Britishsims

[MATHA531]

Incidentally, just one other quick thing...callbackworld and a similar service enlinea used to be very very good from mobile phones and many of the international sim cards to call the USA...for a couple of years, it worked indeed very well with the original United Mobile with calls coming in at around 12¢/minute to call anywhere UM had free incoming to the USA (enlinea might have been a couple of cents cheaper) but then, and being a conspiracy theory person myself, to try to kill thise golden goose, cbw (and enlinea) were forced to raise their rates using the+423 service to some unfathomably high rate....this went along with the steep rises in termination fees on other carriers to Liechtenstein mobiles (as well as Estonian mobiles, Icelandic mobiles...I wonder what they have in common???) although cbw and enlinea rates using the Estonian and Icelandic mobiles, particularly Iceland, are still okay. This is what, I am sure, pushed UM to start pushing its +44 service using Jersey numbers instead of the +423 numbers...it was and still is free to receive calls in many many places on the +423 number but the people calling pay a mint to make the call if indeed the call goes through at all.

Anyway, the interesting thing now on both cbw and enlinea is that rates on many local sims using their service is still relatively cheap say on French, Italian, German sim cards but have also shot through the rook on UK mobile numbers...in other words using a UK mobile to make a call via cbw or enlinea is not cheap as you indicated...again I wonder why (draw your own conclusions...)

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by Ukap

Wow - thorough answer. Appreciate you taking the time to explain it. I am definately going to try this. I will copy your instructions and follow them when I get there.

I have decided to get my UK Sim before I leave. I want to know & give out my number beforehand to my USA friends so they can reach me.

Again, try then to get a T Mobile UK sim card via ebay UK or the trick described above when T Mobile UK runs, as it does from time to time, its free giveaways of sim cards or as desribed on the yourcallworld web site, perhaps for £1 each.

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by Ukap

Wow - thorough answer. Appreciate you taking the time to explain it. I am definately going to try this. I will copy your instructions and follow them when I get there.

I have decided to get my UK Sim before I leave. I want to know & give out my number beforehand to my USA friends so they can reach me.

Don't mention it...I learned many of these work arounds from some of the great people on this forum who are only too happy to share their expertise.

That's what message board buddies are for.

[andy]

I have some free SIMs. Send a PM with address details

[Ukap]

I have read that the Estonia & Iceland services are unreliable. United Mobile seems to be the stable company & I have used them before so know how it works.

[testcase]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

Good idea but there is absolutely no need to buy the card in advance...wait till you get to London or check out the T Mobile UK web site which often has promotions that give you free sim cards or perhaps sim cards for £1 each....see if your first hotel will accept any mail for you and have them sent there...T Mobile UK sim cards have no credit on them anyway and really aren't activated till your first top up which you can do with swipe card they provide with the package at almost any chemist, petrol station or grocery store...

I am going to London and do not have a hotel which accepts mail. How can I get a prepaid T-mobile Sim card once I arrive in London???

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by testcase

I am going to London and do not have a hotel which accepts mail. How can I get a prepaid T-mobile Sim card once I arrive in London???

Earlier in the thread, somebody suggested a way of using the T Mobile web site and having the sim card sent to your address outside the UK...

I did find one place that sells the sim card for £0.99...but charges £6.50 to ship to the USA...

However, that might not be so bad as when I was last in the UK, the T Mobile store wanted £5 for the sim card and carphone warehouse, in its catalogue, listed some obscene price for it!

I don't know if they want me to give the name of the shop I used for UK phone accessories, they are very cheap but of course shipping to the USA is obscene.

I also just looked on ebay USA (ebay.com) and found somebody selling one for US$2.49 with US$3.99 for shipping (shipping from USA)....you won't do much better than that...

Do remember T Mobile UK sim cards are sold without any credit, you do get the phone number and upon arrival in the UK, you have a swipe card where you can go into most any pharmacy (Boots, Superdrugs), petrol station, grocery chain store (Sainsbury's, Tesco) and easily top it up for £5 to activate the card......go to ebay and do a search for T Mobile UK sim card and you'll find it.

Also T Mobile UK operates on 1800 mhz. so those US tri bands made for Cingular (AT&T) and T Mobile USA which have 850/1800/1900 will work provided they are unlocked.

[MrEd]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

Earlier in the thread, somebody suggested a way of using the T Mobile web site and having the sim card sent to your address outside the UK...

I did find one place that sells the sim card for £0.99...but charges £6.50 to ship to the USA...


I don't know if they want me to give the name of the shop I used for UK phone accessories, they are very cheap but of course shipping to the USA is obscene.

.

Shipping to the US from the UK by "Royal Mail International Signed For" (recommended for any thing of value being shipped overseas by post - courier excepted) costs about £4.95 and upwards depending on weight, so although £6.99 seems a "obscene", it is not much more and it gives the shipper and buyer a level of compensation if it goes missing.