Any recommendations?
I’ll be making maybe 3-4 calls per day. Arriving 29June, departing 8July.
Shall I rent at the airport? Are there shops that offer any service like this?
You might find something that will work for you from these guys. I’ve ordered International SIM cards from them for years, and have always found them to be reliable and helpful.
Are these local calls? If so you can buy a pay as you go phone for under £20 and just top up as needed.
I believe they’ll all be local calls. Romsey, Southampton, Portsmouth… that area.
Where do I get one?
The airport will probably have a booth if you want one right away.
When I lived in England, I bought the cheapest cel phone available and then a “top up” card that essentially gives you X minutes for Y pounds that you can renew or repurchase as needed. I don’t remember the mobile costing very much, and there are vendors everywhere that I’m sure can get you a good deal.
If your hosts have an old phone you can borrow, then you can pick up a sim for next to nothing. If not try Carphone Warehouse, since they do a lot of deals where you get a cheap pay as you go handset cheaper if you buy £10 airtime. The deals are for credit card sales, though.
If you take a look at their website, you’ll see some of the phones are tri-band so it will work back home, assuming it’s unlocked. The last couple I bought were indeed unlocked - it was much cheaper for me to buy a pay as you go handset than replace a stolen contract phone (thanks Carphone Warehouse Man!)
‘Local calls’ from a mobile don’t exist. It’s a single rate to any UK landline. (Calls to mobiles are more expensive, certainly for a pay-as-you-go customer.)
Do you have a cell phone already? Cingular works in Europe. With Verizon you can rent a phone that works in Europe with your number. It’s really cheap and it is free incoming calls.
If you don’t need one immediately forget the airport as the phones there are more expensive than at a supermarket.
Find the nearest s/market and you’ll pick up a cheap pay-as-you-go for about £20
On a recent trip to France, a number of my companions rented phones from a U.S. Company. Was it Verizon? They were mailed to their home before their trip, and after returning home they mailed the phones back to the company. All of the numbers were based in England, which seems to be the companis arrangement for European phones.
I wish I knew more, but my phone was already compatible with the European system so I used my own.
We just honeymooned in England in Dec/Jan for 2 weeks. We bought a pay-as-you-go phone from T-Mobile store for L25, ($50). Then you “top-up” (buy minutes) at any convenience/grocery store. They were reasonbly priced, but I forget how much. Oh, and in England, all incoming calls to a cell phone are free.
(We used the phone mostly to arrange hotels/B&Bs)
If you can lay your hands on any unlocked GSM phone that covers the 900 and 1800 Mhz bands, you will be able to use it in the UK. Tesco will now do you a sim card with £20 of airtime credit for £10.
Presumably you know a local - get a knowledgeable one to go along with you to buy stuff, otherwise you may suffer the same kind of panic reaction I got when confronted with my first Wal-Mart megastore. There’s a lot of choice and most if it will probably be unfamiliar.
As a Verizon Wireless user I got hooked up through them. My phone didn’t have international capabilities so I called Verizon. They contracted out with a UK company called Vodaphone. I told them where I was going, and for how long. All I needed was a simple phone, no PDA or anything. They sent me the phone via Fedex and since I called last minute, they overnighted it to me. It came equiped with a travel bag, intructions, charger and a multi-country adapter. I was even able to forward calls from my USA phone to the International phone. When I got home I just put all the stuff into the original box and sent it back. They supplied the return label. It was something like $10/day for my trip to Ireland and $1.49 per minute but I believe it’s cheaper for the UK if I recall correctly.