On 2006-12-07, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
> "http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601406"
>
> "Both T-Mobile and Cingular had an advantage not available for Verizon
> and Sprint users: their GSM-based phones can usually be used in many
> non-U.S. countries, CR observed."
>
> That's great news, as there are certainly a lot of non-U.S. countries.
>
> Actually, you can use CDMA phones in a lot of non-U.S. countries as
> well, just not as many as with GSM phones. And there are several
> countries where CDMA works but GSM doesn't, including Japan and Korea.
> CDMA is growing by leaps and bounds, with a lot of new deployments in
> 4Q2006, and more coming next year, especially at 450MHz.

That's a little bogus. I'm not positive but I don't think any Verizon or
Sprint phone will roam in Japan, I think the CDMA frequency assignments in
Japan are different. You can, however, roam in both Japan and Korea
with a GSM SIM if you buy a WCDMA phone to put it in (and if you stick to
the cities). I also doubt whether Verizon or Sprint will be offering
phones supporting 450 MHz, that is in the middle of an amateur
band in the US and is hence unavailable for use in their service area.

There used to be, however, a saving grace to CDMA roaming with a Verizon
phone, that being that if the phone worked in the country you were in the
charges (for local and incoming calls at least) were a reasonably modest
(for international roaming) $0.69 per minute. Unfortunately, since Verizon
has almost doubled its prices for most countries (Sprint's prices were
always outrageous), even that advantage has mostly gone and there remains no
reason to carry a US CDMA phone outside the country.

Or almost no reason. I still think Verizon's North America's Choice
plans are a fantastic deal if you travel frequently to Canada or
(particularly) Mexico. This is one of the two reasons I have a Verizon
phone, the other being SF bay area mountain coverage.

Dennis Ferguson