2 Week Vacation in UK

[Malkav]

nomi its 6p and 11p for texts International Mobile Rates | Cheap Phone Rates

lyca its Lycamobile Plus Tariffs
4p and 4p

vectone its 3p with texts at 10p Tariffs - How much do international calls on Vectone cost?

[MATHA531]

I'm still hoping vodafone will go mad again this summer and offer free roaming throughout Europe like they did last summer...did they make money on that or did they lose their shirts? Oh well, a fellow can hope, eh.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

...did they make money on that or did they lose their shirts?

Good question. After all, they still make some termination money on their UK network on incoming calls, and having it free just encourages people who would not normally be using the phone to keep using them just like it home. In most of Europe, their own networks will ensure that they do not pay any further inter-operator terminations.

[petkow]

Also to add to those international rates from UK SIM's, Three UK now have some impressive tariffs from their prepaid SIMs. You need to just dial a short 3 digit prefix before dialing the international number. USA and Canada is just 3p/min.
See: 3 - Pay As You Go - International calling rates

[MATHA531]

It was meant as a joke....don't take any of my wisecracks as anything other than my feeble efforts at humor.

[Motel75]

Late model Motos can all be charged up via USB, though you will probably have to install the driver on your computer to do it this way. Their chargers are alwys universal voltage, only a plug adapter is needed (and some Moto chargers include a UK three-pin plug and a Europlug as standard).

Incoming text is always free in Europe, no matter who the operator is. It's bizarre indeed that it costs something in the US, but I suppose the thinking was that if people were used for paying for incoming calls, they wouldn't fuss about incoming text either.

Don't let me stop you from ordering a V197/RAZR/whatever and SIM via eBay, etc., but it really is no trouble at all to locate a Vodafone shop or equivalent mobile phone store in Britain and you can have the phone paid for and working in 10 minutes. (It might be easier to do it this way if you don't feel like setting up your mobile browser, or if the browser settings on your phone are locked, because it will come preconfigured - UK networks have cheap data too, and at the festival you might find this an easy way to check the news, your e-mail, etc. - however, you can usually have the provider text the browser/MMS settings sent to you - if it doesn't do this automatically, just look at the website.)

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by Motel75

Late model Motos can all be charged up via USB, though you will probably have to install the driver on your computer to do it this way. Their chargers are alwys universal voltage, only a plug adapter is needed (and some Moto chargers include a UK three-pin plug and a Europlug as standard).

Incoming text is always free in Europe, no matter who the operator is. It's bizarre indeed that it costs something in the US, but I suppose the thinking was that if people were used for paying for incoming calls, they wouldn't fuss about incoming text either.

Don't let me stop you from ordering a V197/RAZR/whatever and SIM via eBay, etc., but it really is no trouble at all to locate a Vodafone shop or equivalent mobile phone store in Britain and you can have the phone paid for and working in 10 minutes. (It might be easier to do it this way if you don't feel like setting up your mobile browser, or if the browser settings on your phone are locked, because it will come preconfigured - UK networks have cheap data too, and at the festival you might find this an easy way to check the news, your e-mail, etc. - however, you can usually have the provider text the browser/MMS settings sent to you - if it doesn't do this automatically, just look at the website.)

Agreed with one small exception noted. If you buy the phone from a vodafone store, chances are it will be locked. And yes, of course, phone can be unlocked yada yada yada. And I think we can agree, the difference in money is negligible so it comes down to what the OP feels is most convenient.

[PhotoJim]

Incoming calls are free for you too, but your US-based caller will pay 20-40 cents a minute to call a UK mobile number. The UK is on the caller-pays model.

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

Incoming calls are free for you too, but your US-based caller will pay 20-40 cents a minute to call a UK mobile number. The UK is on the caller-pays model.

There is a way to make this somewhat cheaper....a firm called localphone is offering direct dial numbers with just about any US and I believe Canadian area code your heart might desirte...they only charge $3 for the number and 99¢/month to maintain the number...,you can set the forwarding number via the web...cost to a UK mobke 12.3 cents US/minuite (to you of course), the caller pays whatever his or her ld or local carrier charges to the local number...seems to be a pretty good deal...use it myself for call forwarding......