New Mobile Phone Service

[Moving to UK from US]

I presently have Verizon for my mobile phone service and Vonage for my landline service. I am trying to decide whether to keep Verizon and just purchase a sim card upon my arrival to London in Nov., or just cancel the service and get a new service there. Does anyone know how cost effective it would be to just change sim cards? Also, Vonage offers unlimited long distance (includes London) and it is conected to high speed internet so I can bring the modem with me, connect it and the $29.99 per month cost would remain the same...according to Vonage. Has anyone had any experience with this? Would it be more cost effective to secure a landline service there? Please advise...Thanks

[Stevan]

Originally Posted by Moving to UK from US

I presently have Verizon for my mobile phone service and Vonage for my landline service. I am trying to decide whether to keep Verizon and just purchase a sim card upon my arrival to London in Nov., or just cancel the service and get a new service there. Does anyone know how cost effective it would be to just change sim cards? Also, Vonage offers unlimited long distance (includes London) and it is conected to high speed internet so I can bring the modem with me, connect it and the $29.99 per month cost would remain the same...according to Vonage. Has anyone had any experience with this? Would it be more cost effective to secure a landline service there? Please advise...Thanks

Hi as for a sim card. They will virtualy give them away when you arrive. You can pick up a phone and card for as little as £10 in a supermarket.

Hi speed internet and landline will depend on where you are. cable networks will give you a whole package including TV at arround the £40 mark.

BT is about £25 a month i think for phone and internet package.

Speeds wil vary dependant on location.

[jlms]

Originally Posted by Moving to UK from US

I presently have Verizon for my mobile phone service and Vonage for my landline service. I am trying to decide whether to keep Verizon and just purchase a sim card upon my arrival to London in Nov., or just cancel the service and get a new service there. Does anyone know how cost effective it would be to just change sim cards? Also, Vonage offers unlimited long distance (includes London) and it is conected to high speed internet so I can bring the modem with me, connect it and the $29.99 per month cost would remain the same...according to Vonage. Has anyone had any experience with this? Would it be more cost effective to secure a landline service there? Please advise...Thanks

I think you are missing the point about how the service works here in Europe.

First of all Verizon does not exist here, so forget about it.

As for your handset, if you want to use it once you are here you need to unlock it first, otherwise any other SIMs will not work with your phone.

You will not manage to avoid for long SIM cards thrown at your for small change, then you can buy a used Handset on Ebay for precious little and be ready to go. Although the Pay as you Go calls are more expensive, you may need to use them until you can get a monthly contract which will include all kind of goodies (I pay £15/month for a reasonable amount of texts and calls plus £0.30 for each day I use Internet).

There are many companies doing cheap international calls (the best one is Skype, it costs me peanuts to call back home to Mexico) and there are many options to get broadband to your home, so I would not even think about moving any services to the UK, it is completely unnecessary and your current provider may be banking in your lack of knowledge of the local UK market to give you a bad deal (you could have all your digital needs covered for £25 or £30 a month).

[Minuvweyna]

When I moved, I thought (momentarily) of unlocking my phone from the US and bringing it with me, until I realized the technology in the US is not even the same. I had a dual band phone, where in the UK they are mostly quad band!

I'd say just be patient and get a phone here. I had no credit in the UK but I was able to get one of the cheaper monthly plans as soon as I had my bank account set up.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth

[Fatbrit]

Originally Posted by Moving to UK from US

I presently have Verizon for my mobile phone service and Vonage for my landline service. I am trying to decide whether to keep Verizon and just purchase a sim card upon my arrival to London in Nov., or just cancel the service and get a new service there. Does anyone know how cost effective it would be to just change sim cards?

Forget Verizon -- totally different technology from the European one. The only phones that might work are unlocked AT&T or T-mobile ones -- but that depends on the phone as well

[Geebug820]

Originally Posted by Moving to UK from US

I presently have Verizon for my mobile phone service and Vonage for my landline service. I am trying to decide whether to keep Verizon and just purchase a sim card upon my arrival to London in Nov., or just cancel the service and get a new service there. Does anyone know how cost effective it would be to just change sim cards? Also, Vonage offers unlimited long distance (includes London) and it is conected to high speed internet so I can bring the modem with me, connect it and the $29.99 per month cost would remain the same...according to Vonage. Has anyone had any experience with this? Would it be more cost effective to secure a landline service there? Please advise...Thanks

Hi,

Well I am not too sure about the mobile phone thing, but I do know that if you take your vonage modem with you and hook it up to a high speed internet connection you can keep your same U.S area code phone number and recieve phone calls just as if you were in the U.S., I am actually doing that, and I know for a fact it works well if you want to keep in touch with your family and friends in the U.S. and they can call you as if you were in the states. Just make sure that your billing address remains a U.S. address for their records and just pay online.

[peppera-ann-]

i bought an unlocked treo 750 ...was told i can just go to any store and get a sim card...and start up???? according to credit check etc. but dont see why i cant get a sim card for a crap phone for text or pay as you go??? shouldnt be that diff in the us...

[Stevan]

Originally Posted by peppera-ann-

i bought an unlocked treo 750 ...was told i can just go to any store and get a sim card...and start up???? according to credit check etc. but dont see why i cant get a sim card for a crap phone for text or pay as you go??? shouldnt be that diff in the us...

Walk into any asda supermarket in UK they give away sim cards at the checkout.

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by peppera-ann-

i bought an unlocked treo 750 ...was told i can just go to any store and get a sim card...and start up???? according to credit check etc. but dont see why i cant get a sim card for a crap phone for text or pay as you go??? shouldnt be that diff in the us...

The one difference is going to be whether your phone is on GSM or not. I have a tri-band phone that I use when I'm in the States - and not all phones are set up to handle the correct GSM band for Europe.

If your "crap phone" isn't GSM or isn't on the right band (you usually need either a tri-band or a quad-band phone), you won't be able to use it on the other side of the pond.
Cheers,
Bev

[peppera-ann-]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

The one difference is going to be whether your phone is on GSM or not. I have a tri-band phone that I use when I'm in the States - and not all phones are set up to handle the correct GSM band for Europe.

If your "crap phone" isn't GSM or isn't on the right band (you usually need either a tri-band or a quad-band phone), you won't be able to use it on the other side of the pond.
Cheers,
Bev

well in crap phone i meant just use the sim card from it in my quad band phone..
thanks bev!