Cingular cell phone service - Anyone every used their phones overseas?

Author

Anyone every used their phones overseas?

John Doe

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
luck using it internationally.

Stanley Naimon

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

John Doe wrote:
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.
>
>
>
You need to have a GSM phone. Used many times in Europe. Need 900/1800
frequecies.

see www.prepaidgsm.net. Forget your Verizon and probably Sprint except
for Carribean.

Stan

Donald Newcomb

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

"Stanley Naimon" <snaimon@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:RcednY- c4euHUwDZnZ2dnUVZ_sK
dnZ2d@comcast.com...
> You need to have a GSM phone. Used many times in Europe. Need 900/1800
> frequecies.

Well, there are a number of places where Verizon customers can use their
CDMA phones. Not as many as GSM users but still a posibility. Maybe if the
OP could tell us a little more we could be a little more help.

I use my phone overseas all the time. What do you want to know?

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

PTravel

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Mark Crispin

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

On Sat, 24 Jun 2006, Stanley Naimon wrote:
> You need to have a GSM phone. Used many times in Europe. Need 900/1800
> frequecies.

GSM 900/1800 is the most common system outside of the Americas, but it
isn't the only one. Some other countries have the CDMA 800/1900 system
used in North America

> see www.prepaidgsm.net. Forget your Verizon and probably Sprint except for
> Carribean.

Not true. Verizon phones can roam in Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil,
Canada, China, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Guam, India, Israel, Jamaica,
Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Saipan, South Korea, St Maarten, Taiwan,
Thailand, Virgin Islands (both US and UK) and Venezuela.

Verizon also has three phones (Motorola a840, Samsung a795, Samsung i830)
which are CDMA 800/1900 and GSM 900/1800. These phones can roam in
GSM-only countries. All in all, Verizon has roaming agreements with over
140 countries and regions.

Last but not least, if you're going to Japan neither a GSM nor a CDMA
phone is any good. You need either a PDC (Japanese only) or W-CDMA phone.
Thanks to a small number of individuals who abused it, it is now very
difficult these days for people who are not Japanese citizens or foreign
residents in Japan to get mobile phone service in Japan directly from
Japanese mobile phone providers. Verizon customers can get rental
service, or you can apply for it at the airport, but it is extremely
expensive.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

Simon Templar

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Mark Crispin wrote:
> Last but not least, if you're going to Japan neither a GSM nor a CDMA
> phone is any good. You need either a PDC (Japanese only) or W-CDMA
> phone. Thanks to a small number of individuals who abused it, it is now
> very difficult these days for people who are not Japanese citizens or
> foreign residents in Japan to get mobile phone service in Japan directly
> from Japanese mobile phone providers. Verizon customers can get rental
> service, or you can apply for it at the airport, but it is extremely
> expensive.
>
> -- Mark --

W-CDMA (aka 3G or UMTS) is starting to be used in many places around the
world. I am using one here in Australia, all the carriers here have 3G
networks expanding although mainly in major cities at this time. They
automatically switch back to GSM when out of 3G coverage.

The only real benefit of 3G is bandwidth for data or video usage. No
real difference for voice.

--
The views I present are that of my own and NOT of any organisation I may
belong to.

73 de Simon, VK3XEM.
http://web.acma.gov.au/pls/radcom/c...LIENT_NO=157452

pltrgyst

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

SMS

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Mark Crispin wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Jun 2006, Stanley Naimon wrote:
>
> GSM 900/1800 is the most common system outside of the Americas, but it
> isn't the only one. Some other countries have the CDMA 800/1900 system
> used in North America
>
>
> Not true. Verizon phones can roam in Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil, Canada,
> China, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Guam, India, Israel, Jamaica,
> Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Saipan, South Korea, St Maarten, Taiwan,
> Thailand, Virgin Islands (both US and UK) and Venezuela.
>
> Verizon also has three phones (Motorola a840, Samsung a795, Samsung
> i830) which are CDMA 800/1900 and GSM 900/1800. These phones can roam
> in GSM-only countries. All in all, Verizon has roaming agreements with
> over 140 countries and regions.

Good information.

It should also be noted that it's often much less expensive to rent a
CDMA phone than to pay roaming, or in GSM countries to buy a prepaid SIM
card for a 900/1800 unlocked GSM handset.

I used to go to Korea a lot, and phone rentals were quite inexpensive,
and included low-cost international calling.

Set up a "Next2Nothing" account on VoiceStick.com, and use that number
to forward calls to whatever number you get on a rental or prepaid card.

Miles

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

John Doe wrote:
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.
>
>
>

I spend months each year in Hong Kong and Thailand -- usually up north
-- and with a Nokia unlocked GSM triband have no difficulty. Buy a
prepaid sims card in the country you are in -- depending on how long and
how much use as to how much you spend and it's no trouble to simply buy
another and add to your time if you run out. In Thailand, it's about 8
cents/minute to call anywhere in the country and 15 cents/minute to call
overseas such as to the States or Hong Kong. In HKG it's even less!

Miles

ToMiBo

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Motorola v557:
No problem in Singapore and China. No way in Japan or Korea.

