I was reading about Vodafone Passport a while back, and I was thinking that lower roaming costs would be cool (despite pissing off my friends and having them change my number, again, in their phonebooks :P)

Anyway, vodafone passport works well with gsm-gsm networks but what about the USA?
I know that Vodafone owns 44% of Verizon. Does vodafone have the passport program in the US as well? If so do I need a dual-mode CDMA/GSM handset to make it work?

Also can I top-up by using verizon's FreeUp cards?


Any ideas? :-)

(and when will vodafone take over and convert them to UMTS? :P :P :P)

Vodafone germany quotes the following countries and networks for the passport option:

?gypten Vodafone Egypt VODA EG, Click GSM
Albanien Vodafone Albanie VOD-AL, AL-O2
Australien Vodafone Pacific VODAFONE AUS, VFONE
Belgien Proximus BEL PROXIMUS, PROXI
Frankreich SFR Vodafone F SFR
Griechenland Vodafone Panafon PANAFON, GR VODAFONE
Gro?britannien Vodafone UK VODAFONE, VODA
Irland Vodafone Ireland IRL VODA, EIRCELL
Italien Vodafone Omnitel I-OMNITEL, VODA IT
Japan Vodafone K.K. JPHONE
Malta Vodafone Malta VODAFONE MLA
Neuseeland Vodafone Mobile New Zealand VODAFONE NZ
Niederlande Vodafone Libertel NL LIBERTEL, Vodafone NL
Portugal Vodafone Portugal P TELECEL, TLCL, Vodafone P.
Rum?nien Connex, Mobifon CONNEX, RO 01, ROM MOBIFON
Schweden Vodafone Sverige EUROPOLITAN, SEURO, Vodafone SE
Schweiz Swisscom Mobile SWISSCOM
Spanien Vodafone Espana E VODAFONE, EAIRTEL
Tschechische Republik Oskar /Cesky Mobil OSKAR, CZ 03, 230 03
Ungarn Vodafone Hungary VODAFONE HU


So seems like no USA there...

Vodafone Greece does not also list USA in the participating countries....

"Recharge" a Vodafone Passport. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Vodafone Passport a contract account, not a prepaid?

Nope, it's definitely a prepaid offer as well:

http://www.abroad.vodafone.co.uk/index.cfm...me=a2&nu=1&le=2

"With Vodafone Passport you can use your mobile abroad as often as you like. Whether you're a pay monthly or pay as you talk customer* you just pay a 75p connection fee each time you make a call and, after that, you?re charged at your usual home tariff."

"*Vodafone Passport is currently available on Perfect Fit price plans available as at May 1st 2005, 3G price plans, Smartplus and Smartstep."

(The last 2 plans are prepaid Pay As You Talk plans).

I wish Vodafone would buy Verizon Wireless, or Verizon itself, but despite speculation 3 or 4 years ago it looks unlikely to happen now. The fact that Verizon Wireless chose not to adopt UMTS is widely believed to have been a way for Verizon to make things difficult for Vodafone. The sole concession they made to Voda was a GSM/CDMA "world phone" that no-one bought.

Anyway, the fact that Verizon Wireless uses neither UMTS nor GSM, and the fact that Vodafone is not involved in its operation, means that there's no Passport in the US. It's not like TMO or AT&T are going to drop their $3-per-minute roaming rates to help out their biggest competitor.

Verizon also has a dual mode CDMA/GSM data card with an international data plan which includes 200 megs a month in Europe. I think that was another table scraping that was given to Voda.

If I recall correctly that handset was the Samsung SGH-A790:

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=406

There are a few CDMA/GSM handsets floating around.
There are 2 Samsung and one Motorola model that do CDMA 800/1900 and GSM 1800/900. These have no RUIM capability. There are a few WorldWind phones in China that have CDMA 800/1900 and GSM 1800/900 that have RUIM capability, obviously those cannot work in the states.

I am still hoping that VZW will be bought by vodafone and converted :P

Actually, the Chinese phones can work in the US, the trick is getting the appropriate roaming SIM. You cannot activate the phones with Verizon or Sprint, but theoretically, a GSM providers could create a SIM which would work in that phone to roam in the US.

They might as well put the muzzle in their mouth and pull the trigger. In most markets VZW has about 30 MHz but in many places only 10 MHz of spectrum. With CDMA this is adequate to provide a base of 3G services. They've shown very little interest in trying to get more spectrum. With GSM they'd have to get back in the spectrum 'fray provide 3G services.

errrr....no guns for me - I'd muh rather hold my breath :whistle:

Haha that's a real funny one. Vodafone buying the rest of verizon and converting them to GSM. my main phone is GSM (cingular :( only a couple more months to go) until i move to t-mobile and get a prepaid verizon for those places with no service. But verizon the main company that owns verizon wireless is very monopolistic they hate competition in the local phone market and a local competetior (Cavalier) had to get the PUC and lawyers involved for fair access due to the 1996 leigislation that allowed competitors to use the main companys wiring and central offices.

Yeah I know, verizon is evil :ranting2:

Unfortunately, Vodafone owns 44 percent only of Verizon WIRELESS, so to get control of it they'd first have to buy 51 percent of Verizon Communications, which controls the other 56 percent. Not easy, but it seemed like the kind of blockbuster move Vodafone were capable of when Chris Gent was running them, and there was some talk of this in around 2002 (at the time, the book value of Verizon's non-mobile assets was essentially zero).