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Ask Slashdot: Do 4G World Phones Exist?
First time accepted submitter Viv Savage (3679171) writes "I live in the U.S. but my daughter will be attending college overseas next year (Scotland specifically). I need to purchase a new phone for her and I'm curious what the Slashdot community would recommend. I understand that a GSM world phone supporting 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequencies would give her the best voice support. There doesn't appear to be a solution for getting high-speed data (i.e., 4G) here and abroad with one phone. Have any worldly Slashdotters figured this out?"
Doesn't the Nexus 4 qualify for this?
It's not only kilts and haggis up there.
They have cell phone shops too. She should buy herself a cell phone in Scotland.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
When you order from US play store you get this into Technical specifications page:
Network
2G/3G/4G LTE
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
CDMA: Band Class: 0/1/10
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
LTE: Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41
When ordering form other countries, it change to those ones:
Network
2G/3G/4G LTE
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
Still, no one can confirm if there's a two models or one that role them all though!
source: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/Q4A1X1oAOSs[1-25-false]
I was just looking for a phone for something similar. There is an updated version of a Galaxy Relay 4S which looks like it supports as many band and carrier as possible. There are probably similar phones.
I'm not a phone expert, so I'm not sure it this is as universal as you want, but it looked pretty good to me.
Some phones like the later Galaxy models have support for GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequencies. I have an S3 (started as Verizon, now a Vodafone) and moved to Germany.
You make need to root it and get an APN manager App.
Germany doesn't have 4G yet, they have 3G and enhanced 3G called H+
What do you need 4G for, anyway? H+ Is pretty fast, and the university will have wifi everywhere I should think. A Galaxy S2 will be perfectly adequate.
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I'd recommend purchasing the phone locally where it will be used the most. When at the other location just use wifi for high-speed data.
http://www.htc.com/us/smartpho... Nuff said.
When ordering form other countries, it change to those ones: Network: 2G/3G/4G LTE, GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8, LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20, Source: https://productforums.google.c...
A search of 4G phones will be sufficient; plus it will work in Scotland and the USA. If you are going to buy a 4G phone in the UK, you might as well have it unlocked here, before taking it back to the USA, if it is still illegal to have phones unlocked in the USA!
Yes, most new smartphones have this capability. Take the iPhone 5S for example. (https://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/)
These are the supported LTE bands:
1 (2100 MHz), 2 (1900 MHz), 3 (1800 MHz), 4 (AWS), 5 (850 MHz), 8 (900 MHz),13 (700c MHz), 17 (700b MHz), 19 (800 MHz), 20 (800 DD),25 (1900 MHz)
700/AWS are the main 4G bands in the American ITU region
800/1800MHz are the main deployed bands in Europe/African ITU region
1800/2100MHz are the main deployed bands in the Asian/Pacific ITU region (note that APT 700MHz is different to the USA's mongrel of a 700MHz band)
Other bands (e.g. 900MHz) are only used very rarely (in this case one operator in Sweden and one in Czech Republic) but also are supported.
Your daughter's main problem will be:
a) whether her UK network has deployed 4G where she is (though in the middle of Edinburgh or Glasgow she should be fine). You will find that due to better 3G networks, Europe is lagging behind the US in 4G coverage.
b) the lack of 4G international roaming (not many operators let you roam onto 4G networks)
c) the cost of 4G international roaming (if allowed) would be prohibitive
Hi,
I've been looking for myself, and one that stood out was the Xperia Z1 compact from sony. My primary issue was the battery endurance, but it seems to be able to get all the frequencies required by 4G.. http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_x...
If she is spending most of term time in Scotland, why not ask her to get a phone in the UK? It's a lot cheaper - most of the time top end phones are free on a 24-month contract. Assuming that she is going to Uni and not college - her course would be at least 3 years anyway. Unless, of course, it's just an exchange program.
