friend visiting UK (from USA) wants to keep call costs down whilst here

mikeashworth

Hi, A friend of mine will be travelling to the UK / Ireland in the neat future and is looking to minimise the maount of money spent on calls etc whilst here.

pertinent data

Phone: Blackberry Bold
Network: Verizon

She is going to get hold of a worldwide data package from verizon so she can use internet from her blackberry so she just needs calls / texts

options

hire a phone when she arrives (she's been told a few ppl offer this kind of service)

or just grab a separate PAYG handset whilst here, in which case who do you recommend as having best value for money offering (pref shop based rather than giff gaff etc) and that will work in both uk / ireland

what are your thoughts?

Owain_Moneysaver

if the blackberry is/can be unlocked then get a UK SIM.

Otherwise send her to carephone wharehouse and get whatever's the best deal going that week.

A separate SIM will be needed to avoid roaming charges in Ireland.

mikeashworth

cheers however as she'll have a worldwide internet access plan in place i imagine her current sim will need to be in her blackberry to have that access. keeping swapping one in and out is likely to become pretty tedious for her i would imagine

she will be visiting ireland first then uk. so any thoughts on best way to go about this much appreciated.

Techhead_2

One thing to check first of all, apologies if friend has already done this, is that the Blackberry is a Dual mode phone (ie GSM/CDMA). Or it wont work here except on Wi-Fi.

mrcamp

I believe the verizon bold is dual band CDMA/GSM. So, she just needs to verify that it is , and it's unlocked then just get a payg sim on arrival. OTOH, she can just buy a cheap payg GSM handset in the US or upon arrival.

Techhead_2

Ideally, it would be dual mode and dual band so definitely worth checking.

william_Fraser

If your friend's blackberry can be unlocked then get it done and get another sim for your friend. This is the best way to use that phone. You can try for giffgaff services goody bag. They do provide good services.

Hope it will be helpfull for you.