[SPLIT]Phone Question(was Technical Issues for Expats: )

Friday the 13th/Seattle
This (I think) is my first post--my wife and I will move to East Anglia/Bedfordshire in mid-September (pending work permit and visa hassles). I'm now starting to assemble questions in various realms.
Statement: chock-full factual posting from JEDI regarding phones and all electronics stuff
Question: working in medicine, I need to update my PDA, and my Verizon cellphone isn't GSM so it's in the dustbin when we move--can't I simply buy a smartphone that's GSM unlocked, then use it for my medical PDA stuff, and phone all-in-one? No Verizon in UK but Vodaphone I guess? Thanks, Den Kerlee

Simple answer

Yes


You can buy a smartphone or pocket PC and phone device thats unlocked. When you purchase a plan from one of the networks here, you can pop the SIM card you'll get into it and away you go.

Moving on though, seeing as you'll be starting from scratch here - you may as well get a plan here which includes a PDA/Phone.

I've been on Xda handsets for the past 4 years and I'll always have a device of this type. I highly recommend them and there's always a slew of new ones that come out every so often. I'm currently using an Xda Orbit and it's fantastic - small and very powerful - I use it for Contacts, GPS Navigation, and MP3 player & phone of course, although on the Pocket PC platform you can make it pretty a hell of alot more with specialist software.

Plenty of choices to make, have a look at each mobile company and their deals to get an idea. Palms are available as well, smartphones is the other main style. Blackberrys are getting more and more functional so have a look at them too.

hope this helps

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

No Verizon in UK but Vodaphone I guess?

There are four main GSM networks:  Vodafone, O2, Orange, and T-Mobile (UK).   Remember though that different bands are used for GSM over here, so any phone you get needs to cover 900 and/or 1800MHz (North America is 850/1900).    In fact two of the networks are 1800 only, so a typical tri-band U.S. phone won't work on those at all.