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How (and how well) do Wireless "Worldphones" Work?

Posted by Cliff on from the digging-for-details dept.

Milo_Mindbender asks: "I've seen a number of new phones (like the Sony T616) advertised as 'worldphones' that handle three or four GSM bands. As someone who travels to Japan and Europe occasionally I'm wondering how (and how well) these actually work. Can you get a temporary or prepaid SIM with a local carrier and just swap it or are the US carriers 'service locking' phones so you have to do international roaming with them even in foreign countries?"

1 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Some don't even work well where they're sold! by dbirchall · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I've been an ATT customer since 2000 (when they borged Honolulu Cellular). I was on their TDMA network (which worked fine) until a year ago, when I switched to their new GSM one.

    Switching was a royal pain in the ass, since they had totally replicated everything staffing-wise and billing-wise and all that, for the new network, and at that point, folks still weren't very clear on where to forward existing customers who wanted to switch. Eventually, though, I got a nice shiny Nokia 3650 (at no small expense).

    At that point in time, I was told up front that GSM was pretty much available only in and around the biggest town in the area (where, conveniently, I live), and that service would be coming soon further out (where TDMA service already was, and had been, available). Okay, no problem.

    10 months passed. I noticed that there my coverage wasn't nearly as good as it had been. More than about 10 miles from town in any direction and I had no service. I went for a long bike ride, spent 7 hours incommunicado, and my wife was calling hospitals to see if my body had been brought in.

    Why did all this happen? Simple. The Nokia 3650 is a 900/1800/1900MHz "World Phone." Here in town, ATT's tower has GSM on 850/1900MHz... everywhere outside town it's 850MHz only. Whoops, ATT.

    Oh, and of course you can go to any ATT kiosk or store in town and buy a 3650 to this day. The new 3620 (850/1900MHz, yay!) isn't yet available in stores... but it will be, soon... I hope...