vB Easy Archive - Can you use any unlocked GSM phone in the US?

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Can you use any unlocked GSM phone in the US?
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Posted by: -EAD-

I have a good friend in the Navy that is stationed over in Japan.

If he just "happened" to find a neat phone over there and "decided" to send it to me as a gift, would it work?

We were talking over e-mail about how they have some bad arse phones over there and were wondering what obstacles we would face. in using them here.

Posted by: physicsmazz

just make sure it covers 850 and 1900 Mhz.

Posted by: Paolo

no not any, you cant use a 900/1800 mhz only phone in the US or Canada, it wont be able to pick up any SEEG.

Posted by: shortyd999

Juat make sure it has 850 or 1900 or both(preferable).

Posted by: -EAD-

I noticed that most asian and european phones don't have 850.

looks like their systems are mostly 900/1900

is the 850 mostly a north american thing?

Posted by: dcomp11

Japan doesn't use GSM, so any phones from there will not work in the US.

Posted by: samab

The simple answer is that there are no GSM networks in Japan --- so you can't even buy a GSM phone in Japan.

Posted by: -EAD-

Quote:

Originally Posted by samab

The simple answer is that there are no GSM networks in Japan --- so you can't even buy a GSM phone in Japan.

Did you mean simple as in not complex or simple as in not so intelligent?

Many phones there are both W-CDMA and GSM - you know so they can use them in other countries too... (albeit the GSM is 900/1800/1900MHz with no 850)

I believe the simple answer was to make sure it was at least 850 or 1900 GSM compatible if not both.

Posted by: shortyd999

Quote:

Originally Posted by -EAD-

I noticed that most asian and european phones don't have 850.

looks like their systems are mostly 900/1900

is the 850 mostly a north american thing?

yeah, for the most part

Posted by: bobolito

Actually, 850 is all over Latin America as far south as Argentina.

Posted by: macuis

850 is for the Americas.

Posted by: samab

You need to find a WCDMA phone (note that some DoCoMo 3G phones are FOMA, not WCDMA), that it has GSM frequencies that works in the US (not that many since most of them are 900/1800), that it's unlocked, that it has english menu's, that you can easily change the default settings so that you can use data service in the US, that your local neighbourhood has whatever frequency that is available in that japanese phone.

There are Japanese phones that will work in the US --- very few --- but they exist. And your friend may have to dig deep in japan to find them --- not "just happens" to find them.