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our phone bundles are far better than the calling plans in the usa, so wait get an iphone 5s or galaxy s5 with calling minutes to usa
BlackBerry Z30 supports multiple 4G and LTE bands and comes factory unlocked so you just pop in a local sim and you're good to go, pretty much anywhere on the planet.
also if the service provider (i.e. tmobile) provides calls and texts over wifi. then you shouldnt have any problems with the types of bands th device supports.
The latest iPad Air made some news in the tech circles when it came out for it's 4G capabilities. It was the first time Apple was able to use 100% identical hardware for AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile. In fact, baring some stupidity in provisioning departments, it's possible to buy one, get SIM's from the other three, and have a 4-provider iPad in the US.
The specs:
UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900 MHz)
LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26)
Based on my reading at the time, due to the power and antenna requirements there were no phones that had the same laundry list of 4G bands. Of course that was ~1 year ago now, and time moves pretty fast in the mobile world. The reason I post this though is the iPad Air makes a killer 4G hotspot, 24 hours of battery life with the screen off. Maybe a 3G world phone and an iPad Air for high speed data are a viable solution? The iPad also is sold unlocked from Apple, no extra charge. Phones will likely have carrier locking issues.
not 100% sure but if you buy it full price it will come with the SIM card unlocked and supports the most worldwide LTE frequencies.
my wife has this device and she loves it. does deserve a look at IMO.
Pick up a cheap phone locally with a data plan...in the major cities it is very quick and reliable. I've tried US phones in Scotland without much luck for anything but voice and text. But you can get some very inexpensive smart phones out there.
Get an unlocked phone with a removable SIM card (which excludes anything Verizon sells). Once she gets to Scotland have her buy a local SIM card and pop it in the phone. That way she will avoid costly international roaming charges. When she gets back to the US just pop the original SIM back in and you're good to go. The other option is to simply buy a phone in the UK.
Get a GSM unlocked iPhone 5S from an apple store. It works great in Europe. You may want to buy a data plan once in Europe however, most US carriers have horrible rates abroad. I have tmobile and was able to just use my normal plan with no extra fees however. Just remember, unlike here, incoming calls in EU are free. When pricing a plan you'll likely want to look at your data usage plus typical outgoing minutes.
800 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 I verified that the international version says "4g" on the Tmobile network in the US. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-C68...
Sim Free Mobile phones are much easier to get hold of in the UK. Just purchase one over there and it should work on AT&T or TMobile when she gets back to the US. As previously mentioned 4G coverage in the UK is pretty poor at the moment, only in most of the more major cities and horrendously overpriced. EE has the best 4G network but it isn't cheap, someone like Three will offer 4G included in the cost for around £15 per month with unlimited data SIM only with a 1 month rolling contract and I think they have 4G around Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Sony have a table on their phones that supports LTE in different regeions, it seems to not have been updated with the latest models yet though.
http://developer.sonymobile.com/2013/01/24/lte-coverage-for-xperia-smartphones/
My understanding is that there isn't really 4G in the US, they didn't meet the standards of it, so they 'convinced' them to change the 'standards'.
That being said, there are stores that specialize in phones and other devices that will work in large chunks of the world. I'm sorry I don't have any links for you, but I'm sure you can find some with a bit of searching, but when I checked a few years back for a friend, they weren't cheap. In the US the phone company often subsidizes the phone prices with those contracts so they're often several hundred dollars cheaper. Expect that bonus to disappear and the prices to be more than you were previously used to.
TFS still needs to know what device to get, not just that it be unlocked.
I would agree here - UK phones are cheaper and a lot easier to get unlocked, so she can put a US SIM in when visiting back home. If she's not in Scotland long enough for a 2 year contract, there are 12 month or 18 month options available as well.
Frankly for a PHONE I don't think it matters AT ALL if is LTE/4G or whatever 3G HSDPA 7/14/42 Mb/s flavor of the day present in even 99 euro phones.
