Living in the UK for a year
 

I'm going to be living in the UK for a year, and I'm wondering what the best package they have is? The one I have at the moment gives me unlimited free sms messages to others on this network... so I'd be going for something as close to that as possible... I have addictions to fill! :D

Any help at all would be appreciated :)

(not bad for a first post ) ;)

This is embarrassing, I've been using forums for years, and can't make the text smaller... ah well :)

Hi Queevs

With most of the UK networks you can get "free" inclusive texts either on contract or PAYG but if you are texting a foreign number these usually don't come out of your allowance and you endup paying about 2.5x more than the normal network charge for texting within the UK

So they have free same network to same network texts? legend :D

Texting a foreign number probably will be done through my irish phone number, so I'll be ok on that. I'll be travelling back and forward from Ireland, so it'll still be in use :D

It is usually "free" texts between the uk ops so voda-orange or 02 to tmob would be included but not orange to irish provider.

Might be worth looking at Three I believe they have service in Ireland and they run something called "Three like home" Don't know the full details but I believe it allows you to use inclusive minutes/ texts at the same rate as if you were in your own country. It only applies to a handfull of countries but I believe Ireland and UK are in there

Thanks a million :)

what's the best one with regards to customer support etc? any you'd recommend personally?

O2 has a bolt-on called International Caller which gives you GBP 0.10 texts to overseas numbers as well as cheaper calls to popular international destinations. That could be worth looking into.

Orange also has a special sim for international callers with some discounted prices for international calls to selected countries. I'm not sure if SMS is discounted as well.

Might be worth finding out if Three, T-Mobile and Vodafone offers some good deals for international texts as well.

Regards,
James

For coverage, following my 2.5 weeks experience in Southern England I would rank the four 2G networks in this order: Orange, Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile. I did not use a 3G phone so I don't know what 3G coverage is like. T-Mobile coverage in many areas is rather spotty but the other three networks were alright.

Three, I understand, roams on O2 in non-3G coverage areas -- unless they have changed their roaming partner since I last checked?

Regards,
James

I know this thread isn't terribly recent, but I just wanted to mention that 3 now use Orange for GSM roaming.

It might also be of interest to the OP to know that British networks usually have cheaper rates for phoning the Republic of Ireland than they do for other foreign destinations as far as I am aware.