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Where to buy SIM cards in Heathrow and UK SMS to email

Posted by (Hays) on

Hello--

I'm going to buy a quad-band unlocked GSM phone in the US, but I would like to buy a SIM card in the UK when I arrive. I have a couple of questions that I hope folks experienced with this could help me with.

1) I saw another post here that referred to RS mentioning the Vodafone store in Heathrow Term. 5. I had actually planned to make a trip to it from T1 before returning to T4 for my connecting flight during a 4-hour layover.
--Is 4 hours enough time to do this and buy a SIM card and get back through security for my next flight?
--Or is there a place where I can buy a SIM card in Terminals 1 or 4? It might not be convenient for me to buy one when I arrive back in the UK because of my travel plans and the times I will be in train stations/airports heading straight to a smaller island in Orkney.

2) I saw another post that showed the email addresses for the major UK providers (I'll be happy to post if someone else would like them) that can be used so someone can send a brief email to my UK-SIM cell phone number as an SMS, but can I send a message to an email address using SMS? I can do this on my US cell phone, but I wasn't sure if that is common on other networks. I apologize if this seems like a stupid question--I'm pretty sure the answer will be yes, but I wanted confirmation. My parents do not use text messaging, but would be happy to be able to send/receive short emails while I am traveling.

Thanks,
Lexey

Posted by
104 posts

Thank you, Steve. I wasn't sure how common they were, since I've never paid attention to having a phone before! And the last time I was in Heathrow I had to put my 5K training to use--it was a blur ;-).

I looked at the Heathrow website to find stores, but the listings seem somewhat limited. Are there kiosks or vending machines that are not listed on the airport website? I didn't see a Virgin store on there, unless I didn't recognize what it is called (I saw something called HMV, and wondered what it was).

Would it be better to buy a phone at Heathrow also? The prices people mention seem very cheap (cheaper than buying an unlocked phone in the US), but I'm afraid the store would be out of the cheap phones if I wait.

Here's the info I found on sending SMS to a phone via email, in case anyone is interested. If the info is not right, please let me know.

02, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodaphone and Virgin all have email to SMS gateway support. Here are the addresses they use:

[email protected] O2

[email protected] Orange

[email protected] T-Mobile

[email protected] Virgin Mobile

[email protected] Vodafone

[email protected] Meteor

N = your number

Posted by
104 posts

Thank you, Steve. I'll probably try to buy a phone there as well. Do you think they had them in the store where you bought your SIM card? Was it Dixons, by any chance?

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