Hmmm.... I'd prefer to describe it as "phone plans are crazy expensive in North America" ..... except France which I would describe as remaining difficult due to their relatively closed market.
You can add Belgium to that as well, unless you know where to look.
Find out what the US calling rate is. Many low cost UK voice/data PAYG have a very high US calling rate.
In the UK, most (all?) of the mobile operators will give you access to very cheap US calls by opting into a free service. You usually send a text to a certain number to enable it. I usually pay 3-5p / min to call the US from a UK PAYG mobile, much cheaper than calling a UK landline!
Which is (hence the reason for free incoming calls) often a fair bit more than a call to a UK landline. Internationally it used to be the same but carriers are wising up to that.
Neil
Yes, most carriers and international calling services are now able to differentiate between landline and mobile numbers in each country. Usually they charge you more if you dial a mobile number.
You'll notice however that some of the networks / services proudly advertise that they charge same rate for landline and mobiles in particular countries. When you look closer, you will find, funnily enough, that this is only in a country like the USA where it's not possible to tell if a number is a mobile number, or a landline number, just from looking at the number itself. Whereas most countries have a different set of dialling prefixes for area codes, for their mobiles, such as mobile numbers generally begin with "07..." for UK-based mobiles, so the number can be identified as a mobile number so there is a way to charge you more to dial mobiles in most countries but not US mobiles as they can't be easily identified.
This is awesome. Will it work in an unlocked at&t iphone?
As long as it supports 3G. 3 is 3G only.
I used this plan and SIM when I was in the UK a few weeks ago. DOwnload Talkatone and use the unlimited data to make free calls to/from the US via Google Voice.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JTbeatsNYC
I am traveling to London next week and am trying to decide the cheapest way to use a cell phone to call both UK and US cells while in London.
I own both an iPhone 4 and Blackberry Storm 2. My carrier is VERIZON.
Also, what are tips regarding receiving and sending emails, and using social media apps (fbook, twitter, etc)?
I want to keep costs as cheap as possible. Thanks in advance.
Probably best to just buy a low end smartphone from somewhere like Carphone Warehouse on the high street. They were recently selling the Nokia 710 for £99 + prepaid SIM and topup. That''s a lot of phone for the money! There are Android alternatives too.
Do your research though - there are bargains to be had on the British market at the moment. You could end up with something well worth taking home for use on future trips.
This is awesome. Will it work in an unlocked at&t iphone?
Yes and even more awesome, I was able to use my phone as a WiFI hotspot to connect my iPad and Macbook air.I then used my mac to mac skype calld snd downloaded video.
..... except France which I would describe as remaining difficult due to their relatively closed market.
