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About to move to Dubai

Number of questions...
I currently live in the UK and use the following mobiles the MDA Compact IV and the Samsung U900 soul as my back up phone (both currently locked to T-Mobile). I am about to move to Dubai and would like to know:::
1) Will these phones work over there... really confirm what I think (IE they will provided they are unlocked).
2) Does T-Mobile operate over there? If not what service providers are there and how competitive are they? I benefit from being on an employees tariff with T-Mobile at the moment.
3) Does anyone want to buy a T-Mobile branded Athena with the AP4.0 Rom?

http://www.dubai.ae/en.portal?topic,subscribemobile,1,&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=home

I think GSM and CDMA standard here is same as Europe. There are only 2 operators, Etisalat and Du.
Du is just new and has some coverage problem so you may want to go with Etisalat.
I have been here 2 years and I am not impressed by bought Etisalat and Du.

WCDMA is umts
CDMA is a 2g phone std. that America and few others use that don't use sim cards
don't believe Dubai use CDMA

Polaris on NextG?

Australia's Telstra has a system called NextG. I don't know what exactly that equates to in the rest of the world but they are claiming coverage far superior to anything available before in rural areas.
Any Aussies like to chime in and tell me if my Polaris is going to work there?

I currently use a TC on telstra nextG. while I never have coverage issues I have never really checked the data speeds as I have a pc card for that.

After a bit of research it seems NextG is nothing more than 3G UTMS service, just on the (lesser used) 850Mhz band. The way the specs are written for the Polaris it sounds like a unit will support either UMTS2100 or UMTS850, but not both, depending on whether is was destined for the USA or Europe. Anyone confirm this one way or the other? I bought mine in Taiwan so I have no idea which it should support.

on a similar note I got my wife a samsung omina, while it does work on telstra 850mhz it does not have the nextG service speeds. My TC seems to work on both 2100 and 850 as I have used it with optus and telstra and optus does not have 850

fahr_side said:
After a bit of research it seems NextG is nothing more than 3G UTMS service, just on the (lesser used) 850Mhz band. The way the specs are written for the Polaris it sounds like a unit will support either UMTS2100 or UMTS850, but not both, depending on whether is was destined for the USA or Europe. Anyone confirm this one way or the other? I bought mine in Taiwan so I have no idea which it should support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using a Polaris both in Aus and worldwide, actually, for over 12 months.
it will connect to UMTS both 2100Mhz and 850Mhz without problem. Just set the band in Settings>Personal>Phone to automatic
Telstra uses the 2100Mhz frequency in the cities and 850Mhz for the regional areas. BTW, the 850Mhz is not "lesser used": this frequency is used for UMTS in regional areas in South America, South Africa, Australia and the US. Geographically, this is about 60% of the globe.
Hold onto the Polaris - it's the last device HTC offered that will connect to both frequencies. The reason for this is beyond the scope of this post, but it's an accurate statement.

Thanks for the replies people. Going to Aus in a few weeks and really didn't want to buy or rent another phone.

Travel to Korea

Hi,
My daughter will be in South Korea for a year.
I would like to set her up with an HTC phone either the Touch Pro or Touch Diamond. I understand that either will support WCDMA or GSM.
Will there be any issues? Any suggestions on another phone or perhaps a good plan in S. Korea?
We expect to use skype on the phone. How is the open wifi availability?
I did SEARCH the forums and most hits were outdated. But, if you must, flame away!
Thanks and Regards,
Jim

jjttnn said:
Hi,
My daughter will be in South Korea for a year.
I would like to set her up with an HTC phone either the Touch Pro or Touch Diamond. I understand that either will support WCDMA or GSM.
Will there be any issues? Any suggestions on another phone or perhaps a good plan in S. Korea?
We expect to use skype on the phone. How is the open wifi availability?
I did SEARCH the forums and most hits were outdated. But, if you must, flame away!
Thanks and Regards,
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome
As far as I know the limitations won´t be on the phone so look into the provider to choose a plan that cover overseas with a good deal!
Good luck,

as far as i know if phones work outside usa and some other american countries
it works in korea too
as in things which are likely to be incomaptible would be cdma (not wcdma because that seem to be what some people call umts/3g)
and 850Mhz gsm and 2100 umts

