What's the best short term phone deal?

[hawkes]

I'm visiting both the UK and The Republic of Ireland as I do every year to walk the more remote areas as a guide with fellow walkers. I need a phone with me for the one month that I am here more for precautuionary measures than every day phone useage. I guess Pay As You Go ould be the best deal. Does anyone have suggestions on preferable networks. Do all networks cover both areas? Also what is best deal with phone cards at present for the UK.

[lisaj]

Vodafone covers the most area, with Orange a close second. From my experience One2One and Cellnet are only useful inside large cities and towns with very sparse coverage one you get to the kinds of areas you'll be in.

[rja211077]

not sure about that lisaj, i think you'll find that O2 claims to have at least second best coverage with Vodafone being the best or second best. O2 and Vodafone work on dual frequency (900 and 1800) whereas Orange and T-mobile only on 1800 (or this is how it was when i worked in the industry 2-3 years ago). Irish coverage is dependent on the Irish networks - i would guess that all the UK networks have roaming agreements with all the Irish networks. Check with them. If you only need this phone for a short time then perhaps hiring would be a better/cheaper option? Otherwise, yes, pre-pay is the way forward as you don't want to be tied to a 1-year contract.

[lisaj]

O2 (Cellnet) might claim to have second best coverage, but from my experience with a Cellnet phone it's simply not true. I've found their coverage awful in central London, Edinburgh, Durham and Glasgow, and non-existent in rural areas (which is particularly important given the question). My comments are based on actual experience around the country with all four networks and not what they claim to be the case...

[jeremyhousely]

Hi,

You should try internet phone service from companies like RingCentral. All you need is an internet connection. So you stay with your business anywhere! Media URL: http://www.ringcentral.co.uk/
Description: RingCentral Telecommunication Provider