London Ninja

It was nice while it lasted. The peace. The calm. The lack of a proverbial ball and chain. I finally got a mobile after 5 weeks without one.

I have to admit I miss my Sprint PCS phone in the US. I had the ultimate EVDO plan for cheap and I was able to do anything I wanted whenever I wanted. Picture Mails, Texts, GPS, games, get online with my laptop, check email, check secure work email, etc etc. I was constantly on it, Texting, Pic’ing, etc…whenever I was walkin I was rocking it. Sure it was no iPhone, but I aint that hungry yet.

So my goal was to find the cheapest mobile phone plan possible. I already had the T-Mobile GSM phone from the US that had been unlocked so all I needed was the SIM card. The way to go for a low-cost solution is the Pay-As-You-Go plan, of course. You just drop by the store and pop in a SIM card. That’s it. No contracts, no credit checks. Nada.

Basically you have two options:

1. T-Mobile
SIM cards cost you money, but you can get it for .50 gbp online. This is cool, except it’s nice to go into a store to get it activated…and there are mobile phone stores all over the place. After you get your plan, their best plan offer these rates:

These are actually very good rates for a Pay As You Go plan.
2. Orange

This is what I ended up going with. You get a free SIM card in the store as long as you top up with at least 5gbp. The great thing is that the phone will be active for 6 months even if you don’t top up again. And as long as you get a call within that 6 months, your phone will be good for 1 year on the same 5gbp. That’s great for a emergency phone. Better than anything you can get in the US for the lowest “overall cost”.

The rates are similar but sucks if you call outside of the Orange network:

Of course, as was mentioned in my guide to watching movies in London on the cheap, Orange has their Orange Wednesdays where you get 2 for 1 tickets every Wednesday. That in itself makes it all worth it.

Maybe I’ll still be able to maintain some peace and quiet cuz I don’t have too many people to call in the UK.