Bringing Vodafone NZ Nokia E71 to the US

Forums › Mobile handsets › Bringing Vodafone NZ Nokia E71 to the US

318touring

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#58628 16-Mar-2010 13:04

I've been trying to find out whether this will work. I have a NZ Vodafone Nokia E71 with the following frequencies (E71-1 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/2100 HSDPA).

I'd like to take the phone to the US, and intend to buy a USA prepay SIM card and use the phone for both voice and data.

So the questions are:
1. Will the phone work for both voice and data in the US?
2. Can I buy just a prepaid SIM card over there?
3. Which network?

Thanks!!

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#307791 16-Mar-2010 13:05

Yes it will work on the 2G network

Linuxluver

5615 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#311331 25-Mar-2010 16:11

T-Mobile do 3G on 900 and 2100....and also either 1700 or 1800. So a Vodafone phone is a reasonably good match with T-Mobile.

For GSM, you have more choice.

You'd need to set up the APNs for the network you join. Not hard to find on the Net. Telcos are understandably (from a vendor-focused perspective) often / usually not very helpful with configuring 'alien' phones (ones they didn't sell / source)....so you'll likely have to sortthat out for yourself.

_____________________________________________________________________
If you order a Tesla, click my referral code below to order your car and get free stuff.

My Tesla referral code: https://ts.la/steve52356

sbiddle

29208 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#311338 25-Mar-2010 16:27

Linuxluver: T-Mobile do 3G on 900 and 2100....and also either 1700 or 1800. So a Vodafone phone is a reasonably good match with T-Mobile.

For GSM, you have more choice.

You'd need to set up the APNs for the network you join. Not hard to find on the Net. Telcos are understandably (from a vendor-focused perspective) often / usually not very helpful with configuring 'alien' phones (ones they didn't sell / source)....so you'll likely have to sortthat out for yourself.

T-Mobile don't do 900 3G in the USA.

Their network is a one of a kind using both 1700MHz and 2100MHz for downlink and uplink and known as AWS. This means 3G is only usable with a 3G handset that does 1700. There are a large number of these out there but they are specific models for the US market, there is certainly not an E71 model that will work over there on 3G.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#311344 25-Mar-2010 16:35

Linuxluver: T-Mobile do 3G on 900

No way they do

318touring

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#312293 29-Mar-2010 09:41

Thanks.

So will the phone work straight off when I slot in an AT&T Sim card?

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
68377 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#312294 29-Mar-2010 09:44

It will work on AT&T 2G out of the box. It may connect to some 3G but limited coverage since AT&T is working on deploying more and more 850MHz 3G.

A Telecom XT handset would be a much better fit for AT&T since it does 2100/850MHz 3G, plus 2G (which is not used by Telecom but it's there for roaming).

These links are referral codes

inquisitor

135 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#314122 2-Apr-2010 11:20

UMTS band VIII (900 MHz) is incompatible to band V (850 MHz). So the the UMTS 900/2100 version of the E71 will definitely not work on any 3G network in the US (neither AT&T nor T-Mobile or any other).

For an overview of UMTS frequency bands check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands

router: AVM Fritz!Box Fon 7390 with Huawei K3765 USB modem attached as GSM voice gateway
VoIP-providers: intervoip.com | sipgate.de (German DID) | sipgate.co.uk (British DID) | sipcall.ch (Swiss DID)
connection: 100/5 MBit/s (DOCSIS 3.0)
mobile devices: Huawei P6 | Nokia Lumia 630 Dual SIM | Huawei: E5832, E1762, K3715, K3765 | Qualcomm Gobi 2000 in Sony VAIO VPC-Z12X9E/X

hairy1

2970 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#314129 2-Apr-2010 11:49

I am in the same boat in May in the States with the E71. Can I buy an AT&T prepaid card? I can't tell from the website. There are a few of us going and it would be handy to have 2 or 3 sim cards. Was wondering if I should pick up 2 or 3 and run them prepaid for the two weeks we are there. There seem to be a bunch of AT&T sim cards on Ebay. Any issues with buying those? Cheers, Matt

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
68377 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#314218 2-Apr-2010 18:30

You just walk into an AT&T store with a credit card and ask for a prepay SIM. It's free, whatever you pay goes into credit. They might ask for a photo id - passport, driver licence, whatever is fine. They will use the store address as your address.

These links are referral codes