World-Wide Cell Phone Services
Sep 10th, 2007 by Vinny
I was traveling quite a bit this year, including a trip to Dubai. I needed a phone and SIM card that will work all over the world. So I stopped by my local at&t store since they have GSM phones, and most of the known world uses GSM (except for Japan and others).
I asked the rep if it would work anywhere, and he said it should, roaming is enabled. I said OK, give me your pre-paid phone that has tri-band support (tri-band will support most GSM type networks). I ended up with the at&t Nokia 6102i phone which is the only pre-paid that has tri-band. A Quad-band phone would be your best bet, but they don’t offer it. When I got the phone, I unlocked it so when I was traveling I could use a local SIM card since you usually get cheaper rates. I unlocked it at unlock123.com for about $5. For those who don’t know what unlocking is, your phone comes with a software lock that only lets you use certain carriers in the U.S. You can purchase phones that come from the factory unlocked, but you will never get those in a local store. You can unlock just about any phone with a SIM card in it, just do some Google searches.
So I had my phone, SIM, and was ready to travel. Off to Dubai I went, through Amsterdam. I tried the phone in Amsterdam, and what do ya know, it won’t get service since the SIM card is not allowed to roam on their network. I figured that $alesman lied to me. I get to Dubai, and same result, nothing. No roaming for me. So with the help of a trusty friend I procured a SIM card locally (good luck doing this in the states) which worked fine. Added some Durham’s to it, and away I went.
My next issue, is that the Nokia 6102i doesn’t hold a signal for crap. When you start to move in a car, no signal. It drops instantly. When you are stopped, works great. Since most of my trip was traveling between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the phone is useless. I had to borrow a Motorola RAZR for the rest of the trip.
When I got back to the states, I researched SIM cards that would work all over the world. I found a company called World SIM which gives free incoming calls to most of the world. The rates are very reasonable, and you get a U.K. number which for anyone calling you from the states would be an international call. I bought a new RAZR off ebay that was already unlocked, popped in the SIM and it works like a champ. When you make a call, it actually calls you back instead of calling directly. This can get a little annoying since calls are not instant, but it still works fine. I tried the card in Curacao and it worked without issue.
My RAZR stopped charging soon after (not having good luck here) so I got a free Samsung phone from my friend, unlocked it, and that has been working great. SIM cards are nice because you can save all your contacts on the card, put a PIN on it, and everything moves with you from phone to phone.
I really wish the carriers in the U.S. would allow you to just purchase phones and SIM cards separately and be free to pick a network. They are too greedy so I doubt that will ever happen. For now you can pick companies such as MetroPCS that don’t make you sign a contract, but they lack a lot of the new data services.
