London Telephone

Tips on Using A London Telephone
London still has many of the popular red phone-boxes but the majority are modern glass covered open telephone cubicles which accept coins, phone-cards and credit cards.

ESSENTIAL NUMBERS & CODES:

• Local and national operator 100
• Local and national directory enquiries 118 500
• Reverse-charge/collect calls 155 (you will be charged)
• Time (Speaking Clock) 123
• London’s area code is 020 followed by eight-digits beginning with 7 or 8. So you must use 0208 or 0207 before dialling the number.
• Code for dialing UK from abroad is 44 followed by area code and number.

LONDON TELEPHONE - CALLING FROM THE UK

• International dialling code 00
• International directory enquiries 118 505 (charged at £1.50 per minute).
• International operator 155, International inquiries 152
• Cheap rates are from 18.00pm to 08.00am Monday to Friday
• Cheap weekend rates from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday.

LOW COST PHONE-CARD
Totally London Low Cost Phone-card save you up to 75% off prepaid roaming rates. It's easy to use, you don't need a phone-card - just the free-phone access number for the number you're calling from, your account number and a PIN number.Designed for visitors to the UK and available in 10 languages. Call Europe and North America from 2p per minute.

MORE LOW COST PHONE-CARDS
Cards to the value of £5, £10 and £20 are available with a special PIN number which you dial before dialing your number. Available from newsagents and some supermarkets.

CELL PHONES (MOBILE)
In the UK cell phones are called mobiles and the network used is GSM which stands for Global System for Mobile Communication. This is available throughout Europe but US mobile (cell) phones are not GSM. If you're using GSM they are normally locked to a network which you can get unlocked so as to be able to use all networks in the UK.

PAY AS YOU GO
In London 'Pay As You Go' mobile phones are very popular. You don't need a contract, you simply buy credit for the phone from newsagents, supermarkets or shops with the 'Top-Up' signs.

SIM CARDS
SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module and it's a small piece of plastic which has a chip containing your cell phone number, contacts and so on. When you change mobiles, you just move your SIM card to the new mobile so you still have all your information. You can buy a SIM card and have unlimited FREE incoming calls from anywhere in the world so contact your current phone company and see if they know which UK SIM cards work in your mobile. If your mobile is from another network, it may need to be unlocked before you can use it. SIM cards can be bought from £5 - £10 each.

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