Roaming In The Uk

[KiwiSurfer]

You may have read my other topic regarding the costs of roaming or using a local sim in Spain. In case you have not I'm a Vodafone NZ customer. I'm also Deaf so all I will use is SMS, with a lot of International SMS. I'll be in the UK between 25th June to 12th July.

This time round, Vodafone UK is the cheapest roaming partner -- which makes a lot more sense to me! However it is clearly much cheaper to get a local sim card, which is unusually not the case over the channel in Spain!

I've calculated the costs of International SMS as follows:-
- Fresh, Mobile World, M&S UK (local) - NZD $0.42 (UKP 0.15)
- easyMobile, O2, Orange, Tesco, T-Mobile, Virgin UK (local) - NZD $0.57 (UKP 0.20)
- Vodafone UK (local) - NZD $0.68 (UKP 0.24)
- Vodafone UK (roaming) - NZD $0.70
- H3G UK (local) - NZD $0.72 (UKP 0.25)
- O2, Orange, T-Mobile (roaming) - NZD $0.85

Seems that Mobile World offers a free SIM Card with 10.00 worth of airtime, and they still offer the 0.15/message tariff. M&S (see note 1) charges 5.00 for a SIM Card, but it is not clear if this includes 5.00 worth of credit or not. However they only charge 0.15/message as well. Fresh does not seem to disclose what their tariff is for international SMS, although the database here shows it at 0.15/msg.

It seems the best way to go would be the Mobile World sim. Is it worth ordering it online, or can I just buy it from any branch of the Carphone Warehouse?

Or are there any suggestions that I should look at?

I find it interesting, that for me as a Vodafone NZ customer it only costs me 20 cents to send a message to any country in the world -- yet for someone in the UK to send a message back to NZ it can cost the equilivant of between 42 to 72 NZ cents!

Regards,
James

Note 1: The URL in the PrepaidGSM database is incorrect, it should be http://www.marksandspencer.com/IWCatProduc...duct_Id=1866551

[Gryphone]

Mobile World is certainly the cheapest for international connections from the UK, however it's not roaming capable, therefore you can't receive any more texts on that card from back home.

You could check at ebay.co.uk whether they're selling Mobile World SIMs too, you certainly can get i.e. Orange SIMs there.

[Malkav]

also the mobile world sim is not free, well it is but you have to buy the 10 pounds of credit on it at the time of purchase...so its ?10.00 for the sim including ?10.00 credit....also try some of the other probvidors like Virgin, tesco, etc...


btw i have some mobile world sim cards (as new and no credit on them, sealed) will swap for NZ sim cards again as new/ sealed if your interested?

if so pm me

[andy]

An O2 SIM with Int'l Caller option has the cheapest rate for sms to foreign numbers, at 10 pence each. For other readers, it also has cheap calls, as does an Orange Call Abroad SIM for some countries.

http://www.o2.co.uk/mobilestariffs/tariffs...nalcallerbolton

There will also be costs for people sending you messages as well, of course, so it might be worth having 2 phones with NZ and UK SIMs, one for receive and one for send.

Several SIMs have bonus options of loads of inclusive messages to same or all UK networks when topped-up. Others sometimes have cheap rates to same network, like from 3 pence a go. This means you might even consider getting a couple of UK SIMs to give to family at home so they'd have send and receive phones as well.

If you will have internet access for part of the day, then some VoIP providers and other companies have cheap sms from 3 or 5 pence each - eg Skype, Babble, and the several Finarea brands Voipcheap, Voipbuster, etc.

There are also websites that can send free or cheap sms, though this needs careful attention to terms and conditions and other user reviews, as some of them may then start spamming with premium rate pay-to-receive messages. There are well over 100 listed on http://www.textmefree.com/ - cbfsms seems popular, is free to UK numbers, and 5p int'l

In addition, some providers have sending possible via wap/gprs using a Java application in the phone. I've never got smsBug working myself, and Babble have a beta version which I haven't tried.

Most UK SIMs are very cheap eg 50p or ?1 on their websites, or actually free quite often, like 2 or 3 right at the moment, so you could order them to a UK address, then post a couple home if using my two phones suggestion for the most used contacts. Or I've got some here, or could apply for others to post on

[KiwiSurfer]

Originally Posted by Gryphone

Mobile World is certainly the cheapest for international connections from the UK, however it's not roaming capable, therefore you can't receive any more texts on that card from back home.

You could check at ebay.co.uk whether they're selling Mobile World SIMs too, you certainly can get i.e. Orange SIMs there.

I don't plan on using it back home, but as I will be going to Spain after the UK roaming so could be useful. However roaming using the UK sim card I've looked at is usually more expensive than roaming using my NZ sim card. Vodafone NZ offers roaming on Orange Spain for only NZD 0.50 (UKP 0.17) per message -- are there any UK networks which can beat this price?

Current pricing for SMS in Spain for UK networks:-
- Virgin - 35p
- Orange UK - 40p
- O2 and Vodafone UK - 49p
- easyMobile and T-Mobile UK - 50p
- M&S, Mobile World, Tesco - n/a

Roaming is available on Fresh, but apparently you have to undergo a credit check! Not praticial for a foreign citizen I assume.

As you can see it's twice as expensive to roam using a UK sim card than it is to roam using my Vodafone sim card. Therefore I'll only use my UK sim card in the UK, and to receive messages from the UK -- so roaming outside the UK is not a concern for me.

Thanks for the suggestion about ebay, I shall have a look there. I'll also keep an eye on our local trading site for any UK sims.

