So, we’re heading over to the UK next week on vacation. Last time we went we got an extension of our ATT plan to use it in Europe, but it’s not cheap. To add calling it’s $30/month with only 30 mins before you hit $1.00 per min. Texting is $10/month for only 50 msgs or $30 for 200.
Instead of that I was wondering about buying a pay as you go SIM card at the airport. Anyone done this? What are the costs? Is it worth it? I assume you just end up with a new UK phone #, but your contacts etc. should still work from your phone. You should be able to txt, call and even use data for a much lower fee I would think.
Is your ATT handset unlocked so that it will recognize another company's Sim?
JohnRW1621 wrote:
Is your ATT handset unlocked so that it will recognize another company's Sim?
No, good point, so it's no can do then?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
I've done this last year when I went to Switzerland and Germany. Unless you're on T-Mobile it does work out cheaper, but then again I have a couple of unlocked GSM phones.
When researching Swiss SIMs, lebara came up tops for price and it looks like they are available in the UK as well: http://www.lebara.co.uk/uksim
I ended up with an Orange SIM though as nobody had a lebara SIM in the right size at the airport...
I'm still planning to switch over to T-Mobile, which should remove this particular headache as they have pretty cheap calls abroad and IIRC include 2G data and unlimited SMS in a lot of places, including most if not all of Europe.
As John pointed out, you have to have an unlocked GSM phone though.
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
JohnRW1621 wrote:
Is your ATT handset unlocked so that it will recognize another company's Sim?
No, good point, so it's no can do then?
Call AT&T, if you're out of contract (so you paid off the phone subsidy) they should unlock it unless your phone is factory unlocked. Failing that you should be able to pick up an unlocked phone from Amazon or ebay.
Heck, I have a spare iPhone 3GS that is factory unlocked which you can borrow if (a) I can find it and (b) if I can factory reset it and it's still unlocked afterwards (which it should be).
What are the ramifications of unlocking and how do you do it?
Just pretend I'm as clueless as I appear here OK 
T-mobile is by far the worst carrier I've ever had, won't go back for anything. I'm happy with ATT
Ramifications of unlocking are that you don't have to have an AT&T SIM in your phone. That's it. All it does is that it disables a check on the phone that prevents you from using a SIM from a different provider.
I'd start with talking to AT&T, although they would tell people for the longest time that it was impossible to unlock certain phones when the rest of the world could do it without a problem... Not sure if it's the same here in the US, but in the UK you could pretty much find someone at every dodgy street market who could unlock your phone.
What kind of phone are we talking about?
Ade, I'm not so sure your phone is carrier-locked. You ordered it direct from Motomaker, right? So you didn't buy it from AT&T and you don't have a contract with them, you are just month-to-month.
I agree with what Tim says.
To check the "unlock"...
Find a friend or co-worker with a T-Mobile sim and service.
Pull the Tmo SIM from his handset.
Put that SIM in your current handset.
Can your handset now receive the T-Mobile calls.
I used an unlocked iphone 4 when I was in the UK recently with no problems. It was formerly locked to ATT. I went here:
https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/?
You will need your IMEI number off your phone, for an Iphone it's under General-->Settings-->About.
I personally used Three as my carrier, but that was solely driven by available choices in Windsor on a Sunday evening. I would also have been happy to use O2 or Orange. In my case, I used a pay as you go plan, which puts a certain amount on the phone, and minutes/texts/Mb data all delete a certain amount (I think it was 3p/2p/1p, respectively), until you run out.
More info:
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go
For Heathrow, if you're coming out of the normal International arrivals area downstairs in Terminal 1, there was a pre-paid SIM store to your right just as you exit customs (there's a Costa on your left). However, they only sold top-up vouchers, which will still work, but rather than paying your 10 quid and using it however you like regarding min/text/data, the top-up gives you a set amount of each for the same price (I think it was 100min/300text/500MB). Just something to be aware of. In my case, I used data more than anything for GPS purposes, so I preferred pay as you go.
Tried to phrase all that as newbie-friendly as possible 
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BoxheadTim wrote:
Heck, I have a spare iPhone 3GS that is factory unlocked which you can borrow if (a) I can find it and (b) if I can factory reset it and it's still unlocked afterwards (which it should be).
Thanks for the offer, but I don't think there's time and I may as well unlock if I was going to this much trouble.
Would this work to just unlock the SIM and would it affect usage here in the US once I swapped back to my ATT SIM? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unlockunit.moto_x
My phone is only 2 months old so very much still in contract.
In the end I think we'll just get a text package for my wifes iPhone 4S as she has a business and can then text clients. If I can't unlock mine I think I still have an old cheap PAYG dumb phone around that I can buy a new SIM for.
FYI if I do unlock my phone this is what I would get. http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/sims/pay-as-you-go/pay-as-you-go-sims Seems excellent value.
When we travel to Europe, we tend to support our favorite F1 team- by getting a Vodafone SIM card. They do have a pay as you go set up, but we messed up the last time there, and had to close out a contract.
My iPhn 5 was gotten JUST for that. And Sprint unlocked it for me. They understood why quite well.
