For Americans Going To Europe Or Overseas

[Stu]

Oops, mea culpa.

[DRNewcomb]

You really don't need a quad-band phone. All that is used in Europe is 900 & 1800. You can get by with either 1800 or 900 depending on the carrier you plan to use. The traditional tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900) phone will give you everything you need. Right now TigerDirect.com has a Moto v188 quad-band GSM phone for $50. Click here to see phone.

[jlbaer1]

Hi Guys:

Sorry I forgot to tell you about what phone I have. Its a nokia 6103b. Its a triband phone with domestic tri band. (850, 1800, and 1900 MHz). So as Bossman suggested if its usable, I know I can get Tmobile to unlock it for me. They did so for Alex since we had our account for several years now. But will this phone even work. I thought I needed that 900 band.

Thanks for your help. It would be great if I could just get it unlocked and use a sim while there or I suppose I could even use it with my own sim but I would want to call Tmobile and find out what cost I would be roaming at over there. We text each other a lot so we could always go that route too.

I guess the big question right now is will this phone work over there at all?

[Bossman]

It will work, but probably not very well. I do not see an 1800 ONLY carrier listed for Italy on the gsm world page. But, that could be old. The forum members in Italy will be in a better position to answer that question. Personally I would not go to Europe without a phone with the 900 band.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_it.shtml

[MATHA531]

T Mobile USA charges $0.99 a minute, rounded up to the next minute, for roaming in Europe on its contract customers.

Also the frequency issue is a far from trivial issue, especially when choosing a prepaid local sim card in various countries. There was a sad case about a year and a half ago of a person going to Croatia who bought a "world tri band" phone on E bay, bought a Croatian sim card and when it didn't work was told by the idiot of a clerk at the mobile phone store that the problem was the phone was locked...no it wasn't but since it was an American 850/1800/1900, the Croatian operator she chose operated only on 900.

The problem can be critical if you buy Nokia phones because they don't have the decency to number the American phone differently from the European phone. Thus a very cheap entry level Nokia phone, the 3120 comes as the 3120 for worldwide use with 900/1800/1900 and the 3120B for American use (850/1800/1900) but rarely do sellers know the difference nor does the B figure predominantly in the documentation or whatever.

Being partial to Nokias, this has always been a problem at least for me. Also, for a long time, T Mobile USA which operates only on 1900 when it sold tri bands, sold 900/1800/1900 but in order to keep up with the Jonses (AT&T), T Mobile USA has been forced because of the limitations of its coverage to sign roaming agreements in the USA with some smaller carriers who operate on 850. Thus for the past 2 years or so, tri bands sold by T Mobile USA have been of the 850/1800/1900 variety. It also means that Americans never get the latest and the bestest (!) of the new phones as the manufacturers for obvious reasons, do not bastardize their all of their latest phones and thus onlhy a small minority of tri bands are available to Americans.

Now of course the obvious solution are quad bands. I don't particularly like Motorola phones and have been told (never having owned one) that their early quad band models sucked. Apparently there has been some improvement lately. Nokia has not embraced quad band for anything other than their top of the line phones. T Mobile USA has not sold SE phones for a while ever since the fiasco they had with the T68, the T300, the T310 and even the T610 although again I hear SE has upgraded its product line and their quad band phones today are pretty good.

Moral of the story...be careful when selecting a phone from a North American provider to use in Europe. If it is being used for roaming, chances are you won't have a problem because usually there is a roaming agreement with some provider on 1800 and the phone will seek it out....OTOH if using a North American tri band for a local sim, make sure it is a true world phone (900/1800/1900) not the ones manufacturers have had to modify to meet the "contrary mnded" USA market.

[petkow]

1800 only should be OK if you are in urban areas such as in Milan, though due to only half the available transmission power available in this band it will deteriorate in rural areas but primarily as it is more viable for the operators to install the 900MHz base stations in these areas. Probably best to let an Italian answer specifics about Milan as has been mentioned.

Generally in Europe, it all really depends on the countries you are going to I suppose. As you say for Italy it sounds like it's not much good but you'd still get away with 1800 only in much of Europe. For the UK, 1800 only is still fine for Orange, T-Mobile and MVNO's such as Virgin. In Germany you have E-Plus and o2 and the stack of cheap MVNO's that come with those.

I remember the days of roaming on my old single band phone quite well.

[Motel75]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

I don't particularly like Motorola phones and have been told (never having owned one) that their early quad band models sucked.

True, there were some problems, though I don't think it was anything to do with the quad band per se. The first Moto quads were the "triplets" -- v300, v525, and I think v600. They had a habit of frying very easily. My wife went through three v525s, the first lasting four moths, the second lasting a week. (The third is still going strong after three years.) However, the reception on all four bands was perfectly fine, and the RAZR V3 is essentially nothing more than a flattened-out triplet.

Having dealt with earlier frail Motos, I'm not sure it was anything particular to that series. However, Moto supposedly had a lot of problems with getting both 850 and 900 to work satisfactorily using the same antenna, although I can't see this as being a huge hurdle, and a few years of labwork ought to have solved this long ago.

I just wish they'd make everything quad by default, rather than (as in Nokia) treating it as a high-end "feature". Surely it would save trouble from the customer-service point of view.

One more piece of advice: If your TMO phone contains the MyFaves software, you would be well advised to delete it before using it on another network. I didn't, and received a flood of text messages on some European carriers.

[jlbaer1]

Ok. I am considering two things. I may use my existing tri band phone which does not have the 900 band so from what you guys are saying, reception may or may not exist. We will be in Milan and may go to Rome for the weekend or perhaps Venice and/or Florence. Haven't decided our weekend plan. Otherwise, I am thinking about upgrading my phone to a quad band. Either way I am probably gonna just use my worldwide calling feature at .99 per minute as I am only going to use my phone to get a hold of her if she is away from me...in class or such and possibly call back to the states but on a really limited basis. Do you think I should just take my tri band phone along and make due?

[snaimon]

Suspect 1800 will suffice in large cities. Take your phone & see.

DRN has a nice formula for determining break even on buying a local SIM. Maybe he will repost.

1. Estimate how many minutes @ $1 / minute you think you will use. INCLUDE any unexpected inbound calls from US, including calls going to voicemail (advise to shut that off, if possible) and inbound calls from daughter. For 10 days or so, you might be surprised, especially if US folks are used to calling you. I bet that runs you $15.

2. Estimate cost of local SIM and same calling time. Guessing the cost will be < $15 and include at least 30 minutes call time. Our IT folks know the exact setup and may be on the IT page.

3. Take lowest alternative.

4. Have a calling card for landline dialing, either US or Italian.

[Effendi]

1800 can suffice in large cities only on Wind, and anyway you'll probably have not much coverage inside buildings at low floors. With TIM and Vodafone I suspect you need 900 much more...