Anyone every used their phones overseas?

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

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

"Stanley Naimon" <snaimon@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:RcednY-c4euHUwDZnZ2dnUVZ_sKdnZ2d@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

"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.

I used my V710 in Beijing. It worked great, and roaming charges were
reasonable.


>
>
>

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.

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/cl...IENT_NO=157452

Mark Crispin wrote:
> 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.

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.

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

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.

Go to the source... [select country]

http://mobileoptions.vzw.com/interna...es/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.
>
>
>

"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

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.

Frankster wrote:
> Go to the source... [select country]
>
> http://mobileoptions.vzw.com/interna...es/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??????????

"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

> > 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??????????
>

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

-Frank