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Posts Tagged ‘Skype’

Relocation to London – Inter (net) Connected in London

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Relocation to London – Inter (net) Connected in London - Image via CrunchBase

Staying in touch with folks back home after your relocation to London means getting connected to the internet, as soon as you arrive. If you have not yet found a London apartment it can be difficult to stay connected to the internet without having a fixed address and a landline for your connection.

This is part of the reason that so many people choose to use London relocation companies when they are moving to London. They offer a full solution package that includes getting you connected to all of the utilities that you will need in your new London apartment.

Getting connected to the internet may be easy in London, but the wide variety of service providers can make the choice quite difficult. The best bet is to get your internet service from your telephone provider. That way you only have to deal with one installation and you can be online and chatting to your family and friends back home.

Skype is the most popular international online chat program in the UK, although you may be able to access your Vonage account when you are moving to London if that is your regular provider. Skype is a great program to get familiar with when planning your international relocation.

Ask your service provider about their mobile internet access as well, and you can start using the broadband network on your laptop and mobile phone to access the internet when you are not at home.

A Word on Wi-Fi

Your relocation to London does not mean that you are moving to a Wi-Fi less society. London is one of the most connected cities on the planet and you can find free Wi-Fi hotspots across the city without any difficulty at all. If you’re waiting for your phone line and internet to be installed, and you need a dose of American culture then just head off to your local Starbucks and hook up If you’re right in the heart of ‘The City’ then the entire area is a Wi-Fi zone. Unfortunately it is not free unless you own an iphone or have a broadband contract with O2.

There are so many ways that you can make your relocation to London easier and simpler. Figure out what is important in your life and plan the details of your move according to that.

Tags: England, international relocation, London, london apartment, london relocation companies, moving company, Moving to London, Relocation service, Skype, starbucks, Vonage
Posted in Relocation to London | No Comments »

Weekend Warrior Saturday: Researching UK Phone Services for Your London Move

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

: Image via Wikipedia

Author: Colleen

Lovely to see you again, you Weekend Warriors who are moving to London! Last week I suggested you familiarize yourself with your nation’s embassy in London to be sure you know where to go/who to contact/etc. Today, I’ll briefly address another UK-factor you can be looking into prior to your London move as well: phone providers.

I’ve discussed previously how internet calling services like Skype are probably the cheapest way to call long-distance (Skype calls are free to other Skype users!), as well as how mobile phones (cell phones) offer flexibility in service packages for your physical phone—i.e., thanks to the phones not being locked to one provider as they are in the States, interchangeable SIM cards make that one less unnecessary expense (and provider service contracts can be at least six months shorter than their U.S. counterparts). Where mobile phones go, first check to determine whether your current mobile (cell) phone provider does offer services in the UK. Some carriers have a sister company that could make for a seamless transition. Four major mobile phone operators in the UK are Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, and Orange, and I highly recommend Carphone Warehouse for comparing your options and making the purchase.

A lot of expats relocating to London are only doing so for the short-term, so often bypass a landline phone altogether in favor of saving money on just the mobile. It also simplifies the impending move by having one less utility to think about transferring if moving within London or canceling if leaving the country. Nonetheless, the reliability of a landline phone as at least back-up can give peace of mind, and all the major UK TV subscription services like Sky, Virgin Media, and British Telecom (BT) offer cable, internet, and phone bundles that can save you money on calls. Five major landline phone operators in the UK are Virgin, BT, TalkTalk, Vonage, and Primus, and sites like HomePhoneChoices and uSwitch can help you make the comparison to find your best option.

Calling patterns vary by the individual, so it’s up to you to research your options and see which calling packages best match your needs at the best price. I do hope, though, that the resources offered here point you in the right direction to save you some time as you make the most of your Warrior Weekend and prepare efficiently and productively for that London move!

