Help me get my first mobile

DH had a Tesco mobile, but the reception was awful.  So awful that it always cost 3 times more than it should to make a call or pick up messages, because you'd need to listen/repeat them 3 times to figure out what was being said.  Is that related to the specific phone, or to the Tesco system?

Is that related to the specific phone, or to the Tesco system?

There is no Tesco system as such, at least not as far as the basic operational side goes.  Tesco just takes care of the billing, issuing of SIM cards, etc.  All the physical network operations are contracted out.

There are only five companies providing the actual networks in the U.K.  Hutchison is the Johnny-come-lately of the bunch and is only providing 3G services.   The four GSM900/1800 cellular networks are Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile (U.K.), and Orange (O2 is what was originally BT Cellnet and T-Mobile was formerly One-2-One, part of Mercury Communications).

Only Vodafone and O2 operate on both the 900 and 1800MHz bands.  T-Mobile and Orange are 1800MHz only, and coverage in more rural areas is often less comprehensive (as visitors to this area using these networks often discover).   This also means that tri-band phones from the U.S. which don't have the 1800MHz band can only interwork on the Vodafone and O2 networks here.

Carrie, you might want to check out which network has the best coverage where you live/work. Where I am, Orange is the only one with any coverage at all!

That's one of the problems.   One can generalize about network A having better coverage than network B overall, but there can be so many localized variations that it all comes down to which offers the best coverage for the specific places that you spend most of your time. 

Unfortunately, most of the coverage maps available are really quite useless in this respect because they won't tell you that there's a small blackspot in the coverage right in the place where you live or work, even though you might get a signal just fine a couple of hundred yards away.

The ideal way to check it out would be if you could borrow a phone from a friend who is using the same network that you are considering (remembering that whoever actually runs the contract, it will be on one of the networks I listed above, hence if Acme Telephone uses O2 and FlyByNite Cellular also uses O2, then coverage will be identical).

See, now it's getting confusing.     I'll have to do some more research (and find the charger for the phone). 

See, now it's getting confusing.     I'll have to do some more research (and find the charger for the phone). 

You could also just ask some neighbours or co-workers what system they have. They should know what works.

Yes, I'm afraid that it can be quite confusing.   To throw another monkey wrench in the works, contracts between the dozens of providers and the four main network operators can change from time to time.

Your neighbor who signed up with the XYZ Mobile Phone Co. last year might be on the O2 network, but you could sign up with the same company today and end up on T-Mobile.   You may need to ask the salesman quite forcefully about what network your phone would be using to get an answer.  And if he tries to start with the "We have our own network" line, he's lying!  (Unless, of course, you're dealing directly with Vodafone etc.)

I'm moving over at the end of July, and heard there's a way to take my US SIM card and put it in a UK phone so that I can still have my US number over there.  My DH and I would like to do this so our US family and friends can call us for little to no charge and vice versa.  We'll be living in London for 2 years and then returning home, so we'd like to have both US and UK cells.  Anyone ever heard of this?

I'm moving over at the end of July, and heard there's a way to take my US SIM card and put it in a UK phone so that I can still have my US number over there.  My DH and I would like to do this so our US family and friends can call us for little to no charge and vice versa.  We'll be living in London for 2 years and then returning home, so we'd like to have both US and UK cells.  Anyone ever heard of this?

Your roaming costs will be expensive with most plans so it is best to try something like Skype for a home line. Do a search on here and you will find the threads discussing different options.

I have a Mobile World sim in the UK and it costs just 5p to the US if I ever feel like making a US call on the go. Otherwise, I use a T-Mobile (3p UK texts) pay as you go for my daily stuff. I also have a Vodafone sim in a mobile, but I stopped carrying all my mobiles around together when I saw a sign that said look out for suspicious people carrying multiple mobile phone... they could be terrorists.   

International cellphone roaming can be horrendously expensive if you're not careful.  If you use a U.S. SIM card in a phone here and use it to make a call within the U.K., you could even end up paying for the equivalent of two expensive international calls to the U.S. and back!   

I'm moving over at the end of July, and heard there's a way to take my US SIM card and put it in a UK phone so that I can still have my US number over there.  My DH and I would like to do this so our US family and friends can call us for little to no charge and vice versa.  We'll be living in London for 2 years and then returning home, so we'd like to have both US and UK cells.  Anyone ever heard of this?

I would recommend getting Vonage or Sky Talk or Orange's virtual talk plan. Vonage is actually the best because for about 11 or 12 pounds a month you get a UK number AND a U.S. number so family members as well as locals can call you cheaply, and you get unlimited free calling (except to UK cell phones). The only downside of Vonage here is that I haven't found cable Internet service, so you still need to pay for a phone line to get your high-speed Net access (in the U.S. I never hooked up a phone line, just got cable Internet and hooked my Vonage box into that). That leaves Sky Talk and Orange (or others like them) that give you cheap service if you have Sky or an Orange phone -- this lets you call home for free, but it doesn't give you a U.S. phone number so that relatives can call you cheaply. I went with Sky Talk because it was only 5 pounds a month for unlimited calling with Sky, and the Vonage plan would've been about 11 pounds a month for unlimited calls (but that included a U.S. phone number).