OT Re: Cell phone opinions/options

[Ward Vandewege]

On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 12:09:20PM -0500, Rich Braun wrote:
> Ward Vandewege <ward at pong.be> challenged me:
> > Ah, but avoiding the $2/min roaming charges when abroad is just a matter of:
> >
> > a) unlocking the phone (or buying a phone _without_ a plan, which means it
> > won't be locked into a specific provider)
> > b) getting a local (prepaid) SIM card
> 
> This did NOT work for me.  Specifically, taking an American phone to Japan
> won't work because Japan doesn't have the GSM network.  Taking it to Singapore
> or Thailand won't work because the frequency range is wrong.   Taking my Thai
> phone to Peru similarly didn't work.  Even with an unlocked phone, often
> you'll get the runaround at the local phone providers' shops, because they
> want to sell you a new phone and because your Spanish|Thai|Mandarin|Portuguese
> language capabilities can't match theirs.
> 
> You get the idea.  It's not just a matter of unlocking a GSM phone.  You have
> to  have a super-duper quad-band phone (850-900-1800-1900 MHz, all four
> frequencies, only 2 of which are used in the USA) and choose your travel
> destinations carefully.

Ah, quite - I assumed that was obvious, my bad :( I have a three-band GSM
phone, and it serves me well on both sides of the Atlantic (using a prepaid
SIM while in Europe). I got the phone here with a T-mobile plan, which made
it free after rebates. This is a Nokia 6610, which I unlocked using some code
generator found online...

Ward.

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