Overseas SIM

jonnyblue

Hello

Im going away to Oz / new zealand next feb for 5 weeks. I was planning on taking an old mobile in order to stay in touch if necessary and also ill be meeting up with my sister in Oz so it would be helpful to have a mobile.

Can anyone recommend a SIm card / deal i can buy rather than me using my current provider (Orange) who will no doubt have extortionate charges for using abroad !

Cheers

thor

I think the usual advice for this situation is to buy a sim in the country you are going to. It will be cheaper overall but you'll have to check.

redux

There are global roaming SIMs with free incoming calls in several countries, but I'd suggest a local SIM probably on the same Australian network as your sister, and in NZ there is only Vodafone on GSM, so if you went for Telecom NZ you'd need a different (CDMA) phone

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/australia.html
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/newzealand.html

you might also consider a Vodafone UK SIM registered for Passport as a backup - a 75p connect fee per call then the normal tariff ie no further charge for incoming and cheap off-peak outgoing calls

MinervaUK_2

If you're taking an old phone out to Australia it might be worth checking first that it's a tri-band handset and will function correctly in that part of the world - different handsets have different frequencies which will determine what frequency they pick up on overseas. I'd recommend contacting your provider, or doing a search on Google.

If you're on Vodafone they do offer a Hire Solutions service available on their website which might be of help to you:

http://www.abroad.vodafone.co.uk/index.cfm?do=hire.home&me=a3&nu=1&le=3