Good sim for UK?
 

Hi all,

Any recomendations for a sim for the UK? Getting rather confused at all the options. I'm going to be over there for about two weeks in a couple of months and I'll probably bring along my GSM phone. I'll also be in Paris for a day or two, will most of the UK companies have roaming available for a prepaid sim? Probably don't need to worry about connectivity in Paris as its only a day but it'd be nice to have. I won't be using the phone too much, mostly to make any local calls/reservations etc. that might come up.

TIA

Assuming it's voice communication you're interested in, I think there's a simple answer, at least today.

I would go with T Mobile UK for a plethora of reasons.

You can get the sim for free if you have a UK address it can be sent to by looking at the T Mobile UK web site. If not, then if you go to ebay, there is a merchant offering T Mobile UK sim cards for less than $6 including shipping. It won't have any credit on it but you get a swipe card and can easily top up when you arrive at any chemist, grocery chain store or most petrol stations.

They have a tie in with a firm called yourcallworld....you can go to their web site for all the information. Basically by dialing a UK number 07755 22 0303 you can then make calls to much of the world for 3p/minute (and with the UK pound plumetting, it's about $1.76 today and is headed lower), that's about 5¢/minute (you don't pay for the triggering call as such although if the call is not completed, you do pay the 3p)...their domestic rates within the UK are 15p/minute which is very competitive and they don't surcharge big time calls to other networks!

They also subscribe (they have to) to the eu caps on roaming so while in France, it will cost you I believe 34p/minute to call another eu number and 19p/minute to receive calls (incidentally receiving calls within the UK will be free)....you will not, however, be able to retain the ability to make the cheap calls to the USA...if calling the USA, you might want to go the direction of getting a local French calling card where the call to the USA will be next to nothing although you will be pay the going rate for an eu call); since you'll only be in Paris for a couple of days it won't pay to go for a French sim card and since the UK rates are so cheap, it probably doesn't pay to go for an international sim.

Also very good is a sim card from orange. It is free, it is available at orange stores although you have to top up for 10 quid. The call abroad sim card has been renamed, I forget exactly the new name, but it still offers calls of 6p/minute to the USA, no triggering call necessary but calls within the UK especially to other networks are somewhat more expensive.

So I can confidentially say, unless one of our British friends on the board has updated information, your best bet today is T Mobile UK.

The T-mobile tariff has recently changed to 20p/min 1st 2 minutes, then 10p

If you want to call mostly to UK, then the cheapest at the moment are Family Mobile (9p/min) or Asda Mobile (8p/min)

For calls to USA, Talkmobile (part the Carphone Warehouse) has a 2 pence a minute offer for September only; their UK tariff is 15p/min for 1st 3 minutes, then 10p/min

All the networks have pretty good coverage, though there are places where you may find only 3 or 2. And the main networks all have free SIM card offers

All of the main networks have roaming abroad, but one or two virtual providers don't seem to (Nomi, probably Talkmobile ...)

Yup I read many of the networks are starting to, claiming they have to because of the eu roaming regs, upping their domestic UK rates.

Although at the rate the UK£ is falling, it won't be long before 20p is worth less, in USD, than 15p was a few months ago!

Also, I can't seem to find the billing period for the calls, by the second, by 6 seconds, by the minute?

Yeah, voice communication only really. Hmm, so probably best to pick up a card/time card there or order one on ebay, won't have a UK address to send to. Most of my calls will be to local UK/London/SE England and probably not many or a call or two to the US.

Thanks guys.

I reccommend Orange personally! Best coverage and alright rates.

The Orange SIM you want, if you choose Orange, is Camel.

Hmm, so Orange "Camel" or T-mobile I guess then. Thanks all. I'll probably see whats around at the airport when I get there.

There are Orange shops everywhere. (I got my SIM at one of the Orange shops on Kensington High Street.) T-Mobile shops seem to be a little trickier to find; I got my phone (S-E K610i so I could have 3G :) ) and SIM at the one on Oxford Street.

I didn't actually check to see what mobile providers had shops at the airports. We flew into Heathrow on a red-eye flight (overnight) and although it was 2 pm for Londoners, it was 7 am for us and we'd only slept about 90 minutes on the flight. We were in London City and Gatwick later, but I didn't see any mobile phone shops at either airport.

Failing network specific shops ie orange, t-mobile etc carphonewarehouses are everywhere........