[hkr]

I have just returned from the UK.

Before the trip, a friend of mine, who lives there, got me a "Three" SIM. Their network is 3G only and boast to have the best 3G coverage in the UK.

As a matter of fact, their claim might be valid. Considering it is a 3G-only network, the coverage was suprisingly good. However, I found their general coverage a littlebit patchy in the areas I was trying to use it.

I used my Nokia E71, and came out cheap by being able to use my phone's VoIP client for making calls. As for receiving calls I used a home DID diverted to the SIMs phone number via VoIP. It worked fine except for the caller ID, but that's acceptable considering this was a very cheap way of receiving calls.

I also used the same SIM for surfing the internet from my phone as well as by putting the card in a modem. Later I bought a fantastic Huawei E585 modem/WiFi router from Three, and used that with my netbook. It worked fine.

All in all, I can recommend 3 as a data/mobile net provider, but mainly if you intend to use it in urban areas. For normal phoning however, I'd look for some other network with a better 2G coverage as I missed a lot of calls due to no coverage at the place where I spent the weekend. But to be fair, I found that other, 2G operators were also quite weak in that bulding.