The Ericsson T68 claims to be a “world phone” or something. I never actually read that far into the manual before I put it in the box and stuffed it underneath a bunch of crap in my closet.
I’ll be heading to Hong Kong soon, and I was wondering how I’d be able to use my T68 there. I’m assuming the rates would be sky-high, but I’m curious about this whole world phone thing, and of course, whether or not I’m even getting the right idea about this phone.
This reviewer claims he bought his T68 in Hong Kong, so it seems that Hong Kong may be among the “120” countries that the phone’s makers boast it can be used in.
I thought most phones can be used internationally these days. I think it has more to do with network agreements than it does with the handset itself.
I used my old Nokia in Hong Kong and Thailand a couple of years ago, on my regular Australian SIM card and telephone number. I could have used the phone in Vietnam too, but I would have needed to buy a local SIM.
As I recall, the rates weren’t too bad, but be warned that you’ll probably have to pay the international component of incoming calls, unless you place a bar on them.
You’ll also probably need to let your carrier know you’re travelling a few days in advance.
Yes that phone, like many others, is GSM triband, 900/1800/1900 MHZ, and will work on any GSM network in the world. Now you need a carrier with a roaming agreeomet whereever you are going or just get a contract there. You just plug in the local sim. if you’ll be spending any time there it may be worth it. http://www.wirelessgalaxy.com/mobilephones/voicestream/ericssont68i_vs.html
T-Mobile/Voicestream is all GSM, and ATT and Cingular Wireless are coverting their systems to GSM. A triband GSM mobile phone will work in most populated areas of the US, almost all of Europe, populated areas of Australia and Africa, and most parts of Asia except South Korea and Japan. If you can find the rare tri-band phone with AMPS (North American analog) capabilities, you’ve got almost all of the rural United States and Canada covered, too.
I used to own a Nokia 5160 with service provided by AT&T here in the states. I’m not sure what protocol it used (this was about 2 years ago, so it probably wasn’t GSM) but it worked just fine in Hong Kong back in 2000. I hope that helps.
Re: 900/1800/1900-MHz GSM:
There is now, or very soon will be, GSM on the 850-MHz band in North America at least. Some of the carriers that have the original AMPS anaogue cellular on the 850-MHz band are converting part of that to 850-MHz GSM in rural areas for greater ease of coverage. I suspect that there would not be enough capacity on the 850-MHz band to handle the crush of users in urban areas–that’s what 1900-MHz is for.
I have seen the Motorola C333, a GSM-850/1900 dualband phone, for sale by Rogers in Toronto–apparently they are going to be putting GSM-850 on their rural towers next year.
Just as the manufacurers seem ho have their act together and are moving slowly towards making GSM-900/1800/1900 triband a standard feature on most phones, another band appears*, to confuse the salespeople and the buyer…
Emilio Lizardo, the 5160 is IS-136 TDMA, not GSM. But there have been IS-136 TDMA networks in many places outside the USA where there is strong US influence.
[sub]*There was a proposed GSM-400 for use in Africa and Russia, but I don’t know whether that ever got off the ground.[/sub]