International Mobile Phones

[randomrogue]

I could be behind on the times here but I want to buy a smart phone (not sure which one) that I can use internationally as well as domestically.

So basically in any other country on the planet I just put my sim card in and I'm good to go. Whatever company the sim card belongs to dictates my plan.

I don't want a phone that's locked to an American provider. As I understand it the phones here are locked to a provider and the sim card is just used to move your contacts and data from phone to phone.

What do I do? Do I buy a phone overseas? Everything is cheaper in the states so I'd like to buy the phone here if possible.

 

[pm]

What you wrote is all pretty much correct. Sim cards pretty much only store contacts and a very limited amount of data - they don't have a lot of room - so when you say "move your data from phone to phone" this isn't usually true.

You need to check the frequencies of the phone (also called "bands") vs. the frequencies of the country you will be travelling to. For most countries, you will want a "quad-band" or "penta-band" phone. The frequencies are listed here

While there are a lot of things that are cheaper in the US, in my experience unlocked phones aren't one of them. In the US unlocked phones are sort of rare, whereas in the rest of the world they are the norm (more or less). But there are generally good prices on unlocked phones at Newegg and Amazon. For example, here is the list of unlocked phones at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...ed-Cell-phones

 

[Cares]

Most smart phones will have contact syncing with Google or something so you won't use your SIM card for contacts.

You can get any world phone or an iPhone 4S directly from an Apple store which is unlocked.

 

[randomrogue]

Ok so at least I understand it correctly. Sort of.

If I get an unlocked phone and use it overseas how will I be able to use it when I'm here at home? Can I get a sim card through a provider that will link them to me? I travel way too much to have a contract so what options do I really have going forward?

 

[ImDonly1]

Android phones that are locked even from US companies can be software unlocked via apps from the app store. Like the galaxy s2.

I would get a pentaband phone if you want the most compatibility with traveling. Like the galaxy nexus. Not sure if any new phones will be pentaband? Galaxy s3?

You can sign up for ATT / t-mobile here in the USA and use a pentaband phone on either. You can go contractless on them if you bring your own phone, or the smarter option their prepaid services. T-mobile prepaid or straighttalk prepaid, etcs. When you travel, you just get a sim card in the county you are in and put it in your phone. You will have to deal with having different phone numbers everywhere you go though.

 

[randomrogue]

Ok, let me start browsing phones.

It looks like I need 900 and 1800 MHz for the countries I visit. 1900 and 850 for the USA. What would the 5th band be?

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

Galaxy Nexus sounds like it was made for you. I don't think there's a better pentaband phone out at the moment.

Be sure to get a few extended batteries if you're a road warrior. They make some that don't add much to the bulk at all. I actually prefer the way the extended backplate feels.

 

[pm]

Ok, let me start browsing phones.

It looks like I need 900 and 1800 MHz for the countries I visit. 1900 and 850 for the USA. What would the 5th band be?

Yeah, we all sort of glossed over the GSM vs. 3G thing. To be honest, I sort of forgot. There's only 4 bands for GSM (voice and very slow data), but there's 5 more different major bands for 3G. So you only need to worry about quad-band GSM if you only want to do voice internationally , but you'll need penta-band for 3G voice and data.

So the penta-band thing is for 3G. Here's another link. For 3G, look at the cyan column.
http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html

For GSM the 4 bands are: 850, 900, 1800 and 1900.
For 3G the 5 major bands are: 850, 900, 1700 (T-Mobile USA only), 1900 and 2100.

The whole thing with 3G is a bit more complicated but a penta-band 3G phone should cover pretty much the whole world. The Galaxy Nexus is a good choice, but since only T-Mobile USA is on the 1700 AWS band, you don't need that unless you would use T-Mobile in the US. Otherwise a quad-band 3G phone should cover everything.

 

[randomrogue]

So is the 2100 band for data? I would need data in Europe and that's in the cyan column. Also, I know that a few countries in Europe have 4G and I see that in the red column.

 

[pm]

Yes, effectively 2100 is for data. And so, yeah, to get data in the EU you need a phone that does 3G on the 2100 - which is most of them. For 4G, well, personally I would just ignore 4G. There are not - to my knowledge - any 4G phones which work in the US as well as in the EU. This will change since it's early days for LTE, but for now I don't know of any.