"John Doe" <divvyplayer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:cHjng.7824$7K2.4486@bignews2.bellsouth.net...
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.
>
>
>

Mark Crispin

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Simon Templar wrote:
> W-CDMA (aka 3G or UMTS) is starting to be used in many places around the
> world. I am using one here in Australia, all the carriers here have 3G
> networks expanding although mainly in major cities at this time. They
> automatically switch back to GSM when out of 3G coverage.

Yes, I believe that Australian and UK W-CDMA phones can roam in Japan.
CDMA and GSM phones can not.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

Frankster

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Go to the source... [select country]

http://mobileoptions.vzw.com/intern...tes/Mexico.html

-Frank

"John Doe" <divvyplayer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:cHjng.7824$7K2.4486@bignews2.bellsouth.net...
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.
>
>
>

Donald Newcomb

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

"ToMiBo" <tomibo@houston.rr.com> wrote in message
news:b1xng.23385$JW5.16650@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> Motorola v557:
> No problem in Singapore and China. No way in Japan or Korea.

In Japan you need a phone with WCDMA-2100, then it works fine. In Korea (S.)
you rent a special CDMA phone at the airport and insert your SIM.

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

matt weber

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

On Sat, 24 Jun 2006 19:14:28 -0400, "John Doe"
<divvyplayer@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
>luck using it internationally.
>
>
This is an area where US carriers traditionally were behind the 8
ball. There were a couple reason for this in the past. It wasn't
viewed as a big market, and the US frequency allocation for GSM was
incompatible with the rest of the world, and phones with
interoperability came fairly late in the game.

Fortunately the roaming issues for T-mobile users in the USA is pretty
much history. It got much better when Voice Stream acquired the NYC
GSM carrier, and even better when Voice Stream was acquired by Deuctch
Telecom, and tri and quad band phones are almost the norm.

Bottom line is that if you have global roaming enabled by your service
provider, you can travel to your hearts content, however roaming rates
tend to be high, so if you plan to use the phone extensively, get a
local prepaid sim.

Dave

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

Frankster wrote:
> Go to the source... [select country]
>
> http://mobileoptions.vzw.com/intern...tes/Mexico.html
>
>
>
I went to verizon's site above and laughed at the Verizon's line

> Cruise Ship:
> Verizon Wireless Cruise Ship Services are now available,

providing the ability to make and receive calls while traveling

on select cruise lines for a low rate of $2.49 per minute

Only $2.49 a minute?????????????????

They call that a low rate??????????

Donald Newcomb

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

"Dave" <daves1955@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:z5Gng.3215$uo.1814@trnddc07...
> Only $2.49 a minute?????????????????
>
> They call that a low rate??????????

Actually, for service to/from a ship at sea that's not bad. The cheap rate
to make an INMARSAT B call is around $3/min. Mini M is down to about
$1.50/min. Iridium is around $1.50/min. These are the rates after you buy
the phone and pay the monthly service fee. So, roaming at $2.50/min is not
bad. (Not that I'd wan't to make a lot of long calls at that rate)

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

Frankster

2006-06-25, 10:33 pm

>
> providing the ability to make and receive calls while traveling
>
> on select cruise lines for a low rate of $2.49 per minute
>
> Only $2.49 a minute?????????????????
>
> They call that a low rate??????????
>

Well, you can always use the ship phone in your cabin!

-Frank

Kevin K

2006-06-29, 7:33 am

On Sat, 24 Jun 2006 23:14:28 UTC, "John Doe" <divvyplayer@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.
>

I've used my Cingular phone overseas, but never tried internationally
:)

--

Kenster

2006-06-29, 7:33 am

John Doe wrote:
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.

I travel internationally (Europe) for a living. I have a Motorola V220
(tri-band).
I have a sim card for the UK, France, and Italy. Each gives me my own
phone number for that particular country. Beware that most, if not
all, Cingular phones are sold "locked" meaning you can't put someone
else's sim card into the phone.
Cingular was absolutely no help in getting my phone unlocked. I
finally found a Mom and Pop outfit in west Houston that unlocked it for
me for ten bucks. Once I had the proper sim card in my service was
perfect in Europe.

dold@XReXXAnyon.usenet.us.com

2006-06-29, 7:33 am

In alt.cellular.cingular Kenster < kensterfly@sbcglobal
.net> wrote:

> Cingular was absolutely no help in getting my phone unlocked.

Why?
They have sent unlock codes to me, and a couple of friends, at no cost,
upon request. They want to add international roaming to your account, but
other than that it's free, and only takes a couple of days.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

matt weber

2006-06-29, 7:33 am

On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:22:50 +0000 (UTC),
dold@XReXXAnyon.usenet.us.com wrote:

>In alt.cellular.cingular Kenster < kensterfly@sbcglobal
.net> wrote:
>
>
>Why?
>They have sent unlock codes to me, and a couple of friends, at no cost,
>upon request. They want to add international roaming to your account, but
>other than that it's free, and only takes a couple of days.