For a laptop yes, that's another story; assuming you can find a provider where you don't eat all your traffic in 20 minutes at your great "full speed" yes, that might be worth thinking about which dongle is faster and what band it supports and so on. And it might not cost more than 15 euros/pounds/dollars anyway if bought locally with a sim card.
Yes it sucks to lug two devices around. Alternatively, use a cheap 4G phone as the 4G hotspot.
Alas, electronics have not yet advanced to the point where it is reasonable to have one phone with support for all combinations of bands and technologies.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
for cheapness or both voice and data go for www.threee.co.uk
not only does it have all you can eat voice, but all you can eat data too and you can tether(4gb total tethering) and all phone data unlimited or filtered. mind you a little user agent spoofing bypasses the cap..lol
This is perfect for skype/oovoo scenarios where 4g would help.
Your daughter would be best going to either Glasgow,Aberdeen,Edinburgh or Dundee universities as those will have the best coverage being the biggest places.. St Andrews may have the name but it's not exactly a thriving metropolis.. so i would recommewnd any GSM phone of yer choise with a 3 SIM in it, that way only battery life can interrupt your connectivity and thus contact via voice/video etc.
DISCLOSURE - I AM a customer of three and have been for years.I don't work for them though.... they are much better than they used to be and unlimited 4g at no extra cost isn't a toughie to ask someone, it's a good deal.. in fact at the moment you can still get "The One Plan" month to month contract SIM card with 2000 minutes, unlimited data and 5000 texts for a mere 23 GBP..
They are all images, so you will have to type the links.
http://i.imgur.com/pxx6QB3.jpg
My Nexus 4 is currently rolling on proper LTE and can talk on seemingly every mobile frequency on the planet; I live in Los Angeles and have T-Mobile service. I did in fact have to root the damn thing, tweak some settings, and flash a hybrid radio (which works PHENOMENALLY). I am also on 4.4.2 (haven't grabbed the 4.4.3 upgrade yet, as it was just released today). I get better speeds than my ISP provides... sickening.
Bottom line is this is cheap and doable (internet tutorials abounds), but a pain in the ass on the Nexus 4. The Nexus 5 does all this natively, though, from what I understand, which would be hella easy.
Make sure you check your decision with your daughter before you buy it. Many people are very picky about what device they want to use. You would probably choose something she does not want to use. Maybe you should just ask your daughter to select a phone and just help here with figuring out if it will work in Scotland.
I've seen 3G phones run at 8 megabits and in Europe, just because they call it 4G doesn't mean there's high bandwidth on the pipe feeding the tower itself. So just get a 3G phone.
the US based carriers are just starting to strike LTE roaming deals
http://www.telecoms.com/154582/done-roaming/
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-stalls-lte-roaming-att-expands-lte-roaming-13-more-countries/2014-02-24
So to recap, here are the steps:
1) Find a carrier that offers LTE roaming in your destination
2) Find a phone that has support for the LTE bands in said destination
3) Figure out how much it will cost to transfer your data at LTE speeds.
or
1) Buy an LTE enabled phone in the destination with a local carrier with unlimited data.
This seems like the sort of problem solved by a Google Search.
http://www.myworldphone.com/un...
O2 and Vodaphone appear to use LTE band 20 (SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...) AT&T and Canadian carriers generally seem to use bands 4 and 17 (same source).
The iPhone 5s does all of those and more. Model A1533 (GSM)*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25)
(Source: https://www.apple.com/iphone-5... )
I may be missing something but just buying an unlocked iPhone 5S from apple seems to give you all the LTE, HSPA, etc networks you could use in the UK and USA/Canada.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
And if she gets an iPhone, she will be enjoying a much better life. (http://apple-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/06/03/1419220/apple-says-many-users-bought-an-android-phone-by-mistake)
I could be wrong, but isn't the Nexus 5 both 4G and LTE?
