mexican cell italian chip

[messicano]

Hi everybody
I have two mobiles, both mexican, one the lg has a mexican chip and works expensivily well, the other one a motorola has a italian wind chip, they are incompatible, if i exchnge the chips, the mexican one still works but the italian no. If this last chip is placed on a italian mobile es expected, no problem. can enybody tell how to use my mexican phone with the italian chip?
thanks!

[Bossman]

If I understand correctly, it sounds like the phone is locked. So, to use the italian sim in it, you need to get it unlocked.

[Stu]

Have you ever used the Italian phone in Mexico, even roaming?

[inquisitor]

@messicano

According to the GSM Association there're only two GSM networks in Mexico, TELCEL and MOVISTAR. Both are running on GSM1900, whereas European GSM networks operate at 900 and 1800 MHz.

So the very first question is, is your Mexican SIM-card and phone from one of the named operators? If not you're likely to be a customer of a IDEN- or CDMA-network, which are both standards incompatible with European GSM-networks. (However CDMA phones doesn't have SIM-cards, do they?)

The next question is, what frequencies do your phones support? To answer this question we need the exact designation of the phone models. If you don't have at least a triband or better quadband phone, which means the phone would support 3 or 4 of the GSM bands at 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz, the phones won't work on the other continent.

[messicano]

Originally Posted by Bossman

If I understand correctly, it sounds like the phone is locked. So, to use the italian sim in it, you need to get it unlocked.

thanks, I foud out today that my V3 motorola phone must be locked and that only Telcel in mexico can unlock it, I did not know that I had to do so b4 leaving. My LG phone (model shine) works well because is on roaming, but every single local call are long distance. Is there anything I can do appart from buying an italian mobile?

[messicano]

Originally Posted by Stu

Have you ever used the Italian phone in Mexico, even roaming?

Thanks. My LG phone is on roaming, and before I had no problem when travel around the world, even in china last year, but this time I will stay in italy for a year and roaming it is not an option as before because it is an expensive option that only works for a short stay

[messicano]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

@messicano

According to the GSM Association there're only two GSM networks in Mexico, TELCEL and MOVISTAR. Both are running on GSM1900, whereas European GSM networks operate at 900 and 1800 MHz.

So the very first question is, is your Mexican SIM-card and phone from one of the named operators? If not you're likely to be a customer of a IDEN- or CDMA-network, which are both standards incompatible with European GSM-networks. (However CDMA phones doesn't have SIM-cards, do they?)

The next question is, what frequencies do your phones support? To answer this question we need the exact designation of the phone models. If you don't have at least a triband or better quadband phone, which means the phone would support 3 or 4 of the GSM bands at 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz, the phones won't work on the other continent.

thanks, I am with Telcel, I got a motorola V3, and I have no idea if it is tri or quadband, how can I find out?

[snaimon]

should be a quad band. I have 3 of them. doubt another carrier would disable that feature.

[Effendi]

I think both mobiles are locked. They both work on roaming (on Italian network), which is normal since you are using your Telcel sim-card, but they don't accept any other card (Italian or any other in the World, including other Mexican operators).

The only way to use your Italian card is buying an unlocked phone. You can get one at 40€ at any bigger supermarket in Italy. Of course if you want a nicer phone you'll spend more.