This URL says your 16 digits e-voucher can be used by dialing 150. I have no idea if you can call their 150 service # in the States. I am guessing not.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/personal/p...ay-by-e-top-up

That is correct, but the SIM card won't register in the US, hence I can't use the code until I get to the UK. I am guessing that this SIM can only register by first being activated in the UK.

Does anyone know if the SIM can be activated by T-Mobile UK via a call to their customer service? I registered for My T-Mobile UK, but they won't let me in unless I have the activation code, which must be received by SMS. Since SMS won't work with the SIM unregistered, I can't enter the site.

The simple solution would have been to have the SIM activated/registered before it was sent to me.

There has to be a way to do it from here.

I used to have an Orange UK sim. I bought it on ebay-UK brand new/unregistered. Called the Orange cust. service from here to register it, and they gave me the phone number and also sent it by text. They also gave 1 pound credit.

This is one of the reasons I prefer and will always recommend Virgin UK. No hassles at all. They come preactivated, with roaming, GPRS, and all. Just put the thing in your phone and you are good to go. Mine even came with 5 pound free credit. Besides, it's only 20p/min to call back to the USA.

Ah but with T Mobile UK and their add on, it's only 4p/minute to call back to the USA!

Orange CallAbroad is 5p to USA, Mobile World is 5p, T-mobile has the 4p option mentioned, so Virgin is not the cheapest from the UK, or indeed for a UK SIM roaming in Europe either; it's useful for small amounts of data though.

I called T-mobile CS and asked about this, like did the SIM need to be active here before being exported, which a sealed packet sold on eBay would not be, or should I maybe send another one free which I'd opened first. They said actually they couldn't understand why this wouldn't work. It was suggested that you call them with the voucher code and they will apply it. I said that if the SIM still did not register on the network, then the person doing it might be upset about it.

Try calling them and discussing it again, as the man I spoke to referred to another and answer quite all the questions I asked.

150 is free to call once you get here, but doesn't work from abroad. From abroad they said use +447953966150, but this is a mobile number and will cost more. I'd suggest you call +441707315000, UK office hours, then ask to be transferred to the call centre.

The new but unused SIMs do have a limited shelf life of something like six months or a year, so I'm just wondering if that one has a problem. I had 3 old ones here that I called to check and they said two were expired. I bought a voucher to apply to the other one, but it didn't register on the network; CS applied the credit for me but it still didn't work. In the end they made a note on the account, and we later transferred the credit to a new SIM I received.

So I'm just wondering if the one you have is a bit similar; ask them how old it is, and if it's a problem, I can send you another one free

I have two of these SIMs and neither can register. I don't know if they are expired. I'm waiting for an email reply from T-Mobile UK as to whether they can activate/register the SIMs.

Continuing this saga of trying to register/activate a T-Mobile UK PAYG SIM from the US, here is what I have concluded. It cannot be done without first activating it in the UK (unless I have an expired SIM card). I obtained a top up voucher and had it applied to the phone number by calling T-Mobile UK. That worked, but the SIM would still not activate here in the US. A chargeable call must first be made with the SIM in the UK. Thanks to all who suggested possible solutions.

I also have an unlocked T-Mobile quad-band phone (voice and data plan) and visit the UK each year. My conclusion is that searching for for a prepaid UK GPRS plan that costs substantially less than using T-Mobile's international roaming GPRS rates is about like King Arthur searching for the Holy Grail.

Last year I stopped in an Orange store and bought a SIM card for £5 plus £20 of phone time. I picked Orange after checking PrePaidGSM and because Orange has a lot of stores. I got a UK phone number and it worked fine in my T-Mobile unlocked quadband phone (Motorola V330), but no GPRS. For GPRS I put the USA T-Mobile SIM card back into the phone. To keep GPRS costs down, I found it best to use the phone to access email. Accessing a standard POP3 email on the phone uses fewer kilobytes than tethering to the phone to a laptop.

I recently checked to see if the UK Orange SIM card would still work. Back in the USA, it does still work 11 months after being purchased in the UK. It roams on Cingular's network in the USA, but making a call in the USA (with a UK SIM card) is pretty expensive, £1.30. I believe that the SIM card will expire after one year, unless it is recharged, so I will recharge it on the Orange website just before we leave this year, or get a "top-up" as soon as we arrive in the UK.

The Orange (and other UK operators) prepaid charges are fairly reasonable for voice calls made in the UK to the UK, and for calls to the USA from the UK.

It is good that you have a quadband phone because some of the UK providers (such as Orange) only use the 1800 MHz band.

If you have a laptop on your trip, you might get free WiFi a some places.

Just a point; nice easy way to keep the Orange card active or most any card that requires acitivity every 6 or 9 months or whatever as opposed to these sob's who take away your credit if not re-charged is simply to send one sms message...actually the eu ought to consider outlawing the theft of your credit after a fixed period of time without a re-charge..it is fair to deactivate a card for non use after a fixed period of time provided the money in the account is retrievable by re-instating the account but to simply say after 6 months without a recharge, especially if credit card recharging is banned, is very unfair.

Thanks for your tip. Let me see if I understand this correctly. You have £X.xx left on your prepaid Orange SIM card. Every 6 or 9 months or whatever, you send one SMS message, and the SIM card stays active indefinitely? No need to purchase a Top-Up as long as you still have credit on the SIM card?