Tags: BT, colleen, Landline, london apartment, london apartments, London Relocation Services, mobile phone, moving to london england from canada, Moving to London from US, moving to london with kids, O2, Orange phone, overseas moving tips, packing for an overseas move, packing tips for moving abroad, packing tips for moving overseas, packing to move abroad, packing to move overseas, packing to move to London, relocating a family to london, relocating to london from overseas, rent london, researching uk phone, Skype, t-mobile, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, vodafone
Posted in London Weekend Warriors, Moving to London: Tips & Culture, Relocating to UK: Visas, Banking, & Other Logisitical Issues, Saturday Moving Tips | 1 Comment »

London Calling: London Relocation Brings Out its A-Game with Client Communication!

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Author: Colleen

Those of you researching your move to London are in for even higher quality service from London Relocation. We’ve always been proud of the services we provide (see our promise and guarantee), but we’re lifelong learners and always looking for ways to improve, which includes streamlining our communications with you from the very get-go.

Perhaps by now you’ve noticed that in the upper right-hand corner of our website, our contact information now includes Skype! Our Skype ID is london_relocation, so if you’re already signed up to Skype, you can call for free right from your computer the very second you’re looking at our glorious site. Our toll-free number (1.877.778.3487) is also free for those calling from the United States or Canada, so there’s no reason to hesitate contacting us by phone here in our London office!

And if you’re hesitant to call because of the time difference (we’re on GMT, so if you’re calling from the States, that’s 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time, 6 hours Central and 5 East Coast), please know that even after our normal office hours a staff member will be on hand up to midnight GMT (our time) to follow up on your call within a half-hour of receipt. And this is an actual member of staff; we don’t outsource to a calling center.

This is all in addition to our online web form, of course, which can be found on just about every page of our website (including this one! Look over to the right!). Simply dash off a brief note of your London apartment specifications as well as a convenient time for us to contact you, and you’re all set.

It’s a fresh new year to look forward to in 2011, so to ring it in right (efficiently and stress-free), ring London Relocation so we can show you all the best London apartments on the market!

Tags: Americans moving to London, client service, colleen, flats to rent in london, london apartment, london apartments, London Relocation, london relocation agency, relocating to london england from canada, rent london, Skype
Posted in London Relocation & What People Say About Us, Moving to London: Tips & Culture, Rent in London: London Apartment Tips | 1 Comment »

Expat Phone Home

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Author: Colleen
If you’re moving to London away from your home country, you can initially feel alien-ated indeed (*wink-wink* *nudge-nudge*) without your old phone and a contact number beyond that of your hotel for your first days. Well, luckily London Relocation Ltd. will help limit the amount of time you need to spend at the hotel via our one-day flat-finding service, which allows you to then set up a landline phone, if desired, straightaway in your new London apartment. There is also the mobile phone (see my “Buying a UK Phone is ‘SIM’-ple!” post), which will require a UK bank account and address.

Until the phone was squared away, I felt tremendously detached from home…so what in heckfire was I thinking not to phone home using the internet??! I was aware of Skype, but I guess just not educated on how handy it really is, and honestly after 2 years living in London it’s only been in the last few months that I’ve finally started using it.

Skype is perhaps more of a household name now than it was those couple years ago. When you register for an account, it’s free to call other Skype users, or from 1.6 pence a minute for pay-as-you-go calls to worldwide cell phones and landlines. With a monthly subscription, you can pay less than £5 per month for unlimited calls to the U.S. and about £9 worldwide.

My parents don’t yet have Skype, nor do they have a webcam or fast-enough connection beyond their original dial-up service, for that matter, so I pay for the unlimited service to call their landline. While I’m sad not to be able to see them, the sound through my Mac is great, and (opting not to use a headset) it allows me to just kick back and speak into the air as I would if they were right there in the room…which is a plus when our 2-hour calls otherwise bruise the cartilege in my ear with a phone pressed against it . But when you can phone someone with the vidoeo functionality, it’s terribly fun and the closest thing to having them with you. I love when our visitors call home with Skype at our flat—absolutely heart-melting to see their children’s wee faces speaking to them, probably too young and already too tech-savvy to process what a big deal it is to be able to talk to your parents across an ocean…and on a computer! This child of the 80s is convinced we already live in the sci-fi future…

You can also look into video conferencing via MSN Messenger or, if you’re a Mac user, iChat. I have no personal experience with either of these, so if you do, share your thoughts! Or how about other such international internet services (like Yahoo Voice??)? Any ideas that have worked for you?

