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Travel to York England w/iPhone&iPad

O

old-wiz

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 26, 2008
8,331
228
West Suburban Boston Ma
I have an iPhone 4S, Verizon, and an iPad 3 with LTE (but have only used wi-fi so far) plus a MBP.

I'm going to be on vacation in York, England this summer and was trying to figure out which provider would work best. There's Orange, O2, and Three, but I have no idea which might work best. I'm just looking for minimal phone usage plus internet for e-mail and surfing. Not sure if it would be better to find a way to tether the iPhone to iPad or MBP or get 2 sims, 1 for iPhone and 1 for iPad.

I've had the phone more than a year so it won't be a problem to get Verizon to unlock for international sim use.

The place we are planning to stay has no wi-fi (rats rats rats).

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
There is T-Mobile and Vodafone as well, but T-Mobile and Orange here are the same company same masts just 2 different brands. Orange/T-Mobile have the best 3G coverage but the speeds are quite slow. 3 Are the best for speed and offer very good prepay plans but arn't as good as O2, Vodafone or Orange for coverage. You can pick up a SIM from a 3 shop which are in pretty much every major town. I'm not and Apple guy so i don't know about the tethering, but i do know that 3 allow tethering and Orange for example do not.

http://www.three.co.uk/Store/Pay_As_You_Go_Price_Plans
 
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you're obviously a tech guy so I wholeheartedly recommend 3. Great data speeds and excellent value.

York is very pretty by the way - proper english country town
 
look up "giff gaff" its got unlimited data usage, id grab one of those for your phone and tether the ipad to it
 
I did some research on plans and it seems that 3 is the only one with a simple plan for sim-only that includes some data. The others seem to be contract plans. Or maybe the best idea would be to go to a place like carphone warehouse and talk to the people there?

I appreciate all the responses.
 
3's coverage is good in most areas

they have a shop in York
13 Coney Street, York, YO1 9QL, UK
Telephone: 01904674773

a 30day pay as you go with unlimited data for £15 (22$) looks good, no tethering though (I don't know of any that do payg tethering)

it's here http://goo.gl/maps/QDqV6 and behind you is Vodafone, orange and carphone warehouse
 
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yeah, its got unlimited data usage, id grab one of those for your phone and tether the ipad to it
liyP
 
old-wiz said:
I did some research on plans and it seems that 3 is the only one with a simple plan for sim-only that includes some data. The others seem to be contract plans. Or maybe the best idea would be to go to a place like carphone warehouse and talk to the people there?

I appreciate all the responses.
Click to expand...

There should be lots of places that sold sim cards. You just need to be sure to ask for the correct size. Since there are lots of places that sell sim cards you don't necessarily need to buy one from the first place you go to. I was in a hurry and got one from Lebara because they were the only one sold at the convenience store at the airport with the correct sim size for the 4S. It worked, but the rates for data weren't much better than what I would pay with AT&T. Helped with local calls though. I'd recommend going to a place where they can explain you the options and pricing before you purchase it.
 
Another vote for 3

Just returned from a trip to London, Manchester and Wales. Coverage was good in all 3 areas (spotty when not in a city) but loved the fact I could tether my iPad or laptop when needed. Which I can't do in the status without paying extra :)
 
old-wiz said:
I was looking at the three site and found this:

http://store.three.co.uk/view/produ...252994E9FE97203EDF22CDF5B1E93B?priceplan=PAYG

If I read this correctly, I could simply buy this phone for 49.95 pounds and just top up when needed? then keep the phone for my next trip?
Click to expand...

Yep.

It's just a prepaid phone with a prepaid SIM included.

PAYG SIMs usually expire after 6 months of inactivity (basically using any service that costs money), but you could just do that in the US (as you can roam in the US on a European prepaid plan). Sending yourself a text message should be enough to prevent expiry.
 
I'd say Three for keeping costs down and value for money. Lots of the other networks will just rip you off. I use Three as my phone provider. Coverage is fine, contrary to what people say.
 
An Update:

Called Verizon, they did a foreign sim unlock and then I got a nice instruction e-mail from Verizon support. Once in England, went to the "3" store, bought a new sim for my iPhone plus one for my iPad, back to flat, connect to wi-fi, made one config change (turn off cdma roaming), replaced the sims, and all was well.

We bought a bottom line cheap phone for my wife and had no issues with it.

Only problem we had was the print on the sim carriers - so small all but impossible to read. I mean the card that holds the sim before you snap it out to put in the phone

Thanks to all for help in choosing carrier and explaining details.
 
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