For anyone with questions about use of an iPad 3G or an unlocked iPhone in the UK, I thought it might be helpful if I gave our experience on our three-week trip. Our trip involved quite bit of driving within an area roughly triangular in shape with the three points being London, the Norfolk coast and the Peak District. Rather than spend money on updating UK maps on the old Garmin which we don't use anymore, I bought the TomTom app with UK maps for use on the iPad. The app requires a data feed in order to work. As well, we needed mobile phone service while traveling and a couple of places where we would be staying charged a daily fee for wifi. Getting inexpensive data and phone service from a local carrier made sense for us. After researching the carrier options before the trip, we decided to use Three which had the best prepaid deal for tablets and smartphones. The reviews were generally good on Three's service with a caution that service could be sketchy in less populated areas. We found that to be true. We arrived in London on a Sunday and went to a Three store which was open until 5:00 p.m. There we paid £1 for the iPad sim and £10.59 for 1GB of data good for 30 days. The iPhone sim was £1 plus £15 for a 30-day "add-on" of 300 call minutes and 3000 texts (all within the UK) and unlimited data. It was more than sufficient for our needs. Continued below (thanks to Nancy for suggesting the format)
Posted by
OP
Dallas
1022 posts
iPad3G & Unlocked iPhone in England part two Calls from the UK to the States on Three are only 3p per minute but require an additional "top up". We needed to call the US several times and didn't want to rely on Skype and wifi, so we put a few £ on. At the end of the trip we have credit left which we were told would be there when we return next year. We'll see about that, but it really doesn't matter as the amount is insignificant. Three's service lived up to the reviews. It was generally good in London, though not in part of the Clapham area. But the people we visited in Clapham said their carrier O2 had weak service there, too. It was usually good in Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. But Three almost disappeared in the Peak District area of Derbyshire. Out of curiosity I turned on my AT&T iPhone in little Pilsley on the Chatsworth estate and had a good signal from Vodaphone. So next trip we might try another carrier if we venture very far from populous areas. One consequence of not getting data service is that neither the TomTom app nor the iPad/iPhone maps work without it. No problem, though. I always travel with the large scale AA atlas. It just means the navigator has to work harder and inevitably there are missed turns, etc. With data, the app was good in getting us from A to B. It has some quirks, but on the whole I was happy with it. Rather than make this any longer, I'll defer further comment on it unless someone is curious about it. If anyone has questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
Posted by
Boulder, Co, USA
4 posts
We just returned from the UK and Ireland and would highly recommend Three.
Posted by
Bristol, UK
1403 posts
If you just buy and download Tom Tom for iPhone then you do not need data access to use it. The phone works exactly like your old style Garmin. We did this when travelling in the US recently. I think it was about £50 which is significantly less then renting a satnav with your car rental, and you have it for future use too. The only possible downside is that they take up a lot of room on your phone so will limit how much music etc you can store at the same time.