The wiki page for it claims:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Model LG-D820 (North America)
CDMA band class: 0/1/10
WCDMA bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
LTE bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41
Model LG-D821 (Rest of World)
WCDMA bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
So it looks like the LG-D821 would be her best option. She might not have LTE in North America but will still have GSM. I not an expert on this subject so definitely do some more research. Good luck!
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Anecdotal evidence. Take it for what it's worth:
When I was in rural Ethiopia a few years ago with about 20 other Americans, everyone was passing around the 3 phones that actually worked. They were all iPhones and all AT&T. My Verizon phone worked great as an MP3 player but that's about it. My wifes sprint phone would crash constantly and couldn't even be used for that (it was a dumbphone) I was told that the only international carrier that would work there was AT&T.
I HATE Apple with a passion, though I did use that phone because I wanted to call home a few times... and more importantly, one of the people in our group was a Microsoft salesman that had his, then, prototype windows phone. Every time I was talking on the phone while standing in the middle of creation, I'd look over at him, smile, and sometimes wink. It was great. It was well worth the Apple taint for that alone.
But, I wouldn't put up with Apple just for international calling. You can pick up a cheap dumb phone in just about any country for $20. In ethiopia they were under $10 and sold, along with phone cards, a small wooden booths next to random meat on a stick. I'd just have her do that (but stay away from the meat.) That way, if the phone doesn't work somewhere she can just dump it in a trash bin and get a new one rather than be out $600 on a smart phone. Or get her a smart phone for home AND a dumb phone with international voice only.
I have a Verizon Galaxy S3. I removed the Verizon sim and put in the 3 (UK) sim card, works perfectly fine, gets good speeds on H+. No 4G, though.
How many engineers do you need to chose a smart-phone for your teens ?
Are you taking class with her since you're asking for her? Then I'd recommend you buy yourself a phone for the US and she buys herself a phone for the UK. Since you seem to care a lot for each other you can - when needed - swap phones as necessary. Man, if she's your daughter and she goes overseas let her take care for herself. If this post is not totally embarrassing for her I tell you it is.
No longer sold sadly.
I got an unlocked Blu Life Play X, with dual SIM capabilities. In one SIM slot I have a T-Mobile SIM that I us in the US, whereas in the other I get a cheap SIM every time I go to Europe. Your daughter ought to be able to get a SIM in Scotland for phone and data when she gets there. No contract crap; this is just a ploy from American carriers to get more money out of people. Forget about 4G; it's not that prevalent yet, and in Europe you have 3G just about everywhere. Unless she wants to stream movies on her phone, 3G should be more than enough for her.
I have US Nexus 5 and use it in Europe. HSDPA may not be LTE but really, 42MB down should be enough for a phone.
have been able to do this for years.
Perfectly adequate for you, maybe. Not for him, at least when better solutions are available.
It's pretty clearly he already considered skipping LTE. Your response is as unhelpful as it can get, and it'll just clutter up when people Google this question in the future.
You know how sometimes you need to know the answer to a fairly simple but relatively obscure question, so you Google it? You get hundreds of results, each of which look promising. Then each and every thread has a bunch of answers like "Why are you trying to do that?" "Have you tried doing this instead?", etc, and not one of them ever answers the question?
Welcome to that thread.
I recently traveled to France, England, and Ireland. I have a Sprint HTC One which Sprint unlocked for me in order to use a foreign SIM card while on my trip.
You will not need 4G, so do not concern yourself with that. I quickly discovered that their 3G speeds throughout the region easily and quite regularly surpassed 4G speeds I have measured here in the US on several providers.
My memory may be off on this a bit but I could swear, while running a speed test, that I was pulling down 20Mb/sec. I've yet to get that result on Sprint's 4G network. I recognize that Sprint is not the standard by which all others should be compared, but still... I was impressed and surprised.
You may find that due to recent IRS policy changes and the EU banking industry's refusal to release account holder data, your US citizen daughter may have a hard time trying to open bank accounts and maybe even a cell phone account. Prepaid shouldn't be a problem.
