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The main UK telephone provider is British Telecom (BT). As BT can become expensive for your telephone calls overseas, it is advisable to use international calling cards to phone mobile or landlines.
When you initially arrive in London it is very difficult to arrange a mobile phone contract. This is simply because you do not have a credit rating in the UK. As you set up a bank account with 1st Contact you will start to develop one.
In the UK you find that there are two ways in which you can get to use mobile service provider.
Pay As you Go
This is the most widely used service especially with newcomers to the UK. Use your 1st Contact provided sim card available in the Kickstart Package, or pick up a sim card from the range of phone providers in the UK. You will be able to buy credit over the phone or at a number of shops – it's really easy. There are peak hours and off peak hours which result in varying tariffs. A number of providers offer bolt on packages, SMS or ‘Text' bundles. These tend to be great value for money.
Contract
As you start settling down in the UK you may find that you will be legible to take up a contract. This will mean that you will be able to select a service to suit your personal needs, and receive a free mobile phone. You will have a direct debit set up against your bank account and be billed on a monthly basis. A great thing to know is you can set limits on these contracts to avoid being burnt by unexpected bills.
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International Calling Card and Sim Card
The 1st Contact Kickstart package includes an allocated Sim card and mobile number. Nomi is a relatively new company who have teamed up with Vodaphone. They offer very cheap rates when calling within the UK, and internationally they have proved to be up to 50% cheaper.
To phone a landline from your mobile will cost you 5p/ minute to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
To phone from a mobile to a mobile will cost 13p/minute to Australia, 14p/minute to South Africa and 16.25p/minute to New Zealand. Nomi have a standard fee of 11p/SMS or text anywhere internationally.
When using your Nomi Sim card within the UK you are charged 13p/minute to phone a landline and 15p/minute to phone a mobile. If you have access to a landline then use ‘Nomi Home Talking' – it's cheaper than Skype!
Use the credit from your Nomi Sim to talk from landline to landline for as little as 1p per minute!
For more information on phoning other countries, please refer to the Nomi leaflet included in the Kickstart Information Pack, or go the Nomi website .
O2
The 1st Contact Kickstart package includes an O2 sim card. O2 is a leading provider of mobile and broadband services to consumers and businesses in the UK. The company is the leader in non-voice services, including text, media messaging, games, music and video, as well as data connections via GPRS, HSDPA, 3G and WLAN.
Your Country O2 prepaid sim card gives you extra free international minutes to any country. With 100 free minutes of international calls when you top up £15 a month you can catch up on all the gossip from home. Get free international calls every month and all you need to do is just top up! That's it. A tenner top-up gets you 50 minutes to call international landlines and mobiles from the UK. Triple that and get a whopping 200 international minutes. O2 will also give you 10% of your top-ups back every 3 months with O2.
As a client of O2 you benefit not only from free international calling minutes but with other benefits like:
- Priority ticketing to o2 academies and o2 arena
- 10% back on all the top ups
- Top up surprises (prizes with every top up)
- Great customers support 24/7
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