At any rate, this has just popped to mind in light of the impending Thanksgiving holiday that many American expats in London will be celebrating thousands of miles away from their loved ones. So with that heart glowing, reach that long, just-as-freakishly glowing fingertip out and touch someone…by tapping your keyboard first .

Tags: Americans relocating to London, calling home from abroad, calling internationally, calling long-distance from uk, colleen, dialling internationally, getting a phone in london, Greenwich, london apartments, london move, London Relocation Services, looking for a london apartment, mobile phone sim cards, moving to London from the US, MSN Messenger, relocating to London from Canada, rent london, setting up phone service in london, Skype
Posted in Moving to London: Tips & Culture, Relocating to UK: Visas, Banking, & Other Logisitical Issues | 8 Comments »

Giving Thanks, American Style

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Thanksgiving-703525

Sitting at my desk, I am now realizing what a huge bummer it is not to get Thanksgiving off of work outside of the United States. This is my first Thanksgiving without a visit home, so I am inwardly *sighing* a great deal as I think of all that I’m missing out on…in about 3 hours, my mom will probably be loading up the oven with the big bird and dashing about the house with last-minute preparations before my siblings and their spouses and children arrive. The lunch-time gorging will ensue before those that need to attend dinner at their in-laws’ homes leave and those that stay slip into a drowsy tryptophan-induced coma (lest we forget the Turkey chemical that makes us sleepy), trousers unzipped to allow a bloated belly some breathing room while a marathon of American football plays on in the background. After the naps, somehow the stomach is ready for more, and the Thanksgiving feast reappears in its second incarnation for the day: Turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie. Ahhh, good food in good company is something to be thankful for indeed.

Hmm, I might not be helping to encourage Americans to move to London talking like this, but I do have a point. First of all, purchasing a roundtrip plane ticket is not outrageously difficult to do in order to be home and experience abovesaid delights firsthand. Costly, perhaps, but it’s up to you how worth it it is. Second, just because it isn’t a UK holiday doesn’t preclude you from celebrating it here; in fact, the city is gracious enough to hold a special Thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral (it was at 11am this morning) as well as offer bounteous traditional Thanksgiving feasts in assorted locales. Visit the ViewLondon.co.uk link below for establishments serving in your area:

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/restaurants/thanksgiving-at-london-restaurants-feature-1534.html?utm_source=VenueSiteStats&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=VenueSiteStats

Third, if you’re looking to prepare the feast at home, you might check out Partridge’s store, which stocks its shelves with oft-missed American goods like Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Pop Tarts. I, for one, think I’m going to check out the one on Gloucester Road in South Kensington for Stove Top stuffing.

And fourth, regardless how you choose to celebrate Thanksgiving in London, there is a wonderful new invention called the telephone–you’ve undoubtedly got a good international plan going for you (if not, try the Talkmobile SIM card for calls to the States for 4 pence a minute), so give those loved ones a call tonight! If you want to take it up a notch and demonstrate your technological savvy (and have somehow already convinced your family members to invest in web cams…no small feat, admittedly; baby steps, baby steps…), might I recommend Skype as an audiovisual means of feeling closer to those at home.

From us here at London Relocation Ltd., Happy Thanksgiving!

Tags: Americans in London, Americans moving to London, London Relocation Services, moving to London England, Partridge's, Skype, TalkMobile, Thanksgiving, www.viewlondon.co.uk
Posted in London Recreation, Moving to London: Tips & Culture | 1 Comment »