vB Easy Archive - international roaming requirement for blackberry 8800

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international roaming requirement for blackberry 8800
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Posted by: kryong

Sorry for possibly trivial questions to some of you, but I need to confirm whether the phone is capable of roaming internationally before purchasing it.

My question is basically whether 8800 is capable of roaming in Korea/Japan/China with (or without) some sim cards.. I guess it won't have no problem in Europe.. What about GPS in those countries?

Same question on treo 750, but I think it can do international roaming in those countries listed above.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: DubDub

Korea is mainly CDMA. Japan is WCDMA. China is GSM I think. AFAIK, there is not one phone to use in all 3 countries.

Posted by: emuyshondt

UMTS phones work at least in Japan, China and Europe, not sure about Korea. I have a Cingular 8525 that works in Japan and Europe, and should work in China since it is a GSM phone. UMTS is based on WCDMA.

I think the Blackberries are just GSM so they won't work outside GSM coverage areas.

Posted by: kryong

OK, then I probably need Treo 750 (which is 3G phone) to work in Korea.. I won't have any issues with Tre750 for those 3 Asian countries as well as most of European countries, right?

But this website sounds like I may be able to use 8800 with appropriate SIM card... Can somebody comment on it?

http://www.cingular.com/travelguide...DL=408&MNC=CING

Posted by: emuyshondt

Here are the frequency specs for the 8800:

# North America: 1900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
# Europe/Asia Pacific: 900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
# Europe/Asia Pacific: 1800MHz GSM/GPRS networks
# North America: 850 MHz GSM/GPRS networks
# EDGE networks

No UMTS 2100 or CDMA 1800 (it has GSM 1800 but that is different), so no coverage in Korea.