Buying a UK SIM card in US

While preparing for a trip to the UK last year, I could not find sources for UK-specific SIM cards in the US. They only SIMs I could find were of the "tourist travel" type and the airtime/data rates were terribly expensive. I chose to wait until arrival to purchase my SIM for my iPhone.

After researching pay-as-you-go plans, I settled on O2. The other providers seemed to have really good airtime OR really good data but O2, in my opinion, had the best overall value. Getting the SIM installed and the phone working took only about 5 minutes. I ended up with 300 minutes (only $0.05 a minute to the states) and 2.5GB of data for GBP20.

T -
Thanks very much for your reply . Will look into this o2 plan also.

Todd, how did you unlock your phone for international use? I thought most US carriers won't allow that and, without unlocking it, the phone wouldn't be compatible even with a foreign SIM card.

My verizon carrier said all iphones are now unlocked and global ready. not sure this applies to other brand phones.

Well...you're mostly right. The iPhone 5 and above can be unlocked for international use but Verizon said a code is necessary to unlock them. I got it from them but evidently its usually 00000 so maybe most purveyors of sim cards know that so it would seem that they are already unlocked.
Todd, did you purchase the O2 card in the airport or...where?
Thanks!

lousgrls,

I now own unlocked phones because I have stopped paying the outrageous "contract" plans of the big 3 cell providers in the US. I have a monthly 'no contract' plan from a major retailer and my service is better than my experience with the big three at a fraction of the (monthly) price. (This particular provider supports both CDMA phones on the Verison network and GSM phones on the AT&T network. I selected GSM capable phone(s) and the service has been great.) Part of this deal is the need to purchase your phone up-front, but the savings really add up. There are plenty of legitimate places to purchase factory unlocked phones at a discount price so you don’t necessarily have to pay full retail for a phone. Plus, I now have complete freedom – and I can take my phone(s) anywhere in the world and pop in a local SIM with no worries.

PM me if you would like any other details.

Todd

Lisa,

I purchased my O2 SIM at the O2 shop on Kensington High St. It was convenient to my hotel and only steps from the High Street Kensington tube station.

Purchasing the O2 SIM also provides unlimited access to the O2 metropolitan area WIFI network. The O2 WIFI was a little spotty at times but it did come in handy at times. I should note that '3', 'EE", and T-Mobile also offer metro-wide WIFI as well so this isn't necessarily unique to O2.

Todd

As in the US, phone plans in the UK change all the time, so the "best" deal is not a fixed target.

To learn more about deals, a great resource is Prepaid GSM. Here's their list of prepaid plans in the UK; you can then look on their "prepaid offer click here" link to learn more, or go directly to the websites to get full info: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/uk.php. Since your student is using the phone, he/she will probably know what to look for on the websites (features they want, etc).

If you have more specific questions, the Prepaid GSM UK Forum can be great, but it can get very detailed, so don't be afraid to ask for clarification: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=442f613e79017d6415eed43cbe3e744f&f=38