Regards,
James

[KiwiSurfer]

Originally Posted by Malkav

also the mobile world sim is not free, well it is but you have to buy the 10 pounds of credit on it at the time of purchase...so its ?10.00 for the sim including ?10.00 credit....also try some of the other probvidors like Virgin, tesco, etc...


btw i have some mobile world sim cards (as new and no credit on them, sealed) will swap for NZ sim cards again as new/ sealed if your interested?

if so pm me

If I buy a 10.00 card with 10.00 worth of credit, then it's virtually free isn't it? 10 minus 10 equals 0, according to Primary School maths.

Whats the advantage of Virign and/or tesco over MobileWorld? Note that I'm looking at cheapest SMS costs back to NZ -- and both these networks comes second equal to MobileWorld.

Regards,
James

[KiwiSurfer]

Originally Posted by andy

An O2 SIM with Int'l Caller option has the cheapest rate for sms to foreign numbers, at 10 pence each. For other readers, it also has cheap calls, as does an Orange Call Abroad SIM for some countries.

Thanks very much for that information about the 02 bolt-on! It seems like a pretty good deal, finally!

The costs for an O2 pay-as-you-go SIM seems to be:-
- ?4.99 for the sim
- ?4.99 one-off for bolt-on
- 10p per UK text (Talkalot plan)
- 10p per international text

Total Costs (Orange UK vs Vodafone NZ):-
100 texts - ?19.98 (NZD $57.35) vs $70.00
200 texts - ?29.98 (NZD $86.05) vs $140.00
300 texts - ?39.98 (NZD $114.75) vs $210.00
400 texts - ?49.98 (NZD $143.46) vs $280.00
500 texts - ?59.98 (NZD $172.16) vs $350.00

This is a much better deal, so thanks for this information.

I see O2 also has a roaming bolt-on, could be useful for roaming in Spain.

Costs same as above, except as follows:-
- ?1.99 monthly for Europe bolt-on
- 39p per text from Europe

Total Costs (Orange UK vs Vodafone NZ):-
100 texts - ?50.97 (NZD $146.30) vs $50.00
200 texts - ?89.97 (NZD $258.24) vs $100.00
300 texts - ?128.97 (NZD $370.1 vs $150.00
400 texts - ?167.97 (NZD $482.12) vs $200.00

Clearly Vodafone is still cheapest by far for roaming in Spain.

Originally Posted by andy

Most UK SIMs are very cheap eg 50p or ?1 on their websites, or actually free quite often, like 2 or 3 right at the moment, so you could order them to a UK address, then post a couple home if using my two phones suggestion for the most used contacts. Or I've got some here, or could apply for others to post on

Thanks for your offer (same to Malkav). I'm not leaving until June 2007 (thats ages away!) so I will keep an eye on here and closer to the date I'll look at options for obtaining a SIM Card.

Regards,
James

[Malkav]

Originally Posted by KiwiSurfer

If I buy a 10.00 card with 10.00 worth of credit, then it's virtually free isn't it? 10 minus 10 equals 0, according to Primary School maths.

Whats the advantage of Virign and/or tesco over MobileWorld? Note that I'm looking at cheapest SMS costs back to NZ -- and both these networks comes second equal to MobileWorld.

Regards,
James

i know but i wanted you to check all the alternatives! ya know not all the big players have the better offers!

[KiwiSurfer]

Just to report back on my experiences.

I got an O2 UK Sim while still in New Zealand and was able to activate it even when roaming on Vodafone in New Zealand. I had no credit however, but that was easily solved by getting a top-up receipt from Tescos and the O2 shops. The O2 website won't accept my NZ credit card, so the only way for me to top-up was to do it the old-fanioshed way.

It worked fine during my travels in the UK. The International Caller bolt-on, as discussed earlier in this thread, saved me heaps of money. SMS are usually UKP 0.20 but with the bolt-on that is reduced to UKP 0.10. I sent a lot of SMS back to New Zealand so this was excellent for me.

If you make a lot of international texts, I recommend that you go with O2 just for the international caller bolt-on. However their coverage was not as good as either Orange or Vodafone, but I found it to be of an acceptable standard.

Roaming (Vodafone NZ)

I also used my Vodafone NZ sim -- I borrowed a friend's (KiwiSteve) phone and put the NZ sim in there while I put the O2 UK sim in my usual phone. Vodafone NZ has roaming agreements with all four 2G operators. The following is a list of UK networks I roamed on and the costs for SMS roaming for the reference of any Vodafone NZ customers planning to roam in the UK.

- O2 UK (n/a)
- Orange UK (NZD $0.53 per SMS)
- T-Mobile UK (n/a)
- Vodafone UK (NZD $0.42 per SMS)

Coverage Report

I travelled mostly in Southern England and in London itself. Some key areas where I tested coverage was on the London to Portsmouth (A3) highway and in and around London. I was able to test coverage on all four networks on the same phone since my Vodafone account has roaming access to all four networks.

Coverage in London was excellent on all four 2G networks, so I won't comment further.

Coverage on Orange and Vodafone was pretty good in most rural areas. I was very impressed since Orange managed to achieve good rural coverage even while using GSM 1800 spectrum. O2 was pretty good, although there were some gaps on O2 where Orange/Vodafone still had good service.

Coverage wise I found T-Mobile to be very lacking in most rural areas I travelled through. In many areas the other three networks had good service, whereas T-Mobile had no signal. T-Mobile is only useful if you stick to the cities only, but if you plan to spend a lot of time out of the cites, you would do well to avoid T-Mobile.

Regards,
James