His phone does not have 900
 

Since his current phone does not have 900, WIND better be a roaming partner for him. If not, he will have no coverage if what you say is true.

Am a bit astonished. Have 1800 coverage on my 2 German SIMs and that is quite good almost everywhere. Also, the National Op pages show that the biggies in IT have 1800 coverage as well as 900.

Stan

Unlock or not unlock
 

If I am going to use my cell phone and just pay roaming while visiting my daughter in Italy, do I need to get my phone unlocked by TMob. I thought I only needed to get it unlocked if I was gonna buy an Italian sim card which Im not. Also, I think I might roll the dice and use my tri band and try to get by on the 1800 freq as I will be in urban areas such as Milan and Rome and otherwise with her so I can use her phone in a pinch.

I was looking at quad band phones thou on my Tmobile website and the Nokia 6086 and Nokia 6133 are somewhat intriguing to me. So, I might just go out and upgrade to one of those. I have all the Nokia accessories such as the car adapter and battery chargers (2) so I might as well stay withing Nokia.

I can upgrade for 49.00 and it only extends my contract 1 year and 2 months which I could care less about since I am happy with Tmob.

Answers
 

Correct about unlocking. Need that only if you put in another FOREIGN SIM. Make sure you have world class enabled before you leave. T-MO will love it.

Have a great trip. Plz report back on 1800 coverage especially if it is better than expected.

Stan

German Vodafone 226
 

I live in Canada and 2 years ago I purchased a Pay-as-you-Go Vodafone 226 for use in Germany while we were on holiday. In October, we are going to visit Italy & Spain. My question is, can I purchase a different SIM card for this phone to use in both these countries or 2 seperate cards, one for each country?

Let's start with the obvious....there is a good chance the phone is (sim) locked. Think of a computer booting up. The computer goes through a whole series of checks. So does a mobile phone. When a gsm phone starts up, the first thing it looks for is if there is a sim card. If not you immediately get a message to insert a sim card. The next thing it looks for is whether the sim card is authorized. You see since companies sell or give away phones, they want to be able to prevent you from leaving them and going to a competitor by simply inserting another sim card (one of the good qualities of gsm over some other technologies). So they put a code in telling the phone not to allow another company's sim card. This is called locking the phone. Now phones can be unlocked. For a while, the unlocking codes of Nokia had been compromised and it was relatively easy for anybody to unlock a Nokia phone by entering the unlocking code. the misereable telcoms did not like that and Nokia has tightened up its security on that. Pros can unlock most phones either with the code or by tampering with the boot up program with various cables.

So you have to determine if your phone is locked. If it is, you have to get it unlocked. It can be done in various way. You can do a google search and find people who do it over the net or find somebody at home withthe knowledge.

Once the phone is unlocked, you can put in any sim card you want. Whether you need separate sim cards for the two countries really depends on just how you are going to use your mobile. If mostly just for receiving calls, the first sim card you buy will probably be sufficient as the eu has moved to limit the amount you pay to receive calls when roaming (when you're using the card in a country other than its original country)...if OTOH you will be making a lot of calls, Italian and Spanish sim cards are reltively inexpensive but I don't know how much it costs to call Canada (or the USA) on them. Perhaps a little research is necessary. There are also cards out that allow free reception of calls throughout many parts of the world and don't give you the need to get separate sim cards. These are all parts of many discussions here.

BTW if you're unsure whether your phone is unlocked, simply insert the sim card of a company other than the one who sold you the phone. Even if the phone doesn't have the proper frequencies for the region you're in, either you will get a pretty immediate message when the phone starts to boot up that you have an unauthorized sim card or you won't get this message....if you don't get this message even if the phone doesn't register on a network, chances are the phone is unlocked.

Dear MATHA531,

Thanks for the prompt reply. My phone is locked and attempts to unlock it 18 months ago proved fruitless. I will have another try and hopefully I will be successful.

Denis

All SIMlocked phones purchased in Germany can be unlocked free of charge after a period of 24 months. However therefore you'll need to send a proof of purchase to the operator, the phone is tied to, which is Vodafone in your case.
Vodafone also has a form for retrieving unlock codes on their website. Maybe they record when phones register on their network for the first time and so they can determine the age of the phone even without proof of purchase.
Just find out the IMEI (serial number) of your phone by entering *#06# or looking below it's battery and enter it on the linked page. If you're lucky you'll get your unlock code within seconds.
In any case let us know if you succeeded.

As far as i can remember the hotline can help you in this case and find out if the phone is already free to unlock. I am not sure about the exact procedure, i just remember that i bought some 2nd hand phone on ebay some years ago and was able to unlock it quite easily even though i was not the original buyer of the hardware.

Chris

unlocking German Vodafone phones
 

You're right Chris.

