Can I get a UK cellphone delivered to US?

[erwin1978]

My residence is in England and I am currently in the USA visiting relatives for two months. I want to get a cellphone service in my UK residence. Would I be able to order online and have the cellphone delivered here in the US so I can use it right away?

 

[nsafreak]

Well, the phone portion is possible as there are a number of vendors that will sell you an unlocked GSM phone. From there you'll want to go with a prepaid service (there are a fair number, not quite as many as the UK/EU but still a few) that will give you a SIM. Then once you get back home simply get a SIM from your carrier of choice in the UK.

 

[s44]

Yes, but there's no phone that gives you LTE both here and there. And if it's the Note 3 (is this the device for your Aunt from the laptop forum?) there's a bit of an issue with region locking.

(The region lock is disabled by using a device in the home region on a home-area SIM for a few minutes before you leave. That's great for a UK device that you start using in the UK, but for one you start using in the US, oops. I believe the region lock doesn't actually forbid US/Europe cross-regional use, but it's not something I'd want to mess with.

So you could get a US model and start using it here (but it wouldn't have LTE for over there, just HSPA+), or a UK model and wait to start using it until you're back, but probably not both.)

If it's not the Note 3, you're still left with the LTE here/LTE there issue, but all you need to worry about is making sure it's SIM-unlocked.

The biggest US sellers of non-US phones are
Negri Electronics
Expansys
and of course US Amazon

 

[alangrift]

Yes you should be able to. Just get one of your friends to pick it up for you over there and have them activate it and ship it to you in the US.

 

[LostPassword]

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