Travelling to the UK, need a phone?

I live in California and have to go to the UK pretty regularly (at least every six months or so). In the UK, the prepaid cellular phone is king. There are three major companies providing this service (British Telecom, Orange and Vodafone) together with some smaller players. The system is simple. One purchases a phone for about 25-30 pounds ($40-50) at an electronics retailer or a supermarket (Never, ever at an airport!) The phone comes with a small amount of prepaid time (about 30mins calling time) and "top-up" cards are freely available at petrol (gas) stations and supermarkets. Unless the phone is used extensively it's unlikely that more than a 10 pound card will be needed. The real advantages of this system for the traveller is that there is never a long term (expensive) commitment. As long as the phone is used once every six months, the account is kept alive. The price of the phone itself is heavily subsidised by the expected revenue from the sale of cards. This means that the traveller is getting a REAL bargain! One word of caution though, if you are working or travelling about in the major metropolitain areas of the country, then any of the providers will give good service. If you are going off the beaten track then make sure you buy a Vodafone. Their coverage is substantially better out of the cities and major highways of the UK. On returning to the states, make sure you note when the phone was last used and remind yourself to send it over to a friend/business associate in the UK to have them make a call on it to keep the account alive. And do remember to send the charger over with the phone! The connectors used on these phones are really wierd and your friend will have great difficulty in charging the phone's battery to get on the air without the proper charger.

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