It just crossed my mind, that Vodafone should actually know the date of purchase as Vodafone SIMs need to be registered upon purchase. So if they have a database linking each IMSI (SIM card identity) with the IMEI (phone serial number) of the bundled phone, they can conclude from the SIM registration date when the phone was bought, even without gathering data from their network.

To prove this theory, I just got an IMEI from a friend's locked Vodafone phone and entered it in the mentioned form, which resulted this message:
in English:
So obviously this unlock procedure is completely automatized these days and you'll only need the IMEI of the locked phone to unlock it not earlier than 24 months after purchase.

I think it might also be an approximation of when the phone was probably sold. My wife got a Vodafone phone unlocked at a Vf shop after about 21 months (a couple of years ago). The sales assistant told us it didn't have to be exactly two years, and received the unlock code by calling a number and giving them the IMEI. Either way, there's no harm in trying Vodafone's online unlocking service.

Thanks for all the replies. I tried to obtain the unlocking code from Vodafone but it appears that I will have to wait until September before they will issue me with a code. That is OK by me as our holiday in Italy doesn't start until October. Thanks again to all of you.

Denis

Multi-country cruise?
 

OK so I apologize if this is covered in some other thread or even in this one.

We're going on a Mediterranean cruise in a couple of weeks. We start in Spain (Barcelona, 2 days) then visit France (1 day, also will be in Monaco that day), Greece (2 days), Croatia (1 day) and Italy (7 days). I am buying an unlocked quad-band Samsung and my plan is only to use it for very occasional calls home to the US and to contact other cruise passengers. Is there one service we can use everywhere? I could do without service in France if that makes it easier. I guess I would want to buy the package in Barcelona unless I can get it cheaply and quickly by mail here in the US.

Cheap Internet service would be nice but is not absolutely required. I don't want to spend very much for this. I had not planned to bring a Bluetooth capable PC to connect to the phone but might if I can get Internet access by phone (although when I would want to use it at night, the ship will be out at sea and likely will not have cellular service so it might not be that feasable to use it as a modem).

Thanks..

Since my original post in June, I have been waiting until September to obtain the unlock code for my Vodafone 226. I have just obtained the code from the German Vodafone website but now I have no idea what to do next. No doubt there are instructions on the German site but the German/English translations I have been using do not leave me with clear instructions. Can anyone give me a blow by blow description of what I should do next. The Vodafone site I used to obtain the unlock code is as follows,

Vodafone D2 | Callya Handy entsperren - Vodafone D2 - Hilfe & Support / Infocenter / Hardware entsperren / CallYa-Handy entsperren

I hope someone can help me.

Thanks in advance.

Denis

The URL I just gave in my previous email is incorrect. It should be,

[url=http://www.vodafone.de/hilfe-support/infodoks-jugendschutz-sicherheit-netzabdeckung-kontakt/96918.html]

Thanks.

Denis

Insert a non-Vodafone SIM into your phone, switch it on and you will be asked for the unlock code after the PIN code for the SIM.

Hello,

I'm currently an AT&T customer at home in the US, but am in the middle of a month long trip to England for work. I purchased a quad band, unlocked phone (samsung S5230) for use here with an Orange prepaid sim (on Camel, for 6p/min calls back home). I am also going to be sent to Spain (Almaraz) for work in November, and am trying to figure out what my best option is for inexpensive calls back home. I expect to use anywhere from 20-60 minutes of talk time per day calling home, so the "home option" of utilizing my AT&T sim is right out. From the research I've done, I am leaning toward a Lebara sim, but I would like some guidance. I am also looking to purchase a USB modem for 3g internet use with my laptop. Is there anything available in Spain like there is here in the UK, such as the £25ish per month for 5 gb that is offered by Orange? I am also open to using my phone as a modem, but this phone is not 3G (didn't need it, as my hometown in the US won't be getting 3G for at least another 8 months!)


So, a recap for the TL:DR crowd:

US customer on postpay AT&T
have the following additional sims: UK Orange PAYG, UK Talkmobile PAYG
going to Almaraz, Spain
will call almost exclusively back to the US (mobile number)
using quad band (not 3g) phone
also looking for 3g usb modem and sim with 1gb or larger prepaid data plan


Thanks in advance,

-Joe

Hi Joe. Have another search through the Europe sub-section of the forum. Plenty of info on Spanish prepaid SIMs there including ones that will give you very cheap internet access.

Personally I would stay clear of Lebara. Instead go with any Spanish operator that gives you cheap national calls (the going rate is 8c/min) and then use a callthrough for calling internationally. Otherwise stick to VoIP.

Joe,

Have you thought about Skype. You can call through your computer, and for very little cost.
You can get a subscription for a few dollars a month, or you can buy credit. It is very cheap.
The subscription is for unlimited calls to almost anywhere in the world. Just trying to give you options.

