Using UK Mobiles in the US. Someone explain it to me.

 

My teenagers are going to the US next Monday for two weeks.  Can they take their mobiles.  Can they use them while they're there.  Can I text them? phone them?  Can they phone me? 

Their phones will only work in the US if they are tri-band phones. Must are only dual band.  Have a look at the phone manufacturers website if you're not sure.   If their phones are triband you will be able to phone & text each other but at higher rates than normal and it will also cost for them to receive calls as well as make them.  Most networks seem to charge about 20p per text when you are abroad  and about 70p a minute for calls depending where you are.

We use our mobiles in the US..but as far as I as I know our phones on the IOM only contract phones work in the US, So I don't know about UK and using pay-as-you-go

The phone has to be Tri-band as well.......In the UK the phones are dual band and in the states it has 3 bands......don't ask me what this means as I am just relaying info from my hubby.........Not sure about the texting tho...someone here tried to text us and it didn't go thru........

"Dual band" is something of a confusing term, since some American GSM phones can also be dual-band, yet be completely useless in Britain.

The majority of cellphones now sold in the U.K. work on the two British/European bands, which are 900 and 1800MHz.  If you look in the instruction book the introductory pages will probably say something like "This phone is suitable for use on the GSM 900 and GSM 1800 systems."

For the U.S., however you need a phone which operates in the 1900MHz band as well.  Some American cellular operators are now using the 850 band too, although it's much less common.

Once you have the correct phone, you then need to check that you have an appropriate international roaming agreement with your U.K. cell company, and that the phone is not blocked from international access.   

If you call your company's customer serivces number they should be able to tell you about what (if any) roaming agreements apply to your package, as there are numerous variations and they are subject to frequent changes. 

Be warned though:  Using a cellphone with international roaming can work out very expensive, so check the rates carefully.

Can my Mom(US) phone me(UK) on my mobile without a country code?  Does she just phone the number?  Or what?

I'm pretty sure she needs to dial the Country Code

OK.

I can answer this question. I have a quad band phone and had to use it over in the US. To call the phone from the UK you would dial it like they were still in the UK, u dont need a country code, and vice versa they would call the UK like they were still there, Depending on ur carrier however it is very expensive, I have pay as u go o2 and it costs me £1 a minute no matter if someone calls me or I call them, and its 50p to send text but free to recieve it

OK thanks.  It's just for emergencies. 

You can also store numbers on a GSM phone in "international format" if you wish.    They will then be dialed properly from any country where you can use your phone.

You start with a "+" sign, then follow with the country code, area code, and number just as if you were calling internationally from a regular phone.

For example:

U.K. number (020) 7222-1234   store as + 44 20 7222 1234

U.S. number (202) 936-1212  store as + 1 202 936 1212

You'll need to check the instructions for entering a "+" in a memory, but on many GSM phones you just press star quickly twice as the first digit.

Just to add that the digital GSM system is gradually taking greater hold in the United States, so coverage is likely to expand in the coming years.   

In fact in some areas the cellular companies are still running older analog and non-GSM digital services for existing subscribers, but won't provide new contracts for anything but GSM.  A contact in Kansas tells me that this is now the case in his area, for example.  He lives in Independence, but no company offers new contracts for anything but GSM within his own 620 area.    The only way for him to obtain any other type of service is to get a cellphone based in the 316 area (Wichita), which will then work under roaming from Independence.

In other areas companies are trying to close down older systems, leaving much wider gaps in coverage.  Check the story I posted here:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=15906.0

One other point to note is that as GSM expands into more rural areas of America, it is likely to be using the 850 band rather than 1900 which is used for most GSM service at the moment.

That means that for best coverage it will likely become increasingly convenient to have a quad-band phone which covers 850 and 1900 for America, 900 and 1800 for Britain.    That might be worth bearing in mind for anyone who goes back to rural America and is thinking about getting a new phone.