Euro cell work in North America? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

snowball1982 · 10-31-2008, 08:48 AM

Hey all, I picked up a Motorola SLVR in Berlin and I have a german SIM card for it. I know zip about cell phones, will it work in North America? Or should I sell it to another traveller?
thx

**raoulduke** · 10-31-2008, 03:41 PM

My understanding is a little rusty as well but if it is a quad band phone (it should be if you bought it in Europe) then it'll work in the US.

Someone feel free to correct me though.

**mbo108** · 10-31-2008, 06:50 PM

Well you are correct that it should work over here in the States as long as its quad band. Quad basically means that it covers the 850 Mhz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency ranges. In the states we use 850 and 1900 while in Berlin it would be on the 900/1800 frequencies.

Anyway, the bigger issue is getting a company to sell you a SIM card for your phone. The companies over here dont really operate like in Europe - they want to get you to by THEIR hardware as well. But you can certainly try. I dont know too much about how that works. I know people do unlock their phones so they can switch but I think they sign up for a plan with one company (say T-mobile), then buy another one thru AT&T (maybe to get an iPhone) and then unlock (jailbreak) the iPhone and put the T-Mobile SIM card in. But I dont think t-mobile will just sell you the SIM card. again I could be wrong about this.

Hope this helped a little...

**MeTurk** · 11-01-2008, 08:02 AM

According to the website it's quadband. It might be locked to your provider they do that in Europe allot unless you buy the phone separately yourself. It can be fixed though I don't think it's a big deal they basically format the phone and put the standard software back on. With the phone unlocked you should be able to put any sim in it, so you could buy a cheap phone just for the sim card.

**mbo108** · 11-01-2008, 09:37 AM

You could sign up for 2-year (usual minimum) from AT&T and get the cheapest cell phone they offer (usually free) and then just put the SIM card in your unlocked SLVR. But I'm not really sure how things would in Canada, but thats how it would go in the States.

**raoulduke** · 11-01-2008, 04:07 PM

In Aus you can just buy a prepaid simcard and put it in any unlocked phone. Can't you do that in the US?

snowball1982 · 11-02-2008, 06:20 AM

As far as I know, we do not use Sim cards in Canada. I have only ever had contract phones, and I believe the pay as you go services you get some kind of calling card where u make the cal from your phone and enter a code into some automated service that tops up your minutes.
Thx

**mbo108** · 11-02-2008, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raoulduke

In Aus you can just buy a prepaid simcard and put it in any unlocked phone. Can't you do that in the US?

Yeah, not really. They like being able to charge you coming and going. Its hard to buy an unlocked phone from a reputable place. They are available some places but its kinda sketchy. Then, like I said, its a hassle to get a SIM card for that phone.

**MeTurk** · 11-03-2008, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowball1982

As far as I know, we do not use Sim cards in Canada. I have only ever had contract phones, and I believe the pay as you go services you get some kind of calling card where u make the cal from your phone and enter a code into some automated service that tops up your minutes.
Thx

I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure every phone must have a sim card. Sim cards are as old as the hills too so it's the phone that does all the restrictions and locking. So once the phone is unlocked it can take any sim, unless the phone sends some sort of product code (which may be possible I suppose) to identify itself but I thought it was the sim that kept all that log on info.

I'll ask this on a techy forum and get a definitive answer.

**mbo108** · 11-03-2008, 10:38 AM

I dont know about prepaid phones but other than that I'm pretty sure you're correct MeTurk. Every phone I've ever come across has a SIM card. And there are plenty of forums out there on how to unlock phones.

**offhegoes03** · 11-03-2008, 12:32 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Verizon uses SIM cards. I think it is because it is on CDMA (is that right?) as opposed to GSM. So if your european phone has a sim card slot and is quad band, you can get an AT&T (or other company) SIM card in the manner that mbo108 mentioned and plug it in. I've never done it before, but I know it's theoretically possible.

**MeTurk** · 11-03-2008, 02:01 PM

According to the techies you should be fine as it's a quad band and I've been told T mobile sell sims on ebay.

**mbo108** · 11-04-2008, 04:33 AM

I believe Verizon still uses SIM cards but you are correct in that their phones are not GSM they are CDMA. So not quad-band so it wouldn't work.