Using a USA (AT&T) iPhone 5s in the UK with an O2 SIM.

[Anonymous]

I'm from the UK and a long-time O2 customer. I'm now living in the USA and have just bought an iPhone 5s on an AT&T contract.

I wanted to keep my UK mobile number alive while I was away (I've had it since it was 0831!) so I've been paying £10/month on the lowest monthly plan and left the SIM sitting in a drawer. It's a micro-SIM for an iPhone 4.

I'm visiting the UK in a couple of weeks and would like to know if I can I get a replacement nano-SIM from O2 and use it in my 5s with my UK number?

Of course I'll have to confirm with AT&T that the phone will accept a UK O2 SIM but I'm hoping that won't be an issue.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Moot point - AT&T won't unlock my phone until the end of the contract.

Looks like I'll be carrying two phones around with me for two weeks

[Anonymous]

To answer your first post you can visit any O2 high street shop and ask them to perform a simswap which moves your mobile number and tariff from your original sim to a new account specific blank nano sim or you could contact CS and have one posted to your uk address and perform the swap yourself via an online form.

Both options can take up to 24 hours to settle but is typically faster.

[Anonymous]

Seems the American Networks are still sometimes being difficult in some circumstances with unlocking then.

😞

[adamtemp64]

1 The uk sim there is no need to keep paying £10 a month, go on to the unlimited payg tariff top up every 999 days or when credit is used ( if you have a uk bank acount still, setup auto topup when credit drops below a threashold you set)

2 you must use the sim to make a chargeable call / sms every 6 months to keep the number active and stop it being reclaimed. (on payg)

[Anonymous]

Is say be careful relying on auto top up as we have had people post that it has occasionally glitches. 😞

[Bambino]

What adamtemp64 has suggested is your best bet. As you won't be able to use your iPhone in the UK, and you want to use your O2 sim while you're here, pick up an inexpensive sim free phone on Amazon and use that in the UK on Pay & Go. No sense in shelling out £120 a year for a contract you're not using. If you don't have a UK bank account you can probably do the sim swap to Pay & Go in an O2 store.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for the PAYG advice. I'll switch to that when I get back to the US after my trip.

And I'll be sure to manually check the top-ups and send an occasional SMS to keep the number alive

[Anonymous]

Happy days as far as that then.

Shame the American network won't unlock the phone yet. 😞

[MI5]

USA networks have managed to get legislation passed to make it illegal to unlock a phone until out of contract....