TechWeb: "GSM Based phones can usually be used in many non-U.S. countries."

"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.

On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:43:29 -0800, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <4578a722$0$82615$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>"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.

Actually not very many, and more importantly not with local pre-paid
SIMs, a huge advantage of GSM over CDMA2000.

>And there are several
>countries where CDMA works but GSM doesn't, including Japan and Korea.

That's 2, not "several". GSM works in vastly more places than CDMA2000.
See GSMWorld.com

>CDMA is growing by leaps and bounds, with a lot of new deployments in
>4Q2006, and more coming next year, especially at 450MHz.

CDMA2000 is actually on the decline, with Nokia having abandoned it,
Sprint migrating to WiMAX, other countries thinking of dumping it (e.g.,
India), and even Qualcomm is hedging its bets.

Kindly take your CDMA2000 trolling someplace else.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

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

Dennis Ferguson wrote:

> 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.

Soon. Samsung has a phone that works, and there is already CDMA roaming
for Korean users in Japan.

On Dec 7, 5:54 pm, John Navas <spamfilt...@navasgroup.com> wrote:

> Sprint migrating to WiMAX,

How in the world did you come to that conclusion???

They're not migrating to, they're adding WiMax. It's part of their deal
with the FCC to justify
being able to keep their 2.5 GHz spectrum when merging with Nextel.

"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:4578a722$0$82615$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
> "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."

"Usually" is probably rather overstated: Unless someone specifically purchased
an unlocked phone from their U.S.-based GSM carrier, I'd say the odds of the
average person having such a phone is perhaps... 1 in 10?

Granted, trying to use a CDMA phone outside the U.S. is probably a 1 in 1000
shot; I'd be surprised if we could find anyone who has successfully taken,
e.g., a Sprint phone and gotten it to work in, say, Japan. But perhaps I'm
horribly mistaken...

Joel Kolstad wrote:
> "SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
> news:4578a722$0$82615$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
>> "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."
>
> "Usually" is probably rather overstated: Unless someone specifically purchased
> an unlocked phone from their U.S.-based GSM carrier, I'd say the odds of the
> average person having such a phone is perhaps... 1 in 10?

True, but the frequent European or Asian traveler has probably figured
it out.

> Granted, trying to use a CDMA phone outside the U.S. is probably a 1 in 1000
> shot; I'd be surprised if we could find anyone who has successfully taken,
> e.g., a Sprint phone and gotten it to work in, say, Japan. But perhaps I'm
> horribly mistaken...

No, you're not mistaken. However the story is different in Korea, where
it's relatively easy to use a CDMA phone, as well as in China, India,
etc. New CDMA networks are being deployed in a lot of countries, and
coverage is expanding in existing countries. It's not that these
countries were so keen on a second standard, but in the densely
populated countries, they needed the higher efficiency of CDMA.

SMS wrote:

> No, you're not mistaken. However the story is different in Korea, where
> it's relatively easy to use a CDMA phone, as well as in China, India,
> etc. New CDMA networks are being deployed in a lot of countries, and
> coverage is expanding in existing countries. It's not that these
> countries were so keen on a second standard, but in the densely
> populated countries, they needed the higher efficiency of CDMA.

Also note that you can get a combo CDMA 800/1900 & GSM 900/1800 handset
from Verizon. This gives you the best of both worlds. You get Verizon's
superior U.S. network, and you can roam on CDMA and GSM in other countries.

Personally, I prefer buying a prepaid GSM SIM card when traveling, as
it's much more cost efficient. Even when I can claim the cost on an
expense report, it just galls me to pay the international roaming charges.

On Fri, 8 Dec 2006 10:55:44 -0800, "Joel Kolstad"
<JKolstad71HatesSpam@yahoo.com> wrote in
<12njd9i6m51h090@corp.supernews.com>:

>"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
>news:4578a722$0$82615$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net.. .
>> "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."
>
>"Usually" is probably rather overstated: Unless someone specifically purchased
>an unlocked phone from their U.S.-based GSM carrier, I'd say the odds of the
>average person having such a phone is perhaps... 1 in 10?

Both T-Mobile and Cingular will unlock phones on request by customers in
good standing.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:10:02 -0800, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <4579c6a4$0$82534$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>... However the story is different in Korea, where
>it's relatively easy to use a CDMA phone, as well as in China, India,
>etc. New CDMA networks are being deployed in a lot of countries, and
>coverage is expanding in existing countries. It's not that these
>countries were so keen on a second standard, but in the densely
>populated countries, they needed the higher efficiency of CDMA.

In fact CDMA2000 is on the decline, but in and out of the USA; e.g.,
signs that India may switch from CDMA2000 to GSM.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>