Carrier Traveling to the UK need some help

[JPNFRK7]

Hey guys, Ill be traveling to the UK at the end of the year and I am confused on how to use my Verizon iPhone 5 abroad. I usually just get international service from Verizon and it tends to be expensive. I heard I can get a SIM card from a carrier over there and just put it into my phone.

My main questions are:
1) Can I grab a SIM card (probably pre-paid) and use it there?
2) If 1 is true, where do I get a SIM card with international calling and data from the UK?
3) If 1 and 2 are true, will the same SIM I get in London (first stop) work in Scotland (second stop)?

Thank you

 

[Gav2k]

Hey guys, Ill be traveling to the UK at the end of the year and I am confused on how to use my Verizon iPhone 5 abroad. I usually just get international service from Verizon and it tends to be expensive. I heard I can get a SIM card from a carrier over there and just put it into my phone.

My main questions are:
1) Can I grab a SIM card (probably pre-paid) and use it there?
2) If 1 is true, where do I get a SIM card with international calling and data from the UK?
3) If 1 and 2 are true, will the same SIM I get in London (first stop) work in Scotland (second stop)?

Thank you

1, yes not an issue
2, any paper shop or mobile phone store
3, yes sure it will its all part of the uk.

my advice would be to get a 3uk SIM card top up with £15 and you get all you can eat data etc

http://store.three.co.uk/mobile/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=112

 

[JPNFRK7]

1, yes not an issue
2, any paper shop or mobile phone store
3, yes sure it will its all part of the uk.

my advice would be to get a 3uk SIM card top up with £15 and you get all you can eat data etc

http://store.three.co.uk/mobile/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=112

Exactly what I needed, thank you!

 

[Brian Y]

Hey guys, Ill be traveling to the UK at the end of the year and I am confused on how to use my Verizon iPhone 5 abroad. I usually just get international service from Verizon and it tends to be expensive. I heard I can get a SIM card from a carrier over there and just put it into my phone.

My main questions are:
1) Can I grab a SIM card (probably pre-paid) and use it there?
2) If 1 is true, where do I get a SIM card with international calling and data from the UK?
3) If 1 and 2 are true, will the same SIM I get in London (first stop) work in Scotland (second stop)?

Thank you

With 1) it depends if the phone is unlocked for all international SIMs. I'm from the UK so don't have any experience of Verizon's smilax.

2) You can get a SIM card here no problem. You can pick them up from any phone store - there's a couple in Heathrow airport itself.

As for the calling plan, there isn't really any international plan here. There are a couple of options:

Lebara are a virtual network here, who offer cheap rates to some countries. Calling another UK number will be 20p/minute, while calling the USA is 9p/minute. There are bundles available, but it's probably not worth it unless you're calling a lot of UK numbers.

Three are another network, who offer better plans for general usage. They have a flat rate plan of 3p/minute for UK calls, 2p/minute for UK texts, and 1p/MB of data. They have a plan which is £10 for 30 days (500MB/100mins) or £15 for 30 days (unlimited data/300 mins). If you did this (£15) you could then use Skype to call back home.

3) Yep, any SIM you buy in England will work in Scotland. You can get a variety of SIMs.

One note - turn off FaceTime and iMessage before you swap the SIMs, or it'll try to register your temporary number and may cause issues.

 

[JPNFRK7]

With 1) it depends if the phone is unlocked for all international SIMs. I'm from the UK so don't have any experience of Verizon's smilax.

2) You can get a SIM card here no problem. You can pick them up from any phone store - there's a couple in Heathrow airport itself.

As for the calling plan, there isn't really any international plan here. There are a couple of options:

Lebara are a virtual network here, who offer cheap rates to some countries. Calling another UK number will be 20p/minute, while calling the USA is 9p/minute. There are bundles available, but it's probably not worth it unless you're calling a lot of UK numbers.

Three are another network, who offer better plans for general usage. They have a flat rate plan of 3p/minute for UK calls, 2p/minute for UK texts, and 1p/MB of data. They have a plan which is £10 for 30 days (500MB/100mins) or £15 for 30 days (unlimited data/300 mins). If you did this (£15) you could then use Skype to call back home.

3) Yep, any SIM you buy in England will work in Scotland. You can get a variety of SIMs.

One note - turn off FaceTime and iMessage before you swap the SIMs, or it'll try to register your temporary number and may cause issues.

As far as I can tell all Verizon iPhone 5+ are global on the GSM part of the phone. I really only want data in the UK for google maps, and looking things up. Calling is not too important but would be nice to have incase we need to make reservations or something like that. I already have international calling on my phone for going to Mexico. So I figured I could use my Verizon SIM to call home and use the UK SIM for the data part since its something like $20/MB on Verizon when you are overseas. This Verizon iPhone 5 has been the first phone with a SIM card so I have been playing catchup with AT&T and the rest of the world.

 

[SuperKerem]

Yes, it's fine, just buy any pay as you go sim card.