USA frequency confusion

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Behodar

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#32484 17-Apr-2009 17:20

Hi,

I'm heading to the US in a few months so I'm trying to figure out what to do regarding my phone. I've gone to www.telecomroaming.co.nz and chosen my phone (Nokia 6275i) and USA, and it says that I can roam on Sprint at 800/1800 MHz or Verizon at 1800. Nokia's site, however, says that the phone is 800/1900.

How is my 1900 MHz phone able to roam on Verizon if they use 1800?

I've also seen some conflicting information about whether you can roam on prepaid. Can you?

Thanks.

scottjpalmer

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#207772 18-Apr-2009 13:57

Many Nokia models have different variants of the same model for different frequency bands (ie the E71 comes in 3 flavours, E71-1, E71-2 and E71-3. The -X on the end doesn't appear in many if any spec websites.) Maybe the site you are looking at only has the specs for the model in the country you are looking?

Loftus

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#207872 19-Apr-2009 07:38

What Telecom is calling CDMA1800, the rest of the world calls PCS (or 1900), Wiki Article

Usually the 1800 band is used for DCS (GSM) but not in the USA, as they use some of the frequencies in that band for other (non-cellular) things

Behodar

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#207882 19-Apr-2009 08:37

Thanks, it appears that my phone will indeed work over there then.

Does anyone know for sure whether you can roam on prepaid? I read something saying that you need an account but have also seen posts saying that prepaid works. I'm confused :)

kingjj

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#207914 19-Apr-2009 12:53

Behodar: Thanks, it appears that my phone will indeed work over there then.

Does anyone know for sure whether you can roam on prepaid? I read something saying that you need an account but have also seen posts saying that prepaid works. I'm confused :)

You cannot roam on prepay. The phone must be linked to a Telecom account for billing.

nzbnw

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#208025 19-Apr-2009 21:31

kingjj:
Behodar: Thanks, it appears that my phone will indeed work over there then.

Does anyone know for sure whether you can roam on prepaid? I read something saying that you need an account but have also seen posts saying that prepaid works. I'm confused :)

You cannot roam on prepay. The phone must be linked to a Telecom account for billing.

Correct. Apart from that I am in Hawaii using one now on the 1900 MHz band according to the phone. Everything is working well.

nzbnw

Behodar

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#208033 19-Apr-2009 22:07

Looks like I'll be taking my old GSM phone then. It'll likely be cheaper to put an AT&T SIM card in than it would be to roam anyway.

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#208041 19-Apr-2009 22:58

You can get it temporarily transferred to an existing account (on the assumption that you have a friendly account holder), as I just did that for my son's prepay Nokia when he went to Hawaii a few months ago.