On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:28:36 +0000, bert wrote:

Basic PAYG phone are only a few quid these days.

Just get a SIM, no need for a phone provided you have one that is
unlocked. The phone providers have to provide the unlocking
code/unlock the phone once the initial contract has run out.

There are only two or three different networks.

EE (Was Orange and T-Mobile), O2, Vodafone and Three. Three might be
a 3G or 4G provider only and I'm not sure there are any resellers of
their network.

Looking at the small print of a providers contract will almost
certainly tell you which carrier they use. But for this excercise of
coverage checking just get EE, O2 and Vodafone SIMs.

--
Cheers
Dave.