I don't know about Orange, but as I have one myself I'll ask

If not, I could send you a free Virgin SIM with £5 on it

I should have wondered about this before. Apparently it was added to my account a year ago without me knowing (they made a mistake and allowed OVP Virgin customers a phone upgrade). So I logged into my account online, and it's shown there

Good and bad news - it's a bit cheaper in UK: £3 > £1 /MB, but more abroad: £8 /MB - or you can sign up for a package; there seems to be a 4 MB free trial offer for the first month ...

http://www2.orange.co.uk/servlet/Sat...=1137070320264

It looks like the 3g tariff is the same

I checked the phone has the settings and tried it: 'Temporary network problem' that evening, but working fine now ...

Thanks for the offer of the Virgin SIM. I sent you a PM with a UK mailing address for me. The address corresponds to family so you can send it at any time (e.g. it is not a hotel which can't cope when a package arrives significantly before a guest).

My OVP subscription is data enabled, but purely on a PAYG basis. I know it will do GPRS. I presume Orange has upgraded that net to EDGE, but I don't think the SIM is 3g enabled. I cannot log into my account here. I'm not a UK resident and couldn't get roaming activated.

I have a 3g datacard and am staying at a hotel which doesn't have in room internet. (Too many family members are decending on London this year for guestroom privileges. My wife and I have enough reward points that we decided that we would rather have a hotel room to ourselves than sleep in the bath tub or equivalent).

T-Mobile 3G data works great for only UKP1/day. They have a softcap at 40MB/day but have been using over 200MB a day with no additional surcharges, warnings or limitations for the last 7 days.

TruPhone works like a charm over T-Mobile's UMTS network... :evil:

I can't find the Orange offer on their website, but I've definitely seen it mentioned elsewhere