My wife and I recently took a trip to Scotland and had really good luck with my Galaxy S4, and her IPhone 5S (both from Verizon). We landed in Edinburgh, went to the Three store (they had the most "4G" coverage as of May 2014), swapped out our SIM cards and we had service. The IPhone came right up with Voice and Data, my S4 had to have the APN settings tweeked to Three's settings, but after that, no worries. All you could eat data, 1000 texts, 1000 voice minutes for a monthly rate of 16 Pounds... Not bad at all! Three apparently provides carrier services for some of the other providers in UK. We used our phones all over Scotland, England, and Wales.
Upon returning, my APN settings reverted automatically, but the IPhone had to be reset (network settings reset only)... My phone kept barking about a foreign SIM card but it kept on working.
Both of our phones (since they were 4G) were already unlocked (Verizon told us), and we had no problems. Scotland can be a bit spotty, especially in the Highlands, but cities for us were solid (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oban, and Inverness).
I doinked with my settings to run on Global mode, and found I was running on HPSE or HPSE+ most of the time (a bit more power hungry than 4GLTE), so it paid to have a battery pack for charging. My wife's IPhone was falling back to 3G a bunch also in more fringe areas...
BTW: The statement someone made about Verizon is in error. I checked with Verizon tech support, and they said that all their 4G phones were unlocked and that was born out by our experience. No problem at all. Of course we did get a sales pitch from Verizon on their international data plan, which I politely told them no and quoted the price from Three. ;-)
My US purchased iPhone 5s, model A1533 (GSM/AT&T) works perfectly fine in the UK. The only LTE/4G band this model does not support, and is used in the UK, is 7 -- this band is only used by EE and who also broadcast on band 3.
I use my phone on the EE network and have received high-speed 4G service in Edinburgh, Dundee, and (south of the border) London.
In St Andrews, where I study, I receive only 3G service (at best). Sitting in the library I have a full 5 "dots" of service, and the 3G marker, but am getting just 30 KB/s. Generally this doesn't matter as we have almost blanket WiFi coverage across the town, however when indoors on the outskirts of town EEs signal can be patchy (even for voice).
Previously I used O2 (also with this phone, switching to lower the monthly cost). Generally, the internet speed was similar (better in some areas, worse in others) but the indoor signal was better. High-speed cellular infrastructure is patchy in Scotland outside of more major towns and cities, and in St Andrews at least I believe O2 offers the best service.
Hope this helps.
LET HER GO, MAN....
Buy an AT&T unlocked 4G phone - it will work with European 4G networks. T-Mobile and Verizon won't work (TMO is on the wrong spectrum and Verizon doesn't do GSM for 3G).
Hope that helps.
Rather than buying a cell phone in Scotland (not unreasonable if needed), but it is also possible to purchase a dual-SIM phone (Nokia has several), and just get a SIM there. You can also do that with most GSM single-SIM phones, and just swap out the SIM. I do that when I travel in Mexico. I purchase a SIM (with local phone #) there, and put it in my phone. The only thing is that the phone needs to be "unlocked" so it isn't tethered to your original provider.
- A former Nokia systems engineer
Not only does the iPhone have the frequency bands the asker wants, but it is one of the easiest phones to purchase completely unlocked and off-contract in the USA (so long as you purchase direct from Apple). Most other contract-free phones here are still sold locked to the carrier, and generally require several months of paid service before the carrier will provide an unlock code.
Other less expensive options for a world phone would be Google's Nexus 5 or Motorola's Moto G (if you don't absolutely need LTE).
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Quick answers to your questions and points of consideration:
1.) Apple iPhones meet your criteria.
2.) Scotland has shit for phone infrastructure compared to the US; she'll get 3G except for downtown Edinburgh and Downtown Glasgow--at which point she'll get 4G if she's on a 4G plan.
