Thom Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 (Mods, please move this to a more apt forum if need be) Hi, later this year the missus and me will be visiting Blighty for six weeks. We'll want to get sims for our mobiles, so as to phone both UK and Aus people to keep in touch/organise ourselves. Recommendations for the best, not necessarily he cheapest, deals please? This is what happened the last time. (Abridged from my blog) Leaving the market we searched for a phone shop in order to buy sim cards for our phones, and a dongle for the laptop. Research on the net had lead me to believe that “3 Mobile” were our best choice. research on the net isn’t always bloody right. The first “3 Mobile” shop we tried, the girl there was so bloody gormless and useless that we called it quits after a short while and left. We stopped at a cafe, had a coffee, and had a think about this. Foolishly, we (I) decided to try another “3 Mobile” shop; the guy there was more use, but thought my accent was Australian. We bought sim cards for two phones, a sim card for the i-pad, and a dongle for the laptop, we also bought 15 quids worth of credit for each of them. “”3 Mobile” have 98% coverage in the UK,” claimed the bright boy selling them. We drove back to Kingham, which we found to be located in the 2% of the country not covered by the ”3 Mobile” network. We decided to have a day in Stratford up Avon, to do the cultural thing. We drove out of Kingham, keeping an eye on the mobiles. Eventually Lee-Anne found she had a phone signal, so she decided to phone her mother. Except the phone told her she had no credit, this despite having fifteen quid’s worth put on it the day before. Trying Skype on the phone was no good either, thus contradicting the guy who sold us the sim cards, who had reliably informed us that; “Skype will be great for you to make cheap international calls”. Not wanting to lose the luxury of actually having a signal, she decided to add credit to the phone. Much to her disgust she was told that her Aussie credit card was no good for topping up the sim, and she’d have to use a UK card. One of which we didn’t have....... ......I also had my first proper pint in years, nectar. I found not only was my phone working, had a signal, but also it had credit on it! Whatever next? This gave me the opportunity to phone and text everyone I knew, in order to leave rude messages, and to pass on our contact number. Which I did. Except I gave them all the wrong number, transposing a 7 and a 4. This was to cause my mum no end of grief over the coming weeks, as every b*gg*r phoned her to get the right number. Oh, the guy whose number I had given out to everyone wasn’t too pleased either, apparently. (Devon) After Jenny and Mark moved on, back home to feed the cat, we made ourselves at home in our new accommodation. It was lovely, the sort of place I want to retire to. One close to a pub. But one downside of the place was that only by standing at the end of the garden and holding our phones in the air on the end of a long pole, were we able to get text messages received and sent. (Thanks again “3 Mobile”!) I got a few cryptic texts; “Can only make it today.” “let us know if ok.” “Will be there at 2.30” (Continues ad nauseum for rest of hoilday...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Orange or vodafone seem to be popular, im with orange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Vodafone has always had the best coverage. Not an issue in urban areas but quickly becomes one in rural locations. O2 the second choice for coverage, followed by Orange/T-Mobile (same company now). 3 has always been the worst for this..... Most cheap resellers (virgin, supermarkets etc) tend to work off the T-Mobile/Orange network, in the way that most of the resellers here work off Optus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 If most of your calls (by value if not by volume) are to Australia (or to anywhere outside the UK) I'd recommend a Lebara Sim. They piggy back on the Vodafone network so you shouldn't have a problem getting a signal. They have very good international call rates (not so competitive for calling within the UK though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 Thanks very much kind people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 We had nothing but trouble with phones when we were over in the UK for three months. We had two different sims, admittedly we were in the country but thought that the UK being such a small area cover would have been better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 I have a payg with international bolt on from O2 and have been very happy with it - costs me £10 a month and includes Internet access. My coverage is OK especially with my new iPhone but I live in a black hole reception wise - none of the other telcos are any better. DH is with 3 and he occasionally has better service than me and vice versa but I haven't seen the need to change. I've kept my payg for years - as long as you make a text every 3 months or so to keep it active your credit is always there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 It's a few years since I lived there but I always found O2 to be not the cheapest but to provide the best coverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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