Mobile phone store in London - need unlocked quad-band GSM + UMTS or HSDPA

PhotoJim

I'm going to be in London for ten days as of next weekend and I'm trying to find a reasonably-priced quad-band GSM + UMTS/HSDPA 2100 phone (even better if it has UMTS or HSDPA 850 and 1900 too but that's probably asking too much

) to use as my travel phone and a plaything back home in Canada.

I'm going to be using it with several providers so it needs to be unlocked. I know several carriers sell these at decent prices with prepaid SIMs, but I assume they'll be SIM-locked, and even if they aren't, I assume they won't be easy to get working for data access with other providers. (Two of my existing 4 phones are SIM-unlocked but I can't change the data configurations, which is slightly annoying. The other two are unbranded so I'm good.)

Suggestions of stores? Suggestions of phones to look at? I couldn't care less about camera functionality. It'll get used as a phone first, and as a data tool second, and anything else is bonus.

I'll also be in Zurich, Edinburgh and Glasgow if you know any good stores there, but we're in London first so that seems the best choice.

Thanks!

**andy** · 27-08-2007, 11:45

The Carphone Warehouse, with branches everywhere, publish slightly higher prices for phones without a SIM, which obviously will not be locked. It is reputed that most other phones they sell are not locked either, though I'm not sure how true this is. Similar probably applies at other High St dealers, though the number that are not tied to the main networks is reducing.

As for choice of phone, I'm not the person to ask. Some of the more up-market ones tend not to appear on pay-as-you-go at that many dealers though; maybe mail-order ...

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	(#1 (permalink))
PhotoJim (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 381 Join Date: 10 Dec 2006 Location: Regina, SK, CA Country:	Mobile phone store in London - need unlocked quad-band GSM + UMTS or HSDPA - 26-08-2007, 18:11 I'm going to be in London for ten days as of next weekend and I'm trying to find a reasonably-priced quad-band GSM + UMTS/HSDPA 2100 phone (even better if it has UMTS or HSDPA 850 and 1900 too but that's probably asking too much ) to use as my travel phone and a plaything back home in Canada. I'm going to be using it with several providers so it needs to be unlocked. I know several carriers sell these at decent prices with prepaid SIMs, but I assume they'll be SIM-locked, and even if they aren't, I assume they won't be easy to get working for data access with other providers. (Two of my existing 4 phones are SIM-unlocked but I can't change the data configurations, which is slightly annoying. The other two are unbranded so I'm good.) Suggestions of stores? Suggestions of phones to look at? I couldn't care less about camera functionality. It'll get used as a phone first, and as a data tool second, and anything else is bonus. I'll also be in Zurich, Edinburgh and Glasgow if you know any good stores there, but we're in London first so that seems the best choice. Thanks! GSM: CA: SaskTel (postpaid voice/data,,postpaid data), Rogers (postpaid data); UK: Orange, 3; CH: Swisscom; AT: tele.ring; US: T-Mobile, AT&T, Red Pocket Mobile, Telestial Simple Calling; EE: AirBalticcard CDMA: US: PagePlus Hardware: iPhone 4, iPhone 3G, Nokia E63, Nokia Nuron, Novatel Ovation MC950D & MC998D data sticks, Huawei UG1691 data stick (3G AWS), Motorola RAZR V3, Sony-Ericsson K610i, Sony-Ericsson Z310i, Otech F1 (quad sim) (all unlocked)

	(#2 (permalink))
andy (Offline) Moderator Prepaid President Posts: 1,964 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	27-08-2007, 11:45 The Carphone Warehouse, with branches everywhere, publish slightly higher prices for phones without a SIM, which obviously will not be locked. It is reputed that most other phones they sell are not locked either, though I'm not sure how true this is. Similar probably applies at other High St dealers, though the number that are not tied to the main networks is reducing. As for choice of phone, I'm not the person to ask. Some of the more up-market ones tend not to appear on pay-as-you-go at that many dealers though; maybe mail-order ...