buying cellphone in South korea for use in NZ

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alikaz

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#34818 29-May-2009 20:38

Hey guys - I'm off to Seoul in 3 weeks for a holiday. Great time to visit I know...

anyway, my phone has just about had it so I'm looking to buy a new one when in Korea. I'm on Vodafone at the moment, and will probably stay with them (XT isn't that appealing for me at the moment, although it would be great to have a phone that gives me the choice to switch in future.)

Has anyone had any experience buying a cellphone phone in South Korea and having it work fine in NZ? I'm not expecting it to be easy, because a) I can't speak Korean, and b) getting the right network specifications.

I've done a fair bit of reading and searching, I know ideally I'm looking for GSM 900/1800 & UTMS 850/2100.

Basically I want to know if it is possible to get a phone there that will work back here, and if anyone knows any good places to shop at? I will have access to the US base, which has a pretty decent department store apparently, so I can shop there if all else fails, but buying local probably be my first point of call as I have someone who can interpret/help shop.

I quite like the Samsung Omnia HD and the LG Arena, so those are the sorts of phones I'm currently looking at.

Any advice and help is much appreciated!

cheers
Al

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#219510 29-May-2009 20:44

You will find 900/2100mhz in korea .Actually asia uses 900/2100mhz and you won't find 850mhz

No idea why telecom had the guts to choose 850mhz. Only the states using that while the rest of the world runs on 900 and 2100.

Any phone with 900 and 2100 will work in NZ.

johnr

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#219513 29-May-2009 20:46

ninjabear: You will find 900/2100mhz in korea .Actually asia uses 900/2100mhz and you won't find 850mhz

No idea why telecom had the guts to choose 850mhz. Only the states using that while the rest of the world runs on 900 and 2100.

Any phone with 900 and 2100 will work in NZ.

incorrect Telstra AU use 850mhz WCDMA for Next G

John

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#219515 29-May-2009 20:47

Samsung android FTW, depends on what network you'll be on, of course.

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sbiddle

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#219517 29-May-2009 20:51

No idea why telecom had the guts to choose 850mhz.

Umm.. Probably something very logical like the fact they don't own any usage rights for 900MHz spectrum, just the 800MHz band.

freitasm

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#219552 29-May-2009 21:30

ninjabear: Only the states using that while the rest of the world runs on 900 and 2100.

The U.S. (AT&T Wireless) and Australia (Telstra) use 850 MHz.

Most of the world runs on 900MHz GSM - 900MHz WCDMA is actually quite new and you will find out there are less 900MHz WCDMA handsets than 850MHz WCDMA handsets.

ninjabear

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#219645 30-May-2009 05:48

But there are more WCDMA 2100 handsets than any other frequency and 2100/900 is what most country use

Is telecom that thick just wanting people to travel to australia and the states only?

How are you suppose to roam if the other country dont support 850mhz like asia?Europe?

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#219648 30-May-2009 06:24

ninjabear:

How are you suppose to roam if the other country dont support 850mhz like asia?Europe?

most devices have GSM support, they will fall back to that

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#219651 30-May-2009 06:49

ninjabear: But there are more WCDMA 2100 handsets than any other frequency and 2100/900 is what most country use

Is telecom that thick just wanting people to travel to australia and the states only?

How are you suppose to roam if the other country dont support 850mhz like asia?Europe?

2100 is still the primary 3G frequency for Europe and Asia. Virtually all 3G devices whether they are 850 or 900 3G also support 2100 3G. They also all typically support GSM fallback.

I don't see what your point is - if you buy any XT handset you can roam globally with it with no issues whatsoever.

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#219657 30-May-2009 07:41

ninjabear: But there are more WCDMA 2100 handsets than any other frequency and 2100/900 is what most country use.

I think you are getting this all mixed up there. Most countries use 2100 MHz for 3G, and 900 MHZ / 1800 MHz for GSM.

3G 900 MHz is very new, and not deployed in many countries yet.

ninjabear: Is telecom that thick just wanting people to travel to australia and the states only?

How are you suppose to roam if the other country dont support 850mhz like asia? Europe?

Most countries in Europe use 2100 MHz at the moment. The U.S. used 1900 MHz in earlier network but all new deployments are 850 MHz. 900 MHz, like 850 MHz is new.

Currently all devices support fallback to GSM (mostly quad-band GSM), which is still very common in Europe.

Most current 3G devices are dual-band (2100 MHz / 1900 MHz for very old devices, now more likely to be 2100 MHz / 850 MHz or 2100 MHz / 900 MHz).

In any case I expect tri-band (or quad-band) 3G devices very soon - because of economy of making different radios on a single waffle.

So, stop spreading FUD. People can still roam almost everywhere, with both Vodafone and Telecom. People will still be able to get 3G speeds overseas with both Vodafone or Telecom.

ninjabear

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#219682 30-May-2009 09:41

I doubt they will support that much band. I don't believe asia will deploy 850mhz which means they'll rely on 2100mhz.

heh, Not gonna join telecom. Don't wanna talk to an indian

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#219706 30-May-2009 10:25

ninjabear:heh, Not gonna join telecom. Don't wanna talk to an indian

Thats a really racist remark. I'd be surprised if you are not slammed or banned for that. (Would have done it myself, but my ban button is just for show these days).

Not sure why you think you need to talk to an indian to join Telecom anyway.

FFS

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#219710 30-May-2009 10:27

ninjabear:

heh, Not gonna join telecom. Don't wanna talk to an indian

eh? their call centre in the philippines? what side of the bed did you wake up on this morning?!

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ninjabear

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#219712 30-May-2009 10:32

right side :D

ninjabear

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#219716 30-May-2009 10:36

tonyhughes:
ninjabear:heh, Not gonna join telecom. Don't wanna talk to an indian

Thats a really racist remark. I'd be surprised if you are not slammed or banned for that. (Would have done it myself, but my ban button is just for show these days).

Not sure why you think you need to talk to an indian to join Telecom anyway.

FFS

No, I'm not against any race but telecom outsource employees .

I had a friend who wanted to download a file on Sky and he couldn't download it . The woman on the otherside said no, you can't download it.

This is just 1 example. There's plenty more

The service is extremely bad.You know if you have talked to vodafone's customer service and telecom's you'll know what I mean.

All I'm saying is that I don't want to speak to their support since their support is overseas . I mean at least get someone that can speak proper english and know a bit a about their work

You can ban me if you like all I'm trying to say is telecom's customer service is bad !

Maybe i worded it wrong but i am not racist. If a employee knows what they are talking about I don't care if he is purple.lol

Back to the Original topic: I recommend Samsung HD than LG Arena. Doesn't Samsung HD have more features?It's got wifi that LG doesnt have?

I've used samsung before and they make decent phones however I think N97 is another phone you should consider

alikaz

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#219719 30-May-2009 10:40

ok so...back on track...

thanks for the replies, one thing I'm not too sure about though. is HSDPA the same as UTMS? or will a phone that has HSDPA be able to run on a UTMS network? might be an obvious question, I just can't figure it out from google...

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