 

[vshah]

get a galaxy nexus from the google play store. /thread (assuming it is within your budget)

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=galaxy_nexus_hspa

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Even for 3G, if you had a 850/1900/2100, you'd pretty much cover a good chunk of the world. The 900 is not used as much. 2100 will get you around Europe and Asia. I never had an issue with my 850/1900/2100 3G phone

But yes, quad band is necessary to be safe. I really don't count 1700 as useful unless you use T-Mobile and a few other carriers. WIND in Canada uses 1700? But every other provider like Rogers, Fido, Telus all use 850/1900.

Buying a phone overseas isn't that much cheaper. You could get some decent deals if you're in Asia and you buy an unlocked southeast asia phone. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore etc. have cheap unlocked phones. They sell those in Taiwan and Hong Kong too, but you can tell they're a bit cheaper than the HK/Taiwan models. All that's changed is the firmware. But I'm pretty sure you get those models buying on large stores like MobileCityOnline, Expansys, etc.

 

[notposting]

Yeah it's pretty crazy. Even some of the phones that have the bands available, and can be sim-unlocked, will have a deeper firmware restriction on using certain carriers. IE the VZW world phones (the regular CDMA plus GSM radios) are like that.

The iPhone 4S unlocked (GSM) version is a world phone as well (AT&T 3G I believe, Tmo Edge, everywhere else good I think). Pricy but another option for you.

Good luck and lots of good info in this thread.

 

[randomrogue]

Ok so ignoring the 1700 band since I can't come up with a reason I'd need it, are there any alternatives you guys would recommend so that I know what I'm getting for my money and can compare? This goes out of my pocket since I'm doing contract work internationally. So for $400 I can get the Nexus which is great but what can I get for $300 or $200, etc?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

You can't get anything close to the Nexus for less money, at $400 it's the cheapest high end unlocked smartphone by a pretty good margin.

The Sony Xperia Arc S seem to be a decent option for ~$300-$350 but it's a generation older than the Nexus and quite a bit less powerful.

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

Ok so ignoring the 1700 band since I can't come up with a reason I'd need it, are there any alternatives you guys would recommend so that I know what I'm getting for my money and can compare? This goes out of my pocket since I'm doing contract work internationally. So for $400 I can get the Nexus which is great but what can I get for $300 or $200, etc?

Samsung Exhibit II 4G. It's much smaller and less powerful than the Nexus, but for $200 it's a solid phone. Works on both AT&T and T-Mobile (US) frequencies.

 

[randomrogue]

I must admit that I'm not sure I'm getting smarter after all this research. My head hurts. Fun trying to learn though.

At this point I'm looking for something that will meet my minimum needs knowing that I'll just replace it sooner rather than later. Thus I don't think buying a top of the line phone will do me much service.

First off I tried to make this easy and I am just looking at Samsung/Android phones. I started with the Samsung Exhibit II 4G mentioned above which I can get for $250 from T-mobile or $190 on Amazon. I'm going to assume I'd have to root it (which I don't know how to do...yet) though since it's locked to T-mobile. If that's the case can I upgrade the OS and would that be worth it?

So here's where I get confused. T-mobile markets this phone as 4G capable. As I understand it though 4G LTE in North America is on the 700 Mhz band. Is T-mobile calling something 4G that is not 4G? HSPA+ 21, which is what they're calling 4G, is for 3G I thought. 21 Mbps is not 4G is it? I thought LTE was up to 300 Mbps which is far beyond 3G standards. 22 Mbps is the max for 3G even though there are theoretical limits that are much higher but not as high as 300? It seems odd to call something 4G when it's nowhere near the speeds of 4G that I see marketed in Europe. I'm pretty sure I can get a 4G dongle for my laptop that will run at either 100 Mbps or 80 and I'm assuming those speeds will be coming to phones soon.

Next up in my confusion is the bands for 3G. The thing that I apparently have to look out for is the different types of 3G protocols like the one above. I suppose I should try to get a phone that handles all the HSPA+ options. With that said, what are all the options and which ones should I really look to get? Apparently the problem people have is that they don't get the different 3G types and end up with super slow data transfers outside the USA.

Thanks for all your patience and help. I never dreamed that it would be this complicated.

 

[ImDonly1]

When t-mobile or ATT say 4g they mean HSPA+, or upgraded 3g. It works worldwide. ATT has 21mbps hspa+ and t-mobile has 42mbps. If they were talking about lte they would say 4g lte. T-mobile does not have a lte network yet though, only att/vzw/and soon sprint.

