Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 4

can u use the Visorphone in the UK on Pay as u go ?

Does anyone know (or use) the VP in the UK as a Pay as u go phone ?
Can I put in my Vodafone Pay as u Go SIM card into the VP ?
I am looking into getting a phone/PDA and by looking at what's out the cheapest is gonna be the VP as I already have a deluxe. Mind u it's still gonna be 349 UK pounds !

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Northern Ireland, UK
Posts: 15

Maybe

I think that the Visorphone works on 900mhz GSM and also 1900mhz. Vodaphone/BTCellnet both work on 900 so they should be ok but Orange/ One2One/ Virgin work on 1800 so aren't compatible. I think!

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Alan Millar

Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 9

I should think that you can put any pay&go sim card in your visor phone just to use it as an ordinary phone.

However most of the uk networksw do not data-enable pre pay sim cards. So you will not be able to surf the net or send a fax.

Some of the virtual networks like virgin, fresh, and genie have data-enabled sim cards that you could use in your visor phone. I have been using Fresh which runs on One2One network. Voice and data calls are charged at the same rate 15p for the 1st min of each call and 5p per min after.

Suits me fine!

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK
Posts: 92

If you want to use VP with a Pay as You Go sim in the UK, I would think the only one that's guaranteed to work is Vodafone.

You certainly won't be able to use Orange or One2One, since they are both 1800MHz networks, and VisorPhone doesn't work on that frequency.

Since it won't work on One2One, that means it also won't work with either Fresh or Virgin, since both those are virtual networks using the One2One infrastructure.

That leaves the two networks that are compatible frequency-wise with VisorPhone in the UK - Cellnet and Vodafone (Genie is just a reseller of Cellnet, not even a virtual network).

However, many Cellnet payg services have in the past relied on special software in the handsets to handle some of the charging functions - that's why one particular model had to be recalled last year, since the handset could give free calls in certain circumstances.

Cellnet was the only network to use that technology for PAYG, which relies on handset support. So you might not find (if they're still using it) that VP will work with their PAYG sims.

So for sure compatibility, choose Vodafone.

(And pick up the March issue of What Mobile soon, where you can read my 'Travels with my Visor' feature).

Nigel.