3.) Phone plans are cheaper here, and you get a variety: Vodephone has the best coverage, 3 has the best coverage considering price point. I would suspect you may not care about the latter though. Americans who send their kids to Scotland are often 'not poor'. Hope they enjoy their time at St Andrews.
Even if your phone supports 4G, most Telcos do not allow roaming phones to use it because it is not covered by their roaming agreements.
If you take a US Verizon LTE phone into Canada, you will not get 4G even though the networks are identical. The inverse is also true for Bell or Telus phones in the USA.
One exception is Rogers in Canada and AT&T in the USA who have an LTE roaming agreement.
Phones with CSFB are rather poor choice, as calls go through 2G/3G network. So on any incoming/outgoing call a lengthy handover is done, taking ages. Thus CSFB is a poor choice. Buy real VoLTE phone only.
Roaming fees are high and dont go apple as you need to pay $650 for a unlocked phone
After a couple of years there you won't be able to understand the hybrid accent anyway...
You can get to it by motoring up past the Lake District...
I suspect that it depends on where you go. My family is from Orkney and I find it pretty well covered when I'm back.
As far as London and Edinburgh seem to feel, we are somewhere around the North pole and have a population of about 25. If its up here, it may be even better covered down south where (self) important people live...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
I mean some may talk funny, but since when does that count as a "foreign language"?
Don't go blaming us Brits for treating American as a foreign language. I was in a Chicago book store several years ago and was amused to see that they had the Oxford English Dictionary on the shelves of the foreign language section.
You're asking the wrong question. All phones that you can buy now are "world" phones because they all use the same radio parts (and hence are the subjects of endless lawsuits.) The correct question is "which carrier/phone combination is hell to deal with?"
For example. If you have an iPhone 6 purchased in Canada, you can't use it with Verizon in the US, but it will work fine on every other carrier in Canada and the US. If you have a Verizon phone, it can technically roam using the GSM mode onto other carriers, but that's not 4G because the LTE frequencies are wrong for pretty much everywhere.
Android devices tend to be less flexible because they are made cheaper. I will not single-out a specific device, but as with the Verizon iPhone issue above, a carrier might order a device to be unique to their system (eg WiMax Sprint phones) and it will be utterly useless on another carrier.
Really the best "World" phone is an iPhone 6 or 5s/5c that was produced after a specific date as after that date it supports LTE on AWS frequencies which let's it use some T-Mobile(US)/Wind-Mobile carriers AWS frequencies that it previously wasn't supporting. Likewise with the iPad Air.
I'd probably recommend just straight-up buying the unlocked model of a device (not "unlocked by shady chinese piracy site" but "sold unlocked like from apple) if you're aiming for this. When you get to a destination that you need a new SIM card for, simply ask to borrow someone's SIM card to see if it works in your device, and if it doesn't, don't use that carrier. That will narrow things down.
http://upptalk.com/ offers app for free talk & SMS with WiFi capable phones. Or pay $35 monthly to get 3 Gb data / month in addition to free talk & text. Upptalk depends on WiFi to Internet, not on cellular phone infrastructure to originate calls.
YMMV, I will know more after first trying Upptalk.
This article doesn't mention specific bands, but it says "Vertu reckons it'll work on most 4G bands around the world." http://www.cnet.com/news/rich-...
Affordable 3G (big enough data a package, or flat fee) is probably way more useful.
4G just mean that you can in theory use one GB in 1-2 minutes.
Another thing you might want consider is that you probably don't want to be reach able transparently, personal experience show that getting voice calls during the night (locally) just to say Hi is not only expensive but also gets boring really quick.
Regarding 4G coverage, as others have mentioned, Edinburgh and Glasgow are well served for 4G and will certainly be fine around the campus areas.
Other uni towns:
I'd recommend EE for best coverage over here, I'm on Vodaphone and get great 4G in Edinburgh but fuck-all (some local patter for you there) in Dundee, Stirling, and St Andrews.
