Unlocked Cell Phone and Sims Cards in UK

Author Message   Bill Terry Senior Member Username: Bill_terry Post Number: 656 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 72.216.27.70 Posted on Friday, May 14, 2010 - 06:04 pm:    I called AT&T a couple of weeks ago and told the lady I was going to Europe soon and would like to unlock my phone. No problem. She guided me thru the procedure and it's now unlocked. May not need it (planning on using Skype) but it's done if I need it   Bob Dart Senior Member Username: Bobdart Post Number: 1515 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 194.239.236.1 Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 03:08 pm:    I had almost exactly the same experience in England and decided that the more expensive sim card over the long haul probably saved me money as it worked when I needed it and I didn't have to revert to a pay phone when I wanted to call ahead to make a room reservation. Sometimes a penny saved is not a penny earned...or was that a pence?   Tommy Towery Intermediate Member Username: Ttowery Post Number: 79 Registered: 10-2007 Posted From: 75.64.18.5 Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 08:49 pm:    I took an unlocked Nokia cell phone with me to the UK. I found a phone store that tried to sell me an expensive (10 GBP) pay as you go SIM card for it but I passed on that one and found a small "mom and pop" cell phone and internet place and bought a Lycamobile one for 5 GBP and added 10 pounds worth of time. The SIM slipped easily into my phone and contained my new mobile number without any mess ups. The rate to the US via that system was 4 pence per minute. It worked fine in London and even though we didn't need it, it was nice to have the security of a mobile phone if we needed it. I did send a text message to my daughter back in the states and that cost me 10 pence. When we got to Mildenhall, it was a different story. Much like the US was several years ago, there were many places outside of the major cities that had "no network coverage." Mildenhall was one of those not covered by the Lycamobile network. In all our trips around the area,the only place we had a signal was in Bury St. Edmunds but not in Cambridge. On the trip to Cambridge we went into a TESCO store and they had a SIM for 1 GBP that included 20 pence worth of time. That was enough to at least check it out. When we got back to Mildenhall and Lakenheath we had the same problem - no network coverage. I never got coverage in any of the surrounding areas. There was a vendor in the Mildenhall Exchange mall that had a T-Mobile SIM for 10 GBP with no time. It would have cost 10 more GBP to get some time. There is also a vendor in the Lakenheath Exchange mall that sells SIMs for about the same. Epilog - I left the TESCO SIM card in the phone and when I got home to Memphis I had a signal. I don't know how much it costs to call from here, because I only have the 20 pence credit and really no one to talk to. I put the Lycamobile one in and there was no coverage for it in Memphis. I would have to recommend that you consider the T-Mobile SIM option if you are going to be hanging around the Mildenhall area. In London, most of them seem to work equally good.