Phones

mtjm

Just want too get feed back from yas, I'm going to London in couple weeks, I do have an iphone but it's belongs to work, I don't have any other phones and the bills aren't generaly any more than say €50, I would like to use it over in london even if I just use it for maps/Facebook etc.. if I use them would I be charged more for being in UK?

On the other hand was thinking of getting a cheapish pay as you go smart phone and having my iphone number divered to the pay as you go? are they just as good in London?


To be honest I'll only need a smart phone for mapping stuff


thanks


MTJM

Fysh

Anything involving roaming abroad will cost you horrific amounts of money for stuff like data, I've seen some operators charge ~1€/MB which is ludicrous, and while prices should be coming down they're still higher than you'd pay just getting a SIM.

If you want a cheapish PAYG SIM for data & phone stuff, you can do worse than one of Three's offerings - see here. Depending on how you travel over, you may see them available for sale in vending machines in the arrivals lounge.

mtjm

I'm only planning on going for 4 days so was thinking of getting a phone here and just using

BuffyBot

A 3 Ireiand SIM will work without additional charge for calls/texts/data in the UK. If your iPhone is unlocked you could place the SIM in it to use.

S.M.B.

Fysh wrote: »

Anything involving roaming abroad will cost you horrific amounts of money for stuff like data, I've seen some operators charge ~1€/MB which is ludicrous, and while prices should be coming down they're still higher than you'd pay just getting a SIM.

This should no longer be the case. EU wide roaming charges have dramatically reduced over the past year depending on what carrier you were with.

I pay £1.99 a day for data roaming (albeit limited) and I only pay a connection charge for making an vs receiving calls these days. The rest comes out of my bundle. That's with O2 uk.

Fysh

S.M.B. wrote: »

This should no longer be the case. EU wide roaming charges have dramatically reduced over the past year depending on what carrier you were with.

I pay £1.99 a day for data roaming (albeit limited) and I only pay a connection charge for making an vs receiving calls these days. The rest comes out of my bundle. That's with O2 uk.

I knew that was the intention, but haven't had the opportunity to see what it's like in practice - certainly the last time I looked, data roaming charges were still on the wrong side of "taking the piss". Three UK for example, still charge £0.70/MB for data roaming on a contract, which is ludicrous. (They offer the frankly-also-ridiculous option of £5/day of presumably-limited mobile data access, which isn't much better....).

I welcome the EU regulation in this area, I just don't think we'll see the benefits for a while yet

Marcusm

Fysh wrote: »

I knew that was the intention, but haven't had the opportunity to see what it's like in practice - certainly the last time I looked, data roaming charges were still on the wrong side of "taking the piss". Three UK for example, still charge £0.70/MB for data roaming on a contract, which is ludicrous. (They offer the frankly-also-ridiculous option of £5/day of presumably-limited mobile data access, which isn't much better....).

I welcome the EU regulation in this area, I just don't think we'll see the benefits for a while yet

Just been in France and Spain for 3 weeks. BAsically, your UK provider will have to have established a plan and you get text when you arrive. O2 and Vod is £1.99 per day for 25mb and no more data unless you buy more at the same rate. EE was £18 for 100mb and then buy more when you need it. The allowances carried across borders and are charged by the UK provider so if the phone moves across different foreign netwroks during the day, it doesn't matter.

I don't think any of the operators are allowed to default to an expensive per mb charge anymore on consumer contracts. The OP's work phone may not be on a consumer contract and will charge based on its own terms.

jimmynokia

Your best off buying a local sim and phone on the cheap.

Now i just seen the lumia 520 has went on sale in the uk in cpw,they are sim free and a sim is ten quid.They are on a few networks over there.But in cpw atm they are sim free.

Why you ask?

Buy this and sell if at no loss here as they are not available.

mtjm

Do you get charged using the aps on the iphone? example facebook maps etc..

exiledelbows

mtjm wrote: »

Do you get charged using the aps on the iphone? example facebook maps etc..

Only if they're connected to data. When I went to Berlin I downloaded an offline map to my phone which was very useful. They're normally not searchable but if you've an idea where you are it'll be fine.