Best pay-as-you-go SIM for internet?

Qualitymark

I'm off to London for a week, bringing my trusty iPhone, and need to buy an English SIM to use while I'm there.

I need two things:

1) a number for people to ring me on

2) a cheap data plan - since any calls I'll be making will be through Truphone or Skype, and any texts will be through Eirtext.

What's the best (=cheapest, with good network coverage) prepay SIM to get?

Thanks in advance for your help.

5uspect

I have a vodafone prepay freebie deal.
Top up by £10 and get 500MB and 300 texts for a month etc:
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/price-plans/pay-as-you-go/vodafone-freebees/topup-and-get-text-and-web/

Not too sure about other deals.

Qualitymark

It seems that 500MB is standard (I called Carphone Warehouse in Britain and they told me - they suggested Orange, by the way, so a friend is picking me up an Orange SIM today.)

500MB seems a little stingy, since map use tends to gobble up the megabytes like Marlon Brando in a Burger King. Maps would be my primary reason for internet use when abroad; I have a kind of Mr Magoo persona, spending most of my time lost and bewildered.

5uspect

I use Google maps when out and about in London at weekends and it hardly puts a dent in my data. Unless you're using satellite imagery?

Qualitymark

I am, @Suspect, didn't know that made a difference - thanks for the tip.

It also turns out that I can't use Eirtext Pro on Orange; is there a UK app for sending free texts? (Not that I'm likely to need it in a week - the texts built into the card should be plenty; just curious really.)

Though come to think of it, if I'm sending texts home, they're probably not covered.

5uspect

No, it only covers UK texts.

With the satellite imagery you're downloading images. Map data is just vertices place names etc and the phone renders the map. It's much smaller in size.

Qualitymark

My friend having kindly got the Orange SIM for me, I now discover that if I'd got an O2 SIM, I could send free texts from the UK using Eirtext Pro. Ho hum. I don't suppose I'll be spending a lot of time texting anyway. And it'll still be cheaper than using my Irish O2 $IM abroad.

Jack B. Badd

3 seem to be a lot better than the others when it comes to data access but I've no idea about how good their call/text options are.

Qualitymark

I'm having another strange problem.

I came to England and put in the O2 SIM my friend had bought me (a cheapie for £1) and my iPhone won't recognise it. Tried an Orange SIM and the same happened.

It's recognising my Irish O2 SIM ok.

The phone was unlocked last May by O2 Ireland.

Would you know of any reason why it wouldn't work with English SIMs? Most of the time it says nothing - doesn't ask for an unlock code or anything, but just gives a 'call failed' message when I try to call to top up the credit. Once, as I was popping the three SIMs (the English O2 and Orange ones and the working Irish O2 ones) in and out, it gave an "unrecognised SIM" message.

Qualitymark

If you see a poor helpless person running through London tearing out hair, that would be me.

I have now linked to iTunes and merged the information, unlocked the phone and put an O2 SIM into it, bought a £10 top-up and (having totally failed to top it up myself) had it topped up with the help of the local phone shop.

So far, so hunky-dory.

But while I can send and receive texts, and call and receive calls, I don't seem to have any data access.

(Sob)

5uspect

No idea I'm afraid. Google has a few suggestions regarding resetting network settings etc but I'm not a jesus phone user.

Qualitymark

Jesus phone?

5uspect

The iphone is commonly known as the Jesus Phone (possibly coined by the register). The iphone4 was called the Judas Phone after "antennagate".

Qualitymark

Not walking on water or turning ditto to wine very successfully at the moment, though! Not to mention the money-changers.

Fysh

Qualitymark wrote: »

Not walking on water or turning ditto to wine very successfully at the moment, though! Not to mention the money-changers.

I'm pretty sure there's an app for that, though you might need a dongle too...

Qualitymark

Finally got it working by turning off wifi and starving it of information so it was forced to go and look for data. Thanks for all the help.

Hah. Except for doing one little thing.... when I signed up for MobileMe yesterday, the intro page said this would supersede my Apple password. So I logged in to iTunes, assuming that the new account and the old one would be merged....

(Sob)

All gone. Changed, changed utterly. All my podcasts gone, my addresses, my audiobooks. They're on the iPhone, of course, but I daren't sync it now.

(Sob)

(Broken sob)

Qualitymark

The O2 card proved only so-so; it worked fine within Britain, but no one could call me from abroad. Is this standard for pay-as-you-go SIMs?

BrokenArrows

Qualitymark wrote: »

The O2 card proved only so-so; it worked fine within Britain, but no one could call me from abroad. Is this standard for pay-as-you-go SIMs?

I think you need to enable to ability to make calls to and receive calls internationally. If you call into an O2 place they should be able to do it for you,.

Qualitymark

Ah, thanks, BrokenArrows, I'll try that next time I'm in England.