The O2 UK SIM card at a glance:


Your O2 UK SIM card does not comes with any credit, however it is easy to top up your SIM with more credit at thousands of shops throughout the UK including newsagents at all major airports.


This plan offers you:
 Calls to UK landlines and O2 mobiles 25p per minute for the first three minutes each day, then 5p per minute for the rest of the day. Calls to other UK mobile networks are 25p per minute.
 Text messages in to UK mobile phones cost 10p.
 Cheap international calls and text messages (in many cases international calls are even cheaper than local calls).
 The standard data charge is £1/day and there are several data bolt-ons that gives you much cheaper internet access (the most popular is £6/month for 500MB).
 Unlimited incoming calls.
 Cheap roaming rates in most European countries.

Read here for more information about O2's call charges.




O2's UK SIM card gives you cheap international calls from the UK.
 Calls to Australia cost 3p/minute to landlines and 10p/minute to mobile phones.
 International text messages cost 10p per message.

Read here for more information about O2's international call charges.


The standard data rate is £1/day, but most people add a data bolt-on for cheaper internet access. The two most popular data bolt-ons cost £6 for 500MB data access and £10 for 1GB data. In addition to either 500MB or 1GB of 3G data, both these bolt-ons also give you unlimited internet access at thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the UK.

Read here for more information about O2's web bolt-ons.

 
 Requires an unlocked phone (read here for more information).
 You will receive your UK mobile phone number with the SIM (printed on the packet)
 Standard call and data charges and data bolt-on rates only apply while you use this phone within the UK. Additional charges apply if you use your phone outside the UK (although roaming rates in most European countries are very reasonable). Read here for more information about using the O2 UK SIM while travelling in Europe.
 Tethering (using your phone as a mobile hotspot) is not allowed.
 If you have a BlackBerry, you will need to add the BlackBerry bolt-on for an additional £5/month to enable internet access.

An O2 SIM card in your phone gives you cheap local and international calls from the UK. Its main advantage over other UK SIM cards is the excellent range of bolt-ons that give you internet access, cheap international calls and cheap European roaming.

O2's Pay & Go plans have an add-on option that lets you use data on your phone on a prepaid plan. Although O2's voice charges are slightly higher than our Lebara SIM, the O2 data charges are very good value and the My Europe Extra bolt on makes it an excellent value option for use throughout Europe. Overall an O2 SIM card is an excellent choice if you're visiting the UK and making side trips to Europe.

Call charges are as follows:

• Calls to UK landlines and O2 mobiles 25p per minute for the first three minutes each day, then 5p per minute for the rest of the day
• Calls to other UK mobile networks 25p per minute
• Video calls 50p per minute
• Calls to 0500, 0505, 055, 056, 080 and 082 numbers 15p per minute
• Calls to 07744 and 07755 numbers 25p per minute
• Calls to 070 numbers 50p per minute
• Calls to 0844, 0845 and 0870 numbers (similar to 13 and 1300 numbers in Australia) 25p per minute
• Calls to 0871 numbers 35p per minute
• UK text message 12p
• International text message 10p
• Picture message 25p

Please note that this is a UK SIM card. You can only buy credit at shops in the UK (although you can buy credit online if you have a credit card issued by a UK bank with a UK billing address). Although it is a great SIM for travelling in Europe, you should only buy this SIM if the UK is your first port of call in Europe and you should buy enough credit before leaving the UK to travel around Europe.

You can set up an account on O2's website (although this entirely optional) so you can check your account balance online. If you want to do this you will need to enter a UK address (your hotel address will be fine).

Cheaper international calls with the O2 International SIM

The O2 UK SIM cards that we sell are already set up to give you much better value international calls than a regular O2 SIM. International calling rates are:

International SMS text messages cost 10p per message.

Free calls and text messages to other O2 mobiles

When you top up more than £15, you get unlimited calls and text messages to other O2 UK mobiles for one month.

Roaming in Europe

The O2 UK SIM is a great option for use throughout Europe as roaming rates are very reasonable in the following countries: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Monaco, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Vatican, San Marino, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The cost of using your mobile with an O2 SIM in these countries is:

Please note that this is a UK SIM card. You can only buy credit at shops in the UK (although you can buy credit online if you have a credit card issued by a UK bank with a UK billing address). Although it is a great SIM for travelling in Europe, you should only buy this SIM if the UK is your first port of call in Europe and you should buy enough credit before leaving the UK to travel around Europe.

Bolt-ons

Bolt ons are the best bit about O2's Pay & Go plans. These let you pay a bit more in exchange for lower call charges or extra features like unlimited data and low-cost roaming in Europe.

Rather than confuse you with the full list of available bolt ons, we will just list the four most popular ones here.

Web bolt ons

O2's Web bolt ons let you access the internet from your phone.

The Basics Web bolt on gives you access to 100MB of 3G data for £3 per month. This bolt on is ideal if you only need a little bit of data or if you will only be in the UK for around one week..

The All Rounder Web bolt on gives you access to 500MB of 3G data plus unlimited Wi-Fi access at thousands of BT Openzone and the Cloud Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK on your phone plus 20 MMS picture messages for £6 per month. This includes both 3G data and Wi-Fi access at 7500 BT Openzone and the Cloud Wi-Fi hotspots. This is the most popular Web bolt on and is ideal if you're travelling with a smartphone like the Apple iPhone.

The Works Web bolt on gives you access to 1GB of 3G data plus unlimited Wi-Fi access at thousands of BT Openzone and the Cloud Wi-Fi hotspots on your phone plus 50 MMS picture messages for £10 per month. This includes both 3G data and Wi-Fi access at 7500 BT Openzone and the Cloud Wi-Fi hotspots. This bolt on is ideal if you're travelling with a smartphone like the Apple iPhone and need more data.

To set up O2 Web bolt ons call 2425 free of charge from your Pay & Go mobile phone.

Data is only included with O2's Web bolt-ons in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. No data is included when roaming outside the UK.

You are charged £1 per day for data if you don't have a web bolt-on or if you have used all your web bolt-on allowance.

Blackberry bolt-on

This bolt on gives you 500MB data and Blackberry email for one month for £5 per month.

O2 Travel

O2 Travel is a new bolt-on that gives you cheaper data while roaming in many European countries. O2 Travel costs £1.99 for 25MB data during one day while travelling in Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Monaco, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Vatican, San Marino, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

When you have used your 25MB daily allowance you can add an additional 25MB by texting TRAVEL25 to 21300.

International Favourites

The International Favourites 3 bolt-on gives you 3000 minutes of calls to three landline numbers in 42 countries (including Australia) plus a local number in one of those countries so friends and family can call you in the UK for the price of a local call. The International Favourites 3 bolt-on costs £10 for one month.

The International Favourites 5 bolt-on gives you 3000 minutes of calls to landlines and 200 minutes of calls to mobile phones to five numbers in 42 countries (including Australia) plus a local number in one of those countries so friends and family can call you in the UK for the price of a local call. The International Favourites 5 bolt-on costs £20 for one month.

Please note that the local 'Call Me' number that you get may not be a local call for you depending on your home or office phone provider. It will still be an Australian number that people can call using inclusive minutes in their mobile phone plan and it will be the same price as a local call if your phone company offers a flat rate untimed national call (which most phone companies do nowadays), however some phone companies (such as Telstra) still charge higher rates for long distance calls within Australia.

You can read more about O2's International Favourites bolt ons here.

Coverage

O2 has excellent coverage throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

You can check your coverage here.

Please note the above rates are current as of 9 July 2012