Before my trip to England, I did a lot of reading and research on the best way to go about getting cell phone service abroad. While there were many very helpful sites, blogs, and forums on the subject, the complete details on what is offered and what was chosen was never revealed. So I have decided to sit down today and outline my experience as an American getting local cell phone service in England and Scotland.
Most importantly, you must have a GSM-capable cell phone that is unlocked. I will not go into details on how to accomplish this, as it is well documented in many places and the options available are vast. For our trip, I took our old iPhone 3GS, which I had previously unlocked through AT&T’s recent policy changes about unlocking out-of-contract phones.
I researched many different carriers and plans and ultimately decided on the Camel plan from Orange. (http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/sim-only/pay-as-you-go) The Camel plan is available as a SIM-only Pay-as-you-Go plan and offers free international calling minutes as the “top-up” reward.
My initial plan was to find a storefront in London and pick up my SIM directly from Orange. While I’m sure this would work fine, the concierge at our hotel recommended that we go to a Carphone Warehouse that was located just around the corner from where we were staying. There are Carphone Warehouses all over London, and after shopping with them, I would recommend them without reservation.
So I give the lovely man at Carphone Warehouse my iPhone 3GS and tell him I would like the SIM-only Camel plan from Orange with data added. From here he places an Orange SIM into the phone and asks me how much credit I would like. I opt for the £30 top-up, as the reward is 240 free international calling minutes. He activates my SIM and selects the Camel plan for me. With my £30 top-up, my reward is instantly received.
He then speaks to Orange customer service to ask about adding data to my plan. We are told (via the speakerphone) that 500MB of data can be taken out of my £30 credit, which eats into the local calls I can place. I didn’t plan on calling much within the country anyway, so this option worked perfectly. And, since the 240 free international calling minutes were a reward and not credit, using my credit for data did not harm them.
As far as reviewing Orange service, it worked for everything that we needed. We had service (both phone and data) at all times, although we did not get much off the beaten path so I can’t really speak to their service in that regard. I also won't say that this was the only option for the UK, it is just the company/plan that I ended up (happily) choosing.
While most of this may not be news, my most exciting discovery was that the addition of data to a SIM-only Pay-as-you-Go was not only possible, but that this did not deplete my international minutes. Using this plan, we were able to call home, call local restaurants and business, and check emails/google interesting things during our entire 2-week trip.
I hope this is helpful for anyone planning to travel to the UK in the future.
Most importantly, you must have a GSM-capable cell phone that is unlocked. I will not go into details on how to accomplish this, as it is well documented in many places and the options available are vast. For our trip, I took our old iPhone 3GS, which I had previously unlocked through AT&T’s recent policy changes about unlocking out-of-contract phones.
I researched many different carriers and plans and ultimately decided on the Camel plan from Orange. (http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/sim-only/pay-as-you-go) The Camel plan is available as a SIM-only Pay-as-you-Go plan and offers free international calling minutes as the “top-up” reward.
My initial plan was to find a storefront in London and pick up my SIM directly from Orange. While I’m sure this would work fine, the concierge at our hotel recommended that we go to a Carphone Warehouse that was located just around the corner from where we were staying. There are Carphone Warehouses all over London, and after shopping with them, I would recommend them without reservation.
So I give the lovely man at Carphone Warehouse my iPhone 3GS and tell him I would like the SIM-only Camel plan from Orange with data added. From here he places an Orange SIM into the phone and asks me how much credit I would like. I opt for the £30 top-up, as the reward is 240 free international calling minutes. He activates my SIM and selects the Camel plan for me. With my £30 top-up, my reward is instantly received.
He then speaks to Orange customer service to ask about adding data to my plan. We are told (via the speakerphone) that 500MB of data can be taken out of my £30 credit, which eats into the local calls I can place. I didn’t plan on calling much within the country anyway, so this option worked perfectly. And, since the 240 free international calling minutes were a reward and not credit, using my credit for data did not harm them.
As far as reviewing Orange service, it worked for everything that we needed. We had service (both phone and data) at all times, although we did not get much off the beaten path so I can’t really speak to their service in that regard. I also won't say that this was the only option for the UK, it is just the company/plan that I ended up (happily) choosing.
While most of this may not be news, my most exciting discovery was that the addition of data to a SIM-only Pay-as-you-Go was not only possible, but that this did not deplete my international minutes. Using this plan, we were able to call home, call local restaurants and business, and check emails/google interesting things during our entire 2-week trip.
I hope this is helpful for anyone planning to travel to the UK in the future.
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