Virgin is a good SIM and I have one. If you want wireless data in the UK, TMobile's Walk-N-Web is a good deal You get a softcap of 40 megs a day for a pound a day. You only pay the pound when you use it.

With hotel wireless running $20 (or more) a day, I normally just tether my notebook to my phone for my e-mail and light web browsing. The one time I had a large download, I bought the wireless. This easily saves me US$100 or more on a trip.

I know that many of you are on expense accounts, but a little bit of sense with your employer's money sometime makes sense My wife is on an expense account and her company tends to look at the big picture She gets extra play on my food and booze when my other numers are down. She recently had a US$20 phone bill for a week in Europe. Her team member ran up $600. Their raw number of minutes wasn't that different We also work to keep airport parking expenses down Between these, her vouchers consistently come in $500 a week cheaper than most. Based on this, the extra steak dinner, or the movie in a room, etc gets overlooked. I know it really depends on your accounting department.

You can get most phones unlocked in the UK. The going rate is around 10 pounds Just stroll down Totenham Court Road. You'll see a million signs. Another vendor for unlocked phones is myworldphone.com.

You should note that you can rarely get Blackberry service on prepaid. You'll either need to carry a US Blackberry and a separate phone or use some other style data device.