Hi.
Hey mate thanks a lot for sharing this.
Its really useful and helpful.

Please do the sums for me
 

I'd like to use an Orange Sim, but am using [...] pre-dial service to reduce my phone calls. The price that is charged from the UK to any other country is 3p/min without any connection charge (something that is often ignored in calculations) and without paying a topup fee.

How much is the roaming rate when using a UK Orange sim, but with the reduced rate service of [...]?

A callthrough service for use only from the UK has no effect whatsoever on Orange's roaming fees.

So Verizon in the US is pushing forward with their LTE network and several LTE phones are being shown at CES this week.

AT&T is planning to turn on their LTE network by the middle of the year.

Is any of the European carriers planning to deploy LTE soon or are they pushing through with HSPA+?

Will be interesting to see if prices remain low for LTE networks as they are for the current 3G prepaid products. Verizon is definitely introducing premium pricing for its "4G" network.

Will this site still be called prepaidgsm.net once LTE is established?;)

I would guess that we don't change our name for a while, but our discussions certainly morph with the times. Half of our post are about data rather than voice and I think all of us are using VOIP where we can get away with it to bring the price down further. EU roaming regs have also changed our focus somewhat.

Perhaps we should call ourselves penny-pinching-global-wandering-nerds.com, but that is too long and moreover many of our respective currencies don't have pennies.

I am currently grandfathered on ATT's iPhone International with unlimited 3g worldwide. I really have a hard time believing they will let me move this plan to LTE. I could blow through 5 gigs before I hit entry customs.

In germany the first test-networks of LTE are running. The tariffs announced so far are mostly full-feature connections (phone + internet) for stationary use in regions without ADSL coverage. I dont know if they plan to offer mobile tariffs for these frequency bands as well.

Chris

Kind of surprising that US carriers are ahead of the curve for LTE deployment. It was the other way around for GPRS and 3G, I believe.

Of course I think the spectrum auctions in Europe about 10 years back cost carriers way more money than the auctions in the US. But those were only for 3G.

In the US, T-Mobile is also calling their HSPA+ network "4G" too in advertising.

Well, everywhere I have traveled in Europe I have gotten HSPA+ speeds, so why would I want 4G? What could I do with the extra bandwidth? Except watch movies at work? Which I have no desire to do...

LTE deployment in the US seems really patchy. I am still using AT&T HSPA. Nothing better in our area, in 'the suburbs' of Los Angeles.

Yes, besides if you use LTE you have to fall back to 3G / 2G every time your phone rings as the LTE networks are data only and dont support voice calls.

LTE is immature (handovers between LTE cells and especially to and from GSM and UMTS cells often fail), handsets are expensive, coverage is patchy and as dg7feq said devices need to fall back to GSM or UMTS for every voice call because the industry couldn't agree on a common standard for voice for ages. In addition there are over 30 frequency bands specified for LTE which will make global compatibility of handsets nearly impossible. Also as the following chart shows HSPA+ (if using the latest enhancements) provides similar and for on small frequency blocks even better spectral efficiency than LTE:
http://www.abload.de/thumb/spectral-efficiencymdubk.png
Also worth reading on this topic: WirelessMoves: Why the US Needs LTE Smartphones in 2012 and Why They are Not Needed and Wanted in Europe

Yes, i think at the current state of technology LTE is better suited for highspeed internet in areas without DSL coverage (if the offered tariffs were not that riddiculous)...

HSPA+ is fine where it is properly implemented. In the US, TMobile's implementation seems much faster and more reliable than ATT's. Unfortunately, 3/4s of that implementation is on the 1700mhz AWS band.

What about the remaining quarter? Do you think 1/4 of their UMTS network capacity is already running on 1900MHz?

I was being generous.

Hello, I'm going to Europe and Mediterranean on a cruise this October specifically in Italy, Greece, Israel and Turkey for 14 nights. I have an unlocked iPhone 5s and currently with Tmobile on Prepaid plan UNL text/voice/data speed capped at 5GB. I don't know if TM offers international plans for prepaid plans and I'm not sure if I will have TM as my carrier when I travel to Europe.

I'm looking for an all in one sim for my iPhone 5s that'll enable me to call/text/data on all the countries we will be visiting and also when we are in the cruise ship. I need it mainly for use in Europe, not to call or text anybody back here in States. I don't think cruise ship offers free wifi? I'm a heavy data user so I'm thinking of getting a package plan if any with 5GB data included during my stay there. I also need something that will let me tether my Macbook Pro and wifi iPad thru my iPhone 5s. I'm also looking to see if I can get a sim ahead of time before I get to Europe instead of waiting to get to Europe to get a sim.

And so please advise, any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Ed