GSM cell phones the best?

I'm in need of a new cell phone and plan

Local company here has GSM system and says I can buy
any hardware I want and as long as its unlocked they
will allow its use.

Says this is a big advantage to GSM... just take the
SIM card out and put in next phone. true? Can't do this
with CDMA or other systems?

Also.....can one buy a cheap GSM phone on ebay?

<me@privacy.net> skrev i meddelandet
news:99b9t2hgtf0hae5hhnhhvui7mi59hmudou@4ax.com...
> I'm in need of a new cell phone and plan
>
> Local company here has GSM system and says I can buy
> any hardware I want and as long as its unlocked they
> will allow its use.
>
> Says this is a big advantage to GSM... just take the
> SIM card out and put in next phone. true? Can't do this
> with CDMA or other systems?
>
> Also.....can one buy a cheap GSM phone on ebay?

GSM is a European standard and uses 900/1800MHz. The rest of the world uses
the same two frequencies except America. North America uses 850/1900MHz and
South America have mixed all frequencies.

So it very much depends on where your "local company" is... Your posting
doesn't say if it's Africa or Asia or...?

"BG" <borje@hotmail.com> wrote:

>So it very much depends on where your "local company" is... Your posting
>doesn't say if it's Africa or Asia or...?

sorry

I'm in Missouri in the USA

"BG" <borje@hotmail.com> wrote:

>GSM is a European standard and uses 900/1800MHz. The rest of the world uses
>the same two frequencies except America. North America uses 850/1900MHz and
>South America have mixed all frequencies.

I'm curious....why in the world does the US not use
same freqs?

me@privacy.net wrote:

>Also.....can one buy a cheap GSM phone on ebay?

Reason I ask abt buying one eBay is I'm on a tight
budget

Full time college student with no income right now

me@privacy.net wrote in newstk9t25q9413fdfhucs1ev22o42f0mcdup@4ax.com:

> I'm curious....why in the world does the US not use
> same freqs?
>

For the same reason European countries don't use the same language or TV
standard or, until recently, currency/laws and anything else you need in
your life. It restricts your ability to move from company to company or
country to country. Everybody on THIS side of the line speaks Dutch.
Everybody on THAT side of the line speaks French. THOSE people over there
speak Spanish or Italian or Bernese Oberland's dialect of German.

There was PAL and SECAM and NTSC and others just to make SURE you were
watching what WE wanted you to watch on YOUR side of the line.....

Companies have nationalism, too, just like Social Democrats.

Larry
--
Vista has been out a week.
Is Service Pack 1 ready yet?

me@privacy.net wrote in news:2bl9t2tsjl0q7qm5tkp3skbaa5vmeso2uk@4ax.com:

> Full time college student with no income right now
>
>

Full time college students have laptops or desktop computers, right?

How about FREE or, if you MUST call landlines about $50/year (in
USA/Canada) with NO minute charges or LD to US/Canada? That cheap enough
for full time college students? You even get your own number and
voicemail so THEY can call YOU, and leave a message while you're out or
in class.

http://www.skype.com/
Download it free
Use it free from your skype to any other skyper on the planet. Only
calling landlines/cellphones costs. The current YEARLY, not monthly,
charge is $30/year for OUTGOING calls to US/Canadian phone numbers. If
you must permit them to call you, you buy Skype In, giving your computer
its own landline phone number in any location in US/Canada you like, not
just your school's location. Skype In is 30 Euros/YEAR, or 10 Euros/3
months. MUCH cheaper than even the CHEAPEST cellphone plan with no
minutes! You and they can call 24/7/365, any time you want.

Check it out...

Your honey back home got a broadband computer? You can sweet talk her
all night for FREE on Skype-to-Skype!...

Larry
--
Vista has been out a week.
Is Service Pack 1 ready yet?

Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

>Full time college students have laptops or desktop computers, right?

Unfortunately I don't have Internet at home...was
trying to save money

But yes.....I have given thought to getting Internet at
home and just using THAT for voice comms as well using
Skype as you suggest.

Then.....I "could" just use my pre-paid cell phone as
an 'emergency" only kind of phone

What you think?

me@privacy.net wrote in news:l9rbt2hgmu47gcjsvhurlc33o1r6gfksc2@4ax.com:

> What you think?
>
>

I'd bet your school is a wifi hotspot, at least around many of the
buildings, where you could make calls for free by just turning on your
laptop. All the colleges and universities around here are wide open with
internet. The City of Charleston has installed a wifi network on the lower
peninsula that's free at 110kbps and you pay to get a higher cap speed with
username and password access. 110Kbps is plenty fast for Skype. My
Netgear Skype phone works all over the lower city on it.

I assume you already have cable TV, paying through the nose to watch the
spam on that big billboard in your living room. Adding broadband cable to
run Skype and internet is cheaper than those so-called "premium" channels
with the ancient movies played over and over....that might justify getting
broadband. $40/month for broadband internet with so-cheap Skype is STILL
much cheaper than a cellphone with enough minutes to make it useful...



Larry
--
Vista has been out a week.
Is Service Pack 1 ready yet?

At 16 Feb 2007 21:39:55 -0800 shkarst@hotmail.com wrote:
>

> This original poster asked about CDMA also. But no one really
> answered. And I would also like to know. Do CDMA phones have SIMS
> cards also?

No. The CDMA equivalent of a SIM is built-into the phone and can't be
removed, only reprogrammed by a carrier.


> Because Pageplus phones are CDMA. They also recommend Trimode, and on
> their site says No roaming Nationwide. But then when you read their
> section about Roaming, you find out that depending on where you are In
> or Out of their Netwwork, you could actually pay quite a bit more.

True, but that's preferable to not being able to roam at all.

shkarst@hotmail.com wrote:
> me@privacy.net wrote:
>> I'm in need of a new cell phone and plan
>>
>> Local company here has GSM system and says I can buy
>> any hardware I want and as long as its unlocked they
>> will allow its use.
>>
>> Says this is a big advantage to GSM... just take the
>> SIM card out and put in next phone. true? Can't do this
>> with CDMA or other systems?
>>
>> Also.....can one buy a cheap GSM phone on ebay?
>
>
> This original poster asked about CDMA also. But no one really
> answered. And I would also like to know. Do CDMA phones have SIMS
> cards also?

Many modern CDMA phones are SIM-based. Both my cdma2000-1x phones (Hitachi W41H
and Casio W41CA) are, and every new handset my carrier has introduced in the
last year has been.

Evan Platt wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:44:32 +0900, David Van Cleef <dvc@gol.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Many modern CDMA phones are SIM-based. Both my cdma2000-1x phones (Hitachi W41H
>> and Casio W41CA) are, and every new handset my carrier has introduced in the
>> last year has been.
>
> I'm not finding much on either phone you mentioned, but I don't
> believe those phones are CDMA.
>
> What is your carrier?

They are indeed cdma2000-1x

The carrier is Au.

Both the phones I mentioned are already phased out (they rotate their handset
models 2-3 times a year). The W41CA was an extremely popular model though and
lasted a long time in their lineup, mainly due to its light weight IMHO.

Here is their current list: http://www.au.kddi.com/english/product/index.html
Of the 26 handsets listed there, 18 of them are SIM based, 1 of the remaining
ones is a special model for roaming on cdmaOne networks, and the rest are either
cost/function-reduced models for special purpose or will be phased out on the
next handset rotation.