Hope that's some use, best of luck to your daughter at uni - I'm sure she'll love it.
Three UK give you 4G for the same price as 3G. Her best bet is probably to get a pay-as-you-go SIM. But first she should check that the location she will be in gets sufficient coverage, which she can do here. She should be able to find everything she needs at this link.
Right before LTE started rolling out, and before Nokia was forced to adopt chipsets approved for Windows Phone rather than using their own, the high-end Nokia devices developed had pentaband 3G and quadband 2G, which covered nearly everything (sure, some rural places in very few countries were CDMA, but this was already rare). It seemed then like other manufacturers might catch up. Unfortunately, with LTE we've re-fragmented, and manufacturers have used it as an excuse to go back to selling different models for different markets/carriers.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
I am heading to Scotland tomorrow Germany next week and then back to the states. I will be bringing my unlocked Moto X. I'm assuming EE works there (it says it does).
She should get herself a Three UK SIM on contract or pay-as-you-go (with all-you-can-eat data) and when she visits back to the USA she can put the SIM in a US-compatible phone, call her friends in the UK and be billed as if she were in the UK.
Technical point: LTE isn't 4G.
So I guess people who misread "4G LTE" as "4G Lite" must be right, no?
I believe Scottish degrees are 4 years (or 5 for an integrated masters).
My 3G phone in most European cities can get at least 1-2Mbps. At that speed I would manage to finish off my - ample for my usage - 1GB montly data plan in 1-2 hours. Why would I want anything faster? Would I be streaming HD video or download torrents? I have cheap DSL for that.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
There's no 4G outside Edinburgh & Glasgow at the moment I believe, but there is good 3G covering pretty much all the Universities and their surroundings and good wifi in the university buildings. If she's coming to St Andrews (statistically likely) there is definitely no 4G.
I had the same problem. I'm in Canada on Wind Mobile (AWS frequency) and also spend a lot of time in Europe. I wanted one phone that works on every major network in North America and in Europe. The only one I found that did this, without having two (or more) versions, is the Sony Z1 Compact. I believe the "standard" Z1 and the Z2 also support all the same bands.
The Z1 Compact also happens to be a great phone to boot. I'm quite happy with it.
First, someone mentioned their Verizon phone wouldn't work in Africa: this is no surprise, as Verizon uses CDMA, which is found only in islands outside of N. America. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
Second, here is Wikipedia's list of bands since no one bothered to include it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...
and an alternative source: http://niviuk.free.fr/lte_band...
Now, for a list of phones, a quick search found this article: http://www.extremetech.com/ele...
This phone doesn't support 600-700 MHz LTE, but I don't think that's being deployed much yet in Europe, anyway (though it's coming). And, of course, the mention of the latest Apples.
Personally, I think it's a miracle that EE's are able to squeeze in as many bands as they have (650-928 MHz and 1710-2600 MHz with a gap or two PLUS 2450 MHz WiFi and Bluetooth) and still have usable sensitivity and selectivity. This is more than just SDR at work.
Having been an expat many times and on almost every continent, it is universally better to purchase the equipment from the phone company that will be your "home base".
4G in the states. Solid 3G performance in the Swiss alps as I remember, I don't remember if it had a 4G signal there. And it's water resistant in the rain. Best part... It's small enough to fit in my pocket!
Check back with me in two weeks and I'll let you know how it does in Germany.
The iPhone because Apple has enough clout to force all carriers to sell the same model phone. (Only the CDMA model is different.) Consequently, that model works around the world. With most other phones, the carriers have the upper hand and get the manufacturer to make a version customized to their frequencies.
The Nexus 5 because Google did the same thing. There are two versions - a North American version which supports CDMA and LTE bands commonly used in the U.S., and a world version which doesn't support CDMA but adds LTE bands more common throughout the world.
Those are the two I know of for sure. There may be some others too. e.g. The newer Samsung models support both GSM and CDMA for voice, but only a limited number of LTE bands. Find the GSM and LTE frequencies used by your U.S. carrier and in the UK/Scotland, then browse the gsmarena website to find phones which work in both.