As for the bands, its simple, get a phone with the 3g (usually labeled umts) bands you want. 850/1900 for att and 2100 for europe. You can get the other 2 bands 900,1700 if you need them, but if you are going to be using att in the usa and only going to europe, 850, 1900, 2100 is fine. All new phones support hspa+, most support hspa 21. There are no different hspa options really. You either get an older phone that does 14 mbps, or a new one that does 21. Only t-mobile has a 42mbps network that I know of. 14 or 21mbps, I don't think will make a difference either way.

 

[randomrogue]

GSM
850 MHz
900 MHz
1800 MHz
1900 MHz

UMTS:

Band IV (1700/2100)
USA (T-Mobile, Cincinnati Bell Wireless)
Canada (WIND Mobile, Mobilicity, Videotron)
Chile (VTR, Nextel)

Band V (850)
Americas (AT&T, Bell Mobility, Telcel, Telus, Rogers, TIGO)
Oceania (Telstra, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Telecom NZ)
Dominican Republic (Claro)
Hong Kong (SmarTone[7])
Israel (Cellcom, Pelephone)
Thailand (TrueMove[8])
Brazil (Claro, Vivo)
Philippines(Smart Communications[9])

Band II (1900)
Americas (AT&T,*T-Mobile,*Bell Mobility,*Telcel,*Telus,*Rogers, Venezuela (Movilnet, Movistar))

The above will hopefully illustrate my question well. The above bands are what are available with the Samsung Exhibit II 4G.

If I'm understanding this correctly I would need 2100 Mhz in Europe to access 3G (UMTS). The problem with this phone is that 2100 Mhz is on Band IV (Pretty much a NA Band) and not Band I which is what Europe uses for 3G.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands

So no go on this phone I take it? Yes it would provide voice with those GSM frequencies but no data.

 

[randomrogue]

Figured I'd give a final update on this thread.

"Apparently" the Samsung Exhibit II 4G will not work in Europe. The Google Galaxy Nexus that you can get will BUT only if you switch the firmware. Then it's the same phone that they can get over there.

Worst part is that 4G will probably make things more complicated as phones start becoming LTE compliant on all the different bands they have for that as well.

 

[ImDonly1]

Figured I'd give a final update on this thread.

"Apparently" the Samsung Exhibit II 4G will not work in Europe. The Google Galaxy Nexus that you can get will BUT only if you switch the firmware. Then it's the same phone that they can get over there. You are over thinking it.

Worst part is that 4G will probably make things more complicated as phones start becoming LTE compliant on all the different bands they have for that as well.

Don't know anything about the samsung exhibit II 4g. I don't want to lead you in the wrong direction, so I won't speculate.

The statement about the galaxy nexus needing "European" firmware to work in europe is just plain false. The only difference between the USA unlocked version and the euro version is that the USA one has google wallet. Otherwise they are the same.

From google
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=galaxy_nexus_hspa
"Compatible networks include: AT&T, T-Mobile and other GSM service providers." Unlocked and contract free: This Galaxy Nexus is an unlocked GSM phone that will operate on more than 200 GSM providers worldwide, including AT&T and T-Mobile in the US.

Edit: corrections

 

[pm]

Yeah, I agree with ImDonly1. You don't need a special firmware for the Google Galaxy Nexus. It will work straight out of the box without issues. This I know as fact. I agree with you that it looks like the Exhibit II doesn't work on 3G mode in the EU.

I know my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2 (i777) worked fine in England, Poland, and Costa Rica for 3G data, and voice. No issues or problems. All that I did was call AT&T and ask for the unlock code, they emailed me a big long code to type in and that was it, then when I got there, I swapped out the SIM cards and it worked right away. In Poland I had to change one of the data settings, but England and Costa Rica I don't even think I needed to do that. No special firmware or anything else.

What I do know is that a lot of customer service people in the US for T-Mobile and AT&T are completely confused by the whole unlock thing. And they have an incentive to want to steer you towards using their overseas data anyway. So I know it will sound totally wrong to say this, but don't always trust what they tell you as being the absolute truth - they may be correct, but I'd be just as inclined to believe the results from a bunch of Google searches instead.

 

[maksi]

guys i am using samsung exhibit in kenya with safaricom line. i got one problem though, i cannot use 3G but i am getting edge connections. everything else works fine. is there solution to that.

 

[kaerflog]

get a galaxy nexus from the google play store. /thread (assuming it is within your budget)

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=galaxy_nexus_hspa

Seriously the thread should have ended on this post.
Trying to to explain to a complete newbie on what 2G/3G/4G, what country, trying to unlock, firmware, etc...is a complete headache for both you and him.
The good news is that Nexus is now $350 and this phone is good for just about everywhere you go.
Buy it and be done with.