Best iPhone 5 PAYG nano-SIM options for traveling to the UK

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If you’re visiting the United Kingdom with a GSM unlocked iPhone 5, your main options for Pay As You Go SIMs are limited to just two of the five major networks. At the time of writing, only T-Mobile and O2 offer nano-SIMs on Pay As You Go (pre-paid) deals. Three will sell you a nano-SIM on a one-month rolling contract, but that’s not much use for travelers, as it’s subject to all the usual credit requirements. Vodafone and Orange have yet to announce any PAYG nano-SIM options, nor has the community-oriented GiffGaff network.

T-Mobile UK Pay As You Go nano-SIM for iPhone 5

T-Mobile UK’s PAYG nano-SIM works just the same as any of the carrier’s other PAYG SIMs. After topping up at least £10 of credit, you can choose between three price plans for your iPhone 5 --

Text Plan - Unlimited UK texts, in addition to your data allowance and calling UK credit.Talk Plan - 100 UK minutes, in addition to your data allowance and UK calling credit.International Plan - 70 international minutes, in addition to your data allowance and UK calling credit

All of T-Mobile UK’s PAYG plans come with unlimited mobile data for browsing and email for the following month, plus a 500MB data allowance for media streaming, which should be more than enough for most travelers. In particular, that 70 minutes of international calls may be ideal for visitors to the UK who want an convenient way to call home without breaking the bank.

O2 UK Pay & Go nano-SIM for iPhone 5

O2's pre-paid nano-SIM option is well hidden, but it does indeed offer them. O2 has a wide range of PAYG plans, each with varying benefits --

Pay and Go Go Go - 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB for a month, for £10. Allowances double after three months. Unlimited texts are added after nine months.O2 Unlimited - Unlimited O2 to O2 (UK) calls and texts with a £15 top-up. UK web browsing charged at £1 per day.Text and Web - 500MB data allowance for a month, plus a varying text allowanced based on how much you top up.£10-14 gets you 300, £15 to £29 gets you 500, and after £30 texts are unlimited.Simplicity - Starts at £7.50 per month, which gets you unlimited texts. £10.50 will get you 100 minutes and 500 texts, and £15.50 for 300 minutes and unlimited texts. Then add one of three data allowances -- £3 for 100MB, £6 for 500MB or £10 for 1GB.Other options

It’s also worth mentioning that nano-SIM “cutters” are available online to enable brave users to trim down micro-SIMs to nano-SIM size. If the gold contacts are the right size, you should be able to use one of these hole punch-like devices to cut down the plastic around your micro-SIM so that it’s the correct size for iPhone 5. You can also attempt this manually using a good old-fashioned pair of scissors, if you’re feeling adventurous.

Cutting down SIM cards can be hit and miss, though, so proceed at your own risk if you decide to go ahead with this. However, if successful, you’d be able to slice down any micro-SIM and use Three, Vodafone and Orange PAYG SIMs in your iPhone 5.

If you do decide to cut a larger SIM down to size, you may want to consider a micro-SIM from Three, which in our opinion offers the most attractive PAYG plans for heavy data users. You can top up £15 and get unlimited data, 300 minutes and 3000 texts, or top up £10 for 500MB, 100 minutes and 3000 texts.

We’ve reached out to the other major mobile networks to see if they plan on offering PAYG nano-SIMs anytime soon. We’ll update this article with any new information they provide.

See all international pre-paid/PAYG options

Alex Dobie

Alex is based in the UK. An editor for Android Central, he moonlights here only for matter of extreme urgency. And fun.

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More of: Iphone 5, Uk, Nano-sim, payg, travel tips ? PreviouslyiPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone design gallery Next up ?How fast is your iPhone 5 data connection? There are 4 comments. Add yours. pshemek says: Sep 22, 2012 at 4:52 pm - 1 day ago

If you don't know whether to take O2 or T-Mobile then my advice is O2. T-Mobile doesn't even have service in their own shop in my town. Even though you can use both T-Mobile and Orange networks.

Reply cjh1452000 says: Sep 22, 2012 at 8:25 pm - 1 day ago

Oh, good. I always went with o2 anyway, as their bolt-on options for data are cheap and o2 has great coverage in most places. Now if Meteor Ireland would follow suit, my two most destinations would be covered.

Reply Rdack says: Sep 23, 2012 at 5:12 am - 19 hours ago

Three is an awesome deal. I've spent 2 6 week terms in London this year and had 3 sims in both my phone and iPad. Coverage is a little sketchy in the suburbs but no issues where most travelers will go. no hassles you just walk into an apple store and walk out with a chip. It's cheaper to just buy another sim than top up and you can't get the app from 3 unless you have a UK iTunes account (this is a big mistake for 3 in this olypmic year).

Reply georgetaylor says: Sep 23, 2012 at 11:08 am - 13 hours ago

A US editor should do the same for people visiting the US! Gonna need to know this stuff pretty soon :)

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