One week in U.K. - call to landlines
 

Hi from Italy!

I'm about to spend a few days in London, I have an unlocked dualband phone and what I'd need is a cheap local number to call a UK fixed number which is connected to a PBX. Some months ago I saw in an old post about a UK provider who gave a sim card for free to non-UK residents, is it true?

The best deal for me would be a sim number with no activation cost, easy to activate (my English is not so good... I suppose they need a copy of my I.D. and a form filled to activate a number, isn't it?) and with a very cheap rate to UK landlines. Am I asking too much? :D

Thank you *very* much!

Ste

Most British simcards are free, maybe not all the time, but quite often, that's sure... and I think they don't require registration, if I'm not wrong. Buying a simcard in the UK is quite straightforward.

I'd go with Virgin or T-Mobile (both share the same network).

T Mobile UK has the most straight forward rate to UK landlines....I believe it is 15p/minute...the same price, incidentally, also applies to calls to other mobile networks in the UK.

Virgin Mobile charges 15p/minute to call UK landlines for the first 5 minutes of use each day and then that drops to 5p/minute. Calls are timed to the second also but there is a minimum charge of 5p for each call (this may have been raised recently) But calls to places outside the UK while hardly expensive in comparison to other carriers are more expensive than what comes next. Also calls to other mobile networks are more expensive than T Mobile UK.

T Mobile UK, if calling home is part of your thing, also has a hook up with a company called Your Call....see http://www.yourcallworld.com/payg/ which explain how to use a T Mobile UK sim card to call lots of places outside the UK for as little as 3p/minute.

It also explains how to have a T Mobile UK sim card sent to you for £1 (you can use your first hotel as the address)....

My vote in this case would be T Mobile UK by a tad...but service itself will be identical as Virgin Mobile uses T Mobile UK towers.

Virgin's minimum call charge is now 10p, which mitigates its 1-second billing and 5p per minute calls significantly. It's still good if you want to call landline numbers for a longer time, but it's not the clear choice it used to be. It has the best standard international rates of the major prepaids (e.g., 20p/min to the US), although Carphone Warehouse's Mobile World is much better for international calling.

T-Mobile's Everyone plan costs 12p to all UK numbers. If you have a new SIM, you also get free browsing for 10 days and a few other freebies (5 free international SMS, free UK picture messages).

I can confirm that the Your Call number works very well with T-Mobile, and really is only 3p per minute.

one small correction...T Mobile raised its rate to 15p/minute for calls to UK landlines and (which is very important) other mobile networks.

Thank you very much for your answers!

Now, just to make sure I've understood correctly, please let me know if what follows is correct:

1) As soon as I land to London, I find a T-Mobile store and I buy a PAYG sim with "Everyone" plan for 50p (I got the price from their online shop) and a 5pound top-up. I think there is no time for having a PAYG sim sent to hostel, because I'll be in London in less than five days.

2) I turn on the phone :-) then, according to the following link:

http://www.yourcallworld.com/payg/ca...?country=Italy

I call 07755 220 220, then I dial 0039 02 12345678 # and it places a call to an Italy landline for 3p/min (AND NOT 15+3=18p/min)

Is everything correct? I suppose that calling an Italy mobile would be more expensive (but on yourcall they don't write anything about mobile rates), but I think 3p/min to call a landline in Italy is really what I need! :D


Thanks again!

Ste

Yes, 3p is correct. You can find a different access number on YCW to reach Italian mobiles for 15 pence a minute.

I don't think you can get the SIM for 50p in stores, though you can get it cheap with included airtime (or with a phone, for example Motorola V3 for 40 GBP at Carphone Warehouse). The 50p/free offers are only when sending it to a postal address.