, you can call just about any landline in the world for 3p/minute as well as North American cell phones while calls to most other cell phones in the world which use the European caller pays the freight, will cost a bit more.

4. If you're prime interest is calling the USA or Canada or both, you can buy a bundle of 50 minutes for £2 which comes out to 4p/minute but means you can dial directly without the ycw triggering number.

5. Calls within the UK, even to other mobile networks, are a relatively cheap 15p/minute. On most other UK carriers (Orange, Vodafone, O2) calls to other mobile network phones are 40p.minute.

If you don't already have an unlocked gsm phone with 1800, just go into any phone store in the UK and they will sell you one with a T Mobile sim pack..I think the cheapest start around £20...the sim card will be free, I think, with an initial £10 top up.

(The sim cards T Mobile UK send to your hotel will have no air time, you will have to top up but it's easy to do so. The sim package comes with a swipe card that looks like a credit card. Go into any large grocery change store, most petrol stations, Boots or any drug chain, hand the clerk the top up card, tell them you want to top up for as little as 5 quid and it's done quickly and easily.

T Mobile UK also subscribes to the eu roaming agreement so if you travel outside the UK, although it's not the cheaest way to do it, receiving calls would be 19p/minute and calling within the eu will be 24p/minute (you can get a phone card in any eu country and take advantage of the relatively low rate to make the triggering call to call abroad outside the eu)....

Now, if knowing your number in advance is so important to you that you're willing to throw away an addition $30 or $40 to a place like telestial, don't say you weren't given alternatives.

To be fair, let me just add that about the only downer of T Mobile UK, I've been told and I have no reason to doubt it, is that coverage is a bit spotty in more remote areas of the UK but you should be fine in London and all the large cities.

Well in all due respect...

The T Mobile UK sim card is FREE if you have it posted to a UK address...somehow I don't think you can beat that.

Using yourcallworld, you cal call most any other foreign country from the UK for 3p/minute. Somehow I don't think you can beat that.

If you don't want to go the yourcallworld direction, you can buy a bundle of calls to the USA and Canada for £2 for 50 minutes...by my math, that seems to come out to 4p/minute. I don't think your suggestion can beat that.

BTW, I just read European roaming rates will be dropping in August.

But if you can convince me I'm wrong, I will gladly stand corrected.

...also as a side note, O2 UK operates predominantly on 900 mhz in the UK (predominantly but not exclusively) which means many North American tri band phones, the ones that have 850/1800/1900 may have huge gaps in coverage in the UK. Just another something one has to be aware of when making a decision.