Clangers

Wondering if anyone knows if I were to take our two cell phones back to the UK and use them with a UK sim card if the card will fit. I won't have a US cell phone calling plan, I'll be cancelling that, but didn't want to have to sell the phone or discard it...although I hear the phones are relatively cheap there....

anyone know - thanks!

lisag8070

is your US cell phone unlocked?..

Clangers

unlocked? don't know, I can use it....

lisag8070

a locked phone means your cell phone has been locked by the service provider and not the phone manufacturer. This is done to insure that you'll be availing only the services (or SIM Cards) of the provider.

But unlocking the phone it gives you a more wider range of selections of service providers, and can also be used (if tri / quad band) in other countries (provided you use their SIM cards).

unfortunately the only way I know off to find out if the phone is locked is by trying a different sim card from a different provider...(so say you have cingular try putting a sim card in thats from verizon and see what happens)..


unless somebody else knows of a different way...?

Bevm

There seemed to be plenty of places in the UK offering to unlock phones if you bought a card from them.

Didn't do it, so I don't know if there's a US to UK problem.

Bev

aasmith1957

we used our mobiles in uk last year,they were unlocked.just got tesco sim card and used it until we left,still have it in my wallet for when we get home to scotland,all we need to do is recharge the amount we want on it.

Chrissywissy100

Provided your phone is "unlocked" to enable you to use sim cards from any network provider, and it is tri/quad band, you will be fine.

Jerseygirl

There are loads of places in the UK that will unlock a US cell phone...even have vendor stalls in malls/shopping centres that do this. Although there are some US cell phones that can't be unlocked.

penguinsix

If your US cellphone plan was with T-Mobile and you have been with them for > 6 months, you can call them and ask to have your phone unlocked, freeing it from being tied to a specific SIM card. ATT doesn't do unlocks, but you can find some codes on the net or goto some third party in the UK to get it done. Verizon works on CDMA not GSM and hard-codes the phones (i.e. generally they do not have CDMA SIM cards like they do in some countries). If you are with Verizon that you're phones are basically worthless in the UK if you are moving back.

Once you've unlocked your GSM phone you can, more than likely, put in a UK SIM card and be good to go, provided the phone from the US operates on the same GSM frequency as the UK provider you've signed up with (i.e. why a tri- or quad-band phone is needed). Here are the UK bands:

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_gb.shtml

If you are moving back to the UK more or less permanently, you might want to just consider a new plan in the UK that comes with a phone for free or a limited amount. Cellphones take a hell of a lot of abuse and unless you're dealing with a super featured smart monster phone, you aren't talking about that much money to get a new one in the UK (heck, it might just be a freebie with a new phone plan).

Rusty Chainsaw

Firstly, if your phone is on Verizon or Sprint, forget it - these are CDMA phones and are incompatible with UK networks - they don't even use SIM cards.

If you're in AT&T or T-Mobile, you could be in luck. When you get to the UK, you'll find plenty of mobile phone shops who can unlock your phone for you. This is a very good thing to do anyway, as pretty much all US mobile phones are locked down severely by the carrier - they have features disabled, loads of additional crap installed on them, and so on. If the phone's unlocked and re-flashed, that should restore the locked-down features.