Just buy a damn phone in Scotland - they have more than just Loch Ness you know.
Who cares if it exists if it costs a ton of money to use it?
The LTE bands you list don't include band 7 (2600). Some European carriers only offer LTE on band 7 such as the popular French Free.fr service. However, competitors, such as B&You, do offer LTE on supported bands. I get 90Mbps downloads with B&You on my Samsung S4 in Paris. Recommended.
Dont bother with 4G, and you'll find plenty of multiband phones.
First off, consider buying a burner phone and sell it afterwards. Put a local SIM card in the device, so it can call local numbers cheaper. Lots of advantages here.
Second, if you do insist on one phone to rull them all, please do forget about 4G. Even with 4G coverage you wont exceed 3G speeds without looking for a very specific (unrealistic) scenario. Unless she wants to broadcast live video from her phone in HD, ofcourse.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
I also live in USA and my Granddaughters were in University in UK. With purchase of a good quality GSM 4G/LTE smartphone and subscription with T-Mobile here in North America , they can call home on unlimited talk plan. They purchased local UK T-Mobile service - with sim chip - for callling friends and family in UK and Europe. Great solution.
1. Buy a 'sim free' phone in UK on arrival. Different bankwidths and safety regulations as she must use a "CE" marked phone within the EU.
2. At beginning certainly use a pay-as -you-go-phone. She cam swop to her USA SIM when she goes back to USA.
3. Coverage: Very necessary to know actual telcom providers ( both real and 'virtual' who piggy back on an other telecos line) relative to the area she will be in, Albeit most telecos claim 90+% coverage, they do this by piggy backing (roaming charges) on other networks and operation is very limited in mountainous regions.
Example: Within my areas near Manchester in England and in Galoway in southern Scotland, signal strengths vary widely. ( 300yards = 80% loss of signal on two telecos but not on third) In cities mostly OK, but in rural and some islands areas you have problems.
Regards Eion MacDonald
You can get phones that cover all the bands used for HSPA+ worldwide. That's not quite 4G, despite the marketing of AT&T and T-Mobile, but it's still plenty fast: theoretical download speeds of 42Mbps and real world speeds reaching 10Mbps. Phones that offer that include the Nexus line, the Sony Xperia phones, the iPhone 4 and 5 families, and many others.
What you can't get are phones that cover all the bands used for LTE worldwide. Phones that offer worldwide HSPA+ and some LTE typically come in two versions: one for North America (with some, but not complete, coverage of bands used elsewhere) and one for the rest of the world (with limited coverage of the US LTE bands). One big sticking point is one of the LTE bands used by Verizon; since pretty much nobody else in the entire world uses it (Verizon bought the rights to it for the entire US, there are not yet any deployments on those frequencies elsewhere in the Americas, and it's not available for cell phone use in the rest of the world), nothing but a Verizon-specific phone will do.
If you have an unlocked phone with worldwide HSPA+, take it with you on your travels. Most likely the data speeds will be good enough. If they're not you'll have to think about getting a local phone, or perhaps consider getting a local phone-WiFi gateway instead.
The USA is pretty much alone in the frequency used for 4G. It got Apple into hot water in Australia because the "4G" iBricks couldn't do better than 3G I'm not even sure the current devices have switched hardware to get around this (not an Apple fan), apart from 4G quad band phones will take you pretty much anywhere happily.. With that said any phone that supports HSPA+ can in theory get data rates upto around 200Mbps provided the network supports it (not all do by a long shot) and the phone's hardware isn't limited (many 3G phones have only 9 or 20Mbps capability according to tech specs). Note HSPA+ is 3G technology, and also many providers charge extra for 4G coverage still as well because of course they can.
Go for Google Nexus 5 it is the best one if you have low budget and its camera processor and software is really awesome.