Last I heard (and I could be wrong or it could have changed since) was that Korea used CDMA networks with SIM Cards, yeah it sounded strange to me at the time also.
You need to confirm what Bands/network types are being used in Korea then you can find your answers...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
it's not 100% clear but seem to state that korea have several systems
"There are three major technical standards for the current generation of mobile phones and networks, and two major standards for the next generation 3G phones and networks. All European and African countries and many Asian countries have adopted a single system, GSM, which is the only technology available on all continents and in most countries and covers over 74% of all subscribers on mobile networks. In many countries, such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, India,, South Korea, and Vietnam, GSM co-exists with other internationally adopted standards such as CDMA and TDMA, as well as national standards such as iDEN in the USA and PDC in Japan. Over the past five years several dozen mobile operators (carriers) have abandoned networks on TDMA and CDMA technologies, switching over to GSM."

Everyone, thanks for your input. We got a Kaiser and will be setting it up over the next few days. Should have some good information from her in a couple of weeks.
Searching/Looking for a good radio now.
Regards

jjttnn said:
Will there be any issues? Any suggestions on another phone or perhaps a good plan in S. Korea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I was in Seoul and Busan last year, my GSM quad-band phone did not get any signal. The hotels I stayed at provided their customers a cell phone to use for the stay, and mentioned that US phones -- GSM or CDMA -- would not work in Korea. I would call a provider and ask, just to be sure.

Thanks pavankp, you scared me to action. You are correct, turns out a 3g phone is needed, a quad-band is not enough. Found this at att: http://www.att.com/Common/merger/files/pdf/international_calling/International_Travel_Tips-FS.pdf
Excerpt: A GSM quad-band phone (that works on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequencies) provides the widest coverage internationally. Most AT&T phones in stores today are quad-band. For travel to Japan or South Korea, your phone must operate on 3G technology at 2100 MHz. Phones that will operate in Japan and South Korea include the BlackBerry Bold, iPhone 3G, BlackJack II, Sony Ericsson z750, HTC Fuze, LG Incite, Samsung Epix and AT&T Quickfire. ...
Regards.

I spent time in S Korea in the Army. Camp Casey. Sucked. LOL. But that was back in 2000 so I'm sure a lot has changed. But you couldn't get regular AT&T service there. The phones you buy there are a little different. I think the technology is better in my opinion. Back in 2000 the phones there already had colored screens! Granted that most of them was not in English so I really had no interest in playing around with one to see what was so special about it. Wish her luck for me though.

Get Vodafone PAYG/Outright UK Sensation?

Hey All
I'm on Telstra in Australia - a network which needs 850mhz 3G. I am REALLY interested in buying the sensation, and from what it looks, the Vodafone UK model supports UMTS 850?
I've got very close relatives who live in the UK, so I can get them to buy it for me. Can someone possibly tell me:
- Does the Vodafone UK one definitely support 850mhz 3G?
- Does it come network unlocked?
- Is there any way to buy it outright without a plan? (eg. PAYG or something)
I can get it shipped to my relatives in the UK or they might even go buy me one in the store. But for now, it looks like the VodaUK one is the only 850mhz capable one.
Thanks

[Q] US Android phone HSPA 900mhz??

Hello, Am trying to get a phone to a relative that lives in the Dominican Republic, i live in Puerto Rico where we get all the US phones(we are a common wealth of the US) so basically i got access to all US version of the phones, the problem is that on the Dominican the company that am trying to get the phone on is Orange and they use HSPA(3g) in the 900mhz. Is there any US branded phone that works on that frequency? as of right now none us cellphone company uses those, nor At&t or Tmobile or even Claro PR(all gsm).
I know that even though the company doesnt use certain frequency the phone could still support it. Have any one here know of a US android phone working on Orange Dominicana 3g network??
[Specs am looking for]
Front Facing Camera
Led Flash for the back camera
Decent size screen 4.0"+

You'd probably be best off sourcing an International Asian or European model from eBay. Most APAC/EU networks use 900/2100 for 3G.
Good luck!

I decided to go into the webpage of the company am trying to get a phone to work on, i just went trough the phones they sell, found the LG 3D which is sold here locally around my budget, and it uses the 900mhz band . My issue is somewhat resolved.
...there should be an accurate way to find information of the radios/freq. our phones hardware comes with....
phonearena.com not reliable
gsmarena.com not reliable