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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?"
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.
The Nexus 4 isn't 4G (unless you hack it and live in Canada).
The Nexux 5 is, but there are 2 version to accommodate the different bands in North America and rest of the world.
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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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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
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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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.
my wife has this device and she loves it. does deserve a look at IMO.
Heh, I could be wrong on the LTE frequencies. Seems the ROW edition might fare much better there.
Nexus 5 specs:
2G/3G/4G LTE
North America:
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
Rest of World:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
UK LTE bands (from Wikipedia):
EE: 3,7
Hutichson 3: 20,3
O2: 20
UK Broadband 42,43
Vodaphone: 20
I think it's been covered pretty well by other posters. The Nexus 5 would be fine. So would a Blackberry. To me the bigger issue is whether or not 4G is actually available where the lady is staying. It doesn't really matter what kind of phone you have if your area is only broadcasting a 3G signal. I thought it was important to point out those nasty international roaming fees. Perhaps you disagree but it's all good.
Get an unlocked phone with a removable SIM card (which excludes anything Verizon sells)
Stop repeating lies. Every modern Verizon phone sold in the last 3 years has a removable SIM card. The last 5 Verizon phones I've owned (iPhone 5S, LG G2, HTC Rezound, RAZR HD, Galaxy S3) were sold SIM unlocked with GSM/HSPA world capabilities. Most even work on AT&T/T-Mobile here in the USA as well. Just because Verizon *used* to sell crippled CDMA-only hardware doesn't mean that's been the case in recent history. The Verizon devices are actually the best ones to get nowadays, as they are the only carrier selling factory unlocked phones and are compatible with Verizon AND every other GSM provider in the world.
I didn't claim 4G/LTE. I claimed it worked fine. No worse than in the US which is supposed to offer 4G, but forgets to actually attach it to the internet by anything faster than a damp piece of string.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
And what 4G phones are fully waterproof? This is Scotland we're talking about.
Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
HTC ONE MINI 4G - LTE:
EMEA: 800/1800/2600 MHz
Asia: 900/1800/2100/2600 MHz
AT&T: 700/850/AWS/1900 MHz
So AT&T is the only option.
http://www.att.com/att/global/...
And Scotland has AT&T coverage in LTE.
Well done, the first actual phone recommended in this thread that would do what the OP requested help with.
Basically any AT&T phone on an international plan should work.
From what I'm seeing you can order it in 2 versions. "Asia" and "AT&T" The AT&T version covers both Europe and the west.
EMEA: 800/1800/2600 MHz
Asia: 900/1800/2100/2600 MHz
AT&T: 700/850/AWS/1900 MHz
The reason they aren't the same phone is because the frequencies overlap. Or at least, that's my understanding.
Yes, the phone I used was from AT&T and popping a local SIM card (in The Philippines as it happens) did work for me.
...No worse than in the US which is supposed to offer 4G, but forgets to actually attach it to the internet by anything faster than a damp piece of string.
Hey, TCP over TWINE is still under development! It turns out that each size tin can needs it's own driver...
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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).
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This line is such crap, the original bar for 4G was set so high that even the first round of LTE-Advanced wouldn't have qualified in many instances due to a lack of sufficient spectrum. In the real world LTE offers a low latency all IP transport which is sufficiently different from 3G technology to warrant a new label and the logical label was 4G.
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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.
What we are really good for in Orkney is wind, not particularly rain. They generally stop admitting to wind speeds over 90mph but that doesn't mean that speeds well over that are unusual.
Sadly, we are pushed for 3G.
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I'll buy your argument, up until the last sentence. 4G was already a defined technology, which had been advertised to the public as having specific features. Verizon/ATT/TMobile/Sprint decided to redefine the term, but clearly didn't want to try too hard letting their subscribers know the "new 4G network" wasn't the same 4G we'd all been told to expect.
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.
The only significant difference between LTE and LTE-Advanced is bandwidth, all the layer 2-7 pieces are essentially the same. Perhaps some day there will be an LTE-Advanced network that actually takes advantage of the proposed microcell technology to enable actual use of that higher bandwidth, but due to cost concerns I'm not holding my breath. In other words even an LTE-Advanced based network probably won't meet the stated goals of ITU-T for 4G so back in the real world we have more advanced networks that actually advance the state of the art and make real changes to the ways the network is used (ie voice can now traverse the same carrier as data) but without any meaningful label if you follow the strict ITU-T 4G definition.
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The Sony Xperia Z2, model D6503, should support all 4G bands used in North American and Europe - and is IP58 certified (waterproof to 1m depth for 1 hour).
I got it - works great!
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.
And even where there is nominal 4G coverage, it's patchy. I live in London, which is supposed to be pretty well covered by 4G, but much of the time I can't get it.
On the other hand, 3G should be fine in Scotland. Sure, a lot of Scotland has no cellphone signal at all, but that's because a lot of Scotland is wilderness. If the OP's daughter is actually studying in a town, the mobile signal should be fine. And there will be plenty of free WiFi hotspots - coffee shops, bars & McDonalds - if she wants to voip home to ask for money.
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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.
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.