I am not buying one here. Waste of money. I will buy a UK phone - either on eBay or when I get there.

On a slightly different topic, can anyone tell me if there are lots of wifi points at Heathrow? What about in cities in the UK? My granddaughter says she can email using her Ipod Touch, which would be a decent alternative - I assume email is as quick as texting.

Yes, but not generally for free.... McDonald's has free access iirc and I remember seeing a recent announcement from Costa Coffee houses.

The alternative is paid access from someone like The Cloud - http://www.thecloud.net/for-you/pay-as-you-go They have a monthly subscription option that looks a lot cheaper, but presumably there's a minimum period of commitment...

These have pretty good coverage and you'd find access in all major cities and most towns...

In effect, free. You pay for the amount of call-time credit only. The Rogers store at the mall would have charged for the sim too; then I happened to be in Costco (Calgary NW) and enquired. I bought $100 of airtime and paid $100 plus the tax and it works great in Alberta and BC, but didn't connect to any service provider (extortionate or not) across the border in Montana.

I still can't get over the fact you have to pay for incoming texts and calls in Canada... gouging or what?

Some Starbucks and others have free wifi - at Heathrow the airline business/executive lounges are usually free. Google free wifi UK and then narrow it down to where you'll be.

Thanks for the info - btw, Rogers PAYG definitely works in some states - I have picked up a signal and used it in Michigan, Chicago, Phoenix and Orange County.... Could be your phone isn't multi band and so can't roam? I was using a quad band iphone (with Rogers PAYG sim) and it normally locks onto AT&T.

I don't pay for incoming texts. I pay $10 a month for unlimited texting and for that price I can text to or receive texts from anywhere in the world. However, this is with Sasktel and its CDMA technology that will not work in the UK - otherwise I would just have taken my phone with me!!

The thing I find the worst about Canadian phone companies is the fact that they will not allow you to unlock any phone. I was told by Jump.ca that it is actually illegal in Canada to unlock a phone. However, someone else told me that they think its protectionism by the phone companies - and not something that is illegal.

My son bought a US CDMA phone on eBay and he had to shop around before he could find someone who would activate it on the Sasktel network. He was told that they could get into trouble if it was discovered that they had activated a phone that was not bought from Sasktel.

I think that is ridiculous. He did find someone who activated the phone, but it seems to me that they make money from the contract not from a one time payment for a phone.

I am not saying this kind of thing is limited to Canada, but it really annoys me that nowadays companies do things for their own benefit - and to heck with whether its what the customer wants!