I love UK mobile telephony!

[PhotoJim]

I got to London from Saskatchewan, Canada on Saturday. To my wife's amusement (and slight chagrin), one of my priorities was to get some UK telephony going. I already had an O2 prepaid SIM for each of us (that I got off eBay) because their network seemed to have the broadest coverage, but I found out about some other options before I got here and I wanted to check them out.

The first stop was at an Orange store on Kensington High Street. (How many Orange stores are there in London by the way? They seem to be everywhere.) I got a pair of Call Abroad SIMs, one to use to call Canada at 5p/min. and the other for a friend back home. I got awesome phone numbers on both (0796 xyx yxxx for mine and 0796 xyx yx0x for him). I didn't bother getting my wife one because she just uses mine; I can call her O2 if we get separated.

The next day, after failing to find a T-Mobile store, I found one on Oxford Street. The Sony-Ericsson K610i which was 90 pounds online was only 60 pounds in store! I bought one (at that price I had to buy 20 pounds of prepaid time but I didn't mind; I was going to get 10 anyway). It's a tri-band 3G phone (900/1800/1900 GSM & 2100 UMTS). Now I can play with 3G. Hopefully I can get it unlocked at some point so that I can use it at home (obviously not with 3G though). I'm using it for Internet access (unlimited phone browsing for 1 pound/day). Great deal.

So now between my Skype 020 number, my O2 SIM, my Orange SIM, my T-Mobile SIM and my United Mobile Jersey SIM, I have 5 UK numbers. It seems a little silly but I like it!

All I need is a Vodafone SIM and a 3 SIM and I will have a complete set. (Resisting so far, I am...)

I'm planning to get a Sunrise SIM in Switzerland next week (just to have a cheap SIM to use there, and it's hard to get Swiss SIMs - you have to be in the country and present your passport to get one as a foreigner). Then, I will stop. Really. I will.

Jim