Replacing a phone in London - AT&T

[Tailgate 3022]

My youngest had her phone stolen in London. Service is with AT&T. She is on study abroad for a few more weeks.

Appears no AT&T stores there. It’s an iPhone. 
 

Should we purchase a replacement here and send it over with an AT&T card? Or is it possible for her to get one there? 
 

Obviously since she has a few more weeks to go we want to get her a replacement there ASAP. 
 

I’ll be calling AT&T during business hours. Didn’t know if the Surly collective had any suggestions. 
 

Appreciate any thoughts.

[Sam Lin 3560]

For immediate connectivity, have her go buy whatever UNLOCKED phone she wants and buy a 1mo prepaid SIM card with a few gigs of data. That'll get her back online for the rest of her trip. Then you can just get a replacement SIM from ATT here and either FedEx it to her, or just wait for her to return, she plugs it in once she returns.

Won't be able to call her ATT number on the prepaid SIM, but there are a million chat apps including Facetime that just require any form of data - her local prepaid data SIM will do all that.

[Sam Lin 3560]

And go to Apple's site and report stolen and trigger "find my phone" immediately, it'll lock the device and make it basically useless to a thief, greatly increases the chances of it being dumped and recovered. She really just needs the SIM out of it, plug that into any new unlocked phone and she can continue on about her life.

[Tailgate 3022]

2 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

And go to Apple's site and report stolen and trigger "find my phone" immediately, it'll lock the device and make it basically useless to a thief, greatly increases the chances of it being dumped and recovered. She really just needs the SIM out of it, plug that into any new unlocked phone and she can continue on about her life.

Appreciate these thoughts…like the first idea as well. Thank you. When you say “unlocked” is that just any new phone with a prepaid 1month sim? There is an Apple store near her where she can pick up a phone.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Tailgate

[YChang 3460]

Appreciate these thoughts…like the first idea as well. Thank you. When you say “unlocked” is that just any new phone with a prepaid 1month sim? There is an Apple store near her where she can pick up a phone.

Yes. iPhones purchased from an Apple Store are unlocked to a specific carrier. The prepaid SIM card is a separate purchase. It would be for a local carrier. Like Q2 or Vodafone.

[crash_davis 23114]

You shouldn't have to worry about carrier locked versus unlocked phones. That's mostly a US thing that our FCC allows the US carriers to bend over the US public. The rest of the world basically just sells carrier agnostic phones to be used globally.

1. Have her buy a phone in London. The phones there should work natively on AT&T's network since it's GSM based (AT&T and most of the rest of the world is GSM based). HOWEVER, there may be AT&T specific spectrums and bands missing from that phone because US carriers buy different specific spectrums/wavelengths. It is doubtful she will ever notice the difference once she comes back to the states with that phone. It'll just work. 

2. Go to AT&T, have them disable that SIM that is in her stolen phone. Get a new replacement SIM card and ship it to her.

3. She inserts that SIM card into her new phone and she should be up and running.

[crash_davis 23114]

This is a good reminder that everyone should put a SIM lock/password on their phones. This is easy means for people to steal your shit since most double factor verification involves sending text messages to your phone. Guess what thieves with your phone can do? 

Your phone may be locked but they can remove the SIM, put it in their phone and now that have full access to your number. If you phone is SIM locked, when they try to use your SIM in their phone, it won't work until they enter the PIN. They only get 3 chances before the SIM locks down for good.

[elfenix 34331]

6 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

HOWEVER, there may be AT&T specific spectrums and bands missing from that phone because US carriers buy different specific spectrums/wavelengths. It is doubtful she will ever notice the difference once she comes back to the states with that phone. It'll just work.

might not have US 5G bands. 

[crash_davis 23114]

Just now, elfenix said:

might not have US 5G bands. 

i wouldn't worry about 5G. it's all bullshit until mmwave is fully deployed.

AT&T 5G is fake as fuck. 

TMO 5G is basically just an enhancement on their 4G network.  TMO mmwave 5G is years and years away.

VZ is prob leading the way with real mmwave 5G. that's going to take years to be ubiquitous. 

There's nothing you are doing on your phone that will truly benefit from 5G. Webpages and apps will load a millisecond faster. 

5G is for broadband and enterprise.

[Tailgate 3022]

Appreciate all the input guys. I just grabbed a phone at the Apple store and have already tranferred her AT&T number to the new phone. iCould backups are awesome....transfer has taken @ 30 minutes...will let it ride the weekend for all the data to fully load with pics. apps. etc. Shipping Monday.

Final question...FedEX or DHL....or other? Want this to arrive swiftly and with not much BS/Customs stuff.

[YChang 3460]

2 hours ago, Tailgate said:

Appreciate all the input guys. I just grabbed a phone at the Apple store and have already tranferred her AT&T number to the new phone. iCould backups are awesome....transfer has taken @ 30 minutes...will let it ride the weekend for all the data to fully load with pics. apps. etc. Shipping Monday.

Final question...FedEX or DHL....or other? Want this to arrive swiftly and with not much BS/Customs stuff.

Hmm... I've only used DHL for international shipping and they've always been reliable for me. 

[Gil Bang 25990]

2 hours ago, Tailgate said:

Appreciate all the input guys. I just grabbed a phone at the Apple store and have already tranferred her AT&T number to the new phone. iCould backups are awesome....transfer has taken @ 30 minutes...will let it ride the weekend for all the data to fully load with pics. apps. etc. Shipping Monday.

Final question...FedEX or DHL....or other? Want this to arrive swiftly and with not much BS/Customs stuff.

Uh...you probably shouldn't look at the pics there Dad. 

[CooterBrown 18022]

It’ll probably be cheaper to fly it there yourself than ship it.

Should’ve just bought a cheap burner until she got home.

[Tailgate 3022]

Thanks again for all the input fellas. Replacement arrived today 11:30am UK time via UPS Worldwide Express.

\m/

[52-80 19224]

There's no meaningful differences between cellular bands in US vs RoW anymore.  Used to be phones had like 20,30 bands eachs, with minimal overlap from region to region, so you needed to buy "dual/tri/quad band" phones for traveling.  Nowdays they all have like 80 bands or so and they're all universal save for very few. 

 

Because phones now literally cost the same as a laptop, carrier-lock for subsidized phones is still very much a thing in many places.