Cellphone for England?

I will be in England for 2 1/2 weeks and will need a cellphone mostly
for local calls and a few short calls back to the U.S. My current
phone will not work in the UK so I need to buy or rent - and I'm
finding the options confusing. It's looking like I'm best off buying
and getting on some kind of plan, but a lot of them are expensive, and
I'm trying to keep my costs down. My guess is that I will probably
only be making about 2 hours of local calls and 1 hour of calls to the
U.S. - and will be receiving just as many. Any suggestions?

I need to get the phone a week or so before my trip in order to test
it out and give my phone number to contacts both in the US and
England.
Tracy in Massachusetts

"tracymar55" <tracymar55@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:811e0f3a-5f78-4f3f-8e30-b59791a19673@m36g2000hse..com...
>I will be in England for 2 1/2 weeks and will need a cellphone mostly
> for local calls and a few short calls back to the U.S.

William Black's suggestion is correct, if you must have a mobile phone. The
small usage you suggest certainly doesn't merit a contract, and you might
even be no worse off using public payphones.

>
> I need to get the phone a week or so before my trip in order to test
> it out and give my phone number to contacts both in the US and
> England.

Sorry, the reason you need to get the phone rather than bring your US phone
is that the systems are incompatible. You won't be able to test such a phone
in the USA, even if you can buy it there, because it won't work on the
American network.

Alan Harrison

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
> William Black <william.black@.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Quad band only if you want it for the Far East afterwards.
>
> No, quad band is also useful in the US, as there are some GSM areas
> there using 850 as well as 1900. You'll typically get better coverage in
> the US with a phone that supports both- i.e. quad band.
>

When I eventually buy a new mobile, I want a quad-band. My current one
is a tri-band, with both US bands plus 1800. I generally use Orange in
the UK, so that works for me, but some parts of the Highlands only have
coverage with O2, and they use 900.
I can't yet justify the expense of a quad-band - I'm waiting until the
prices drop, (or the current phone does).

On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:46:12 -0400, S Viemeister <firstname@lastname.oc.ku>
wrote:

>David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
>> William Black <william.black@.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> Quad band only if you want it for the Far East afterwards.
>>
>> No, quad band is also useful in the US, as there are some GSM areas
>> there using 850 as well as 1900. You'll typically get better coverage in
>> the US with a phone that supports both- i.e. quad band.
>>
>
>When I eventually buy a new mobile, I want a quad-band. My current one
>is a tri-band, with both US bands plus 1800. I generally use Orange in
>the UK, so that works for me, but some parts of the Highlands only have
>coverage with O2, and they use 900.
>I can't yet justify the expense of a quad-band - I'm waiting until the
>prices drop, (or the current phone does).
>

We use pre-pay Nokia 1100s that cost GBP16 each including the O2 SIM card.
--

Martin

On 23 Jul, 10:51, tracymar55 <tracyma...@netscape.net> wrote:
> I will be in England for 2 1/2 weeks and will need a cellphone mostly
> for local calls and a few short calls back to the U.S. My current
> phone will not work in the UK so I need to buy or rent - and I'm
> finding the options confusing. It's looking like I'm best off buying
> and getting on some kind of plan, but a lot of them are expensive, and
> I'm trying to keep my costs down. My guess is that I will probably
> only be making about 2 hours of local calls and 1 hour of calls to the
> U.S. - and will be receiving just as many. Any suggestions?
>
> I need to get the phone a week or so before my trip in order to test
> it out and give my phone number to contacts both in the US and
> England.
> Tracy in Massachusetts

My tuppenceworth

On ebay.com you can get a second hand phone.
The triband phone I use V66 can be obtained
for USD30 including shipping. Maybe a quadband
would be better for use in the US, but a triband
is fine for the UK. Make sure you buy an
UNLOCKED one. You can get a SIM easily and
cheaply when you arrive, although it may be
possible to get something in the US at greater cost.
NB you will probably be understood in the UK if you
say "cellphone", but everybody here says "mobile"

On Jul 23, 1:51 am, tracymar55 <tracyma...@netscape.net> wrote:
> I will be in England for 2 1/2 weeks and will need a cellphone mostly
> for local calls and a few short calls back to the U.S. My current
> phone will not work in the UK so I need to buy or rent - and I'm
> finding the options confusing. It's looking like I'm best off buying
> and getting on some kind of plan, but a lot of them are expensive, and
> I'm trying to keep my costs down. My guess is that I will probably
> only be making about 2 hours of local calls and 1 hour of calls to the
> U.S. - and will be receiving just as many. Any suggestions?
>
> I need to get the phone a week or so before my trip in order to test
> it out and give my phone number to contacts both in the US and
> England.
> Tracy in Massachusetts

Why don't you buy a tri band phone that works in England? Then you
have other options.

<semiretired@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:4f3b5bae-84a3-4876-ad04-5683e0d165d1@p25g2000hsf..com...
> On 23 Jul, 10:51, tracymar55 <tracyma...@netscape.net> wrote:
>> I will be in England for 2 1/2 weeks and will need a cellphone mostly
>> for local calls and a few short calls back to the U.S. My current
>> phone will not work in the UK so I need to buy or rent - and I'm
>> finding the options confusing. It's looking like I'm best off buying
>> and getting on some kind of plan, but a lot of them are expensive, and
>> I'm trying to keep my costs down. My guess is that I will probably
>> only be making about 2 hours of local calls and 1 hour of calls to the
>> U.S. - and will be receiving just as many. Any suggestions?
>>
>> I need to get the phone a week or so before my trip in order to test
>> it out and give my phone number to contacts both in the US and
>> England.
>> Tracy in Massachusetts
>
> My tuppenceworth
>
> On ebay.com you can get a second hand phone.
> The triband phone I use V66 can be obtained
> for USD30 including shipping.

You can walk into an Orange shop and buy one new for $20

Keith

Keith Willshaw wrote:
> <semiretired@my-deja.com> wrote
>> On ebay.com you can get a second hand phone.
>> The triband phone I use V66 can be obtained
>> for USD30 including shipping.
>
> You can walk into an Orange shop and buy one new for $20
>
>
>
Yup.