Depends upon what part of Cingular you are dealing with. The policy of
one part, formerly AT&T Wireless, was they wouldn't unlock your phone
period, end stop,. Whereas I got the old Pac Bell Mobile Services to
unlock one. I simply told them, I had bought it used as unlocked. If
they wanted to unlock it fine, I'd roam with them in California/Nevada
(and Roaming with a SIM from a foreign service provider is an
EXTREMELY profitable business) with my Optus SIM. If not, well, I
wouldn't be roaming, since in those days, dual 900/1900, and tri band
900/1800/1900 phones didn't exist yet.

It took them about an hour to decide to unlock the phone.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson

2006-06-29, 7:33 am

John Doe wrote:
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.

Being from the other side of the equation, I'd like to point out that
used unlocked dual or triband phones go for $50-$75 here and used 900mHz
locked phones go for free to $25.

The used phones if Nokia, can be unlocked for free using a program
available for downloading at unlock.nokiafree.org.

If you are going to visit family or friends, you could ask them if they
have one sitting in a drawer. If they do or they buy one for you, then
buy a new battery before you leave the U.S. where they are cheaper.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

www.goldno.com

2006-07-02, 3:36 pm

"John Doe" <divvyplayer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:cHjng.7824$7K2.4486@bignews2.bellsouth.net...
> Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
> luck using it internationally.

Yeah so long as you have a sim card that has roaming activated best phone
would be a quadband phone. Also depens where your going.

--

www.experimentalist.co.uk/shop/index.php
Australia, New Zealand, USA, German, UK, South Africa, Thailand, Brazil Sim
Cards &
EPIRB.
My help forum
www.experimentalist.co.uk/forum/index.php

John Navas

2006-07-02, 3:36 pm

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:58:46 -0500, "Donald Newcomb"
<DRNewcomb@NOT.attglobal.net> wrote in <449f30bf$1@kcnews01>:

>"Dave" <daves1955@verizon.net> wrote in message
>news:z5Gng.3215$uo.1814@trnddc07...
>
>Actually, for service to/from a ship at sea that's not bad. The cheap rate
>to make an INMARSAT B call is around $3/min. Mini M is down to about
>$1.50/min. Iridium is around $1.50/min. These are the rates after you buy
>the phone and pay the monthly service fee. So, roaming at $2.50/min is not
>bad. (Not that I'd wan't to make a lot of long calls at that rate)

Iridium is no more than $1.00/min if you shop carefully.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

John Navas

2006-07-02, 3:36 pm

On Sat, 24 Jun 2006 19:14:28 -0400, "John Doe" <divvyplayer@hotmail.com>
wrote in <cHjng.7824$7K2.4486@bignews2.bellsouth.net>:

>Looking for someone who's traveled overseas with their phone and had any
>luck using it internationally.

See the international calling portion of the FAQ below.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

Paul Day

2006-07-02, 3:37 pm

In alt.cellular.gsm Simon Templar <usenet@vk3xem.net> may have written:
> W-CDMA (aka 3G or UMTS)

W-CDMA != 3G/UMTS. It's just the underlying air interface used by UMTS.

> is starting to be used in many places around the world. I am using
> one here in Australia, all the carriers here have 3G networks
> expanding although mainly in major cities at this time. They
> automatically switch back to GSM when out of 3G coverage.

The W-CDMA network NTT DoCoMo use is not UMTS. It's a pre-cursor called
FOMA.

PD

--
Paul Day
Web: http://www.enigma.id.au/

Dog Fart

2006-07-02, 3:37 pm

On Sat, 24 Jun 2006 20:22:53 -0700, Mark Crispin <mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU>
(allegedly) wrote:

> Last but not least, if you're going to Japan neither a GSM nor a CDMA
> phone is any good.

Same in Korea (South)

Dog Fart

2006-07-02, 3:37 pm

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 06:19:05 +0000, Miles < mileschap@REMOVEMEpa
cbell.net>
(allegedly) wrote:

> Thailand -- usually up north

Whereabouts?

I use GSM in Lampang extensively, find Orange the best there.

matt weber

2006-07-02, 3:37 pm

On 1 Jul 2006 00:20:46 GMT, "Dog Fart" < flatulantdingo@deads
pam.com>
wrote:

>On Sat, 24 Jun 2006 20:22:53 -0700, Mark Crispin <mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU>
>(allegedly) wrote:
>
>
>Same in Korea (South)
What planet are you living on?
South Korea isn't called the CDMA kingdom for nothing!

Japan uses PDC, which is a TDMA technology somewhat similar to GSM,
but there is no interoperability with GSM.

Paul Day

2006-07-02, 3:37 pm

In alt.cellular.gsm matt weber <mattheww50@verizon.net> may have written:
> Japan uses PDC, which is a TDMA technology somewhat similar to GSM,
> but there is no interoperability with GSM.

Japan uses a lot of things, PDC/JDC being just one of their original 2G
systems... IIRC, CDMA 1x and FOMA are probably the most popular atm?

PD

PD

--
Paul Day
Web: http://www.enigma.id.au/

LinkBot