Tri-band in Philippines?

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Ablang - 20 Apr 2005 04:22 GMT

    The Philippines uses 900/1800 according to the guy in the
Nokia store.

    I bought a Nokia 6230, which is a tri-band GSM phone using
850/1300/1800 I think. What happens if I try to use this phone over
there, using a SIM card bought in PI?

===
    "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
-- Aristotle

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Mike S. - 20 Apr 2005 13:33 GMT

> The Philippines uses 900/1800 according to the guy in the
>Nokia store.
>
> I bought a Nokia 6230, which is a tri-band GSM phone using
>850/1300/1800 I think. What happens if I try to use this phone over
>there, using a SIM card bought in PI?

I am not aware of 1300 MHz being used for GSM anywhere in the world.
Are you sure it's not 850/1800/1900?

The two biggest cellular networks (and providers of prepaid SIMs) are
Smart and Globe. They both use 900/1800. If your phone lacks one of those
bands, you may have gaps in coverage.

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Chris Blunt - 23 Apr 2005 02:03 GMT

In article <rkib61tohgsj11lpe6bc0qqjsfklc5hj5r@4ax.com>,
Ablang <HilaryDuffEverAfter@ablang-duff.com> wrote:

I live in the Philippines, and also use a Nokia 6230 here which works
just fine on both the Globe and Smart networks.

Globe were the original GSM network in the country and use mainly
900MHz. Smart came along later and occupy mostly 1,800MHz.

There's also a relatively new network around now, Sun Cellular. I'm
not sure what band they use.

Chris

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Frank Thomas - 21 Apr 2005 21:45 GMT

> The Philippines uses 900/1800 according to the guy in the
> Nokia store.
>
> I bought a Nokia 6230, which is a tri-band GSM phone using
> 850/1300/1800 I think. What happens if I try to use this phone over
> there, using a SIM card bought in PI?

The two networks I am most familiar with in the Philippines are Smart and
Globe on 900/1800. I have only an older Triband that runs on
900-1800-1900 that runs quite well with a Globe SIM in it there and a
T-Mobile SIM here. I never heard of 1300 GSM.

It sounds like you have at least one of the frequencies in use, so yours
ought to work. Big thing to check : your phone must be unlocked in order
to put in a Sim Card from some other company. If its not, whether your
phone has the right bands or not, it won't work at all.

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punk-tilous - 22 Apr 2005 19:17 GMT

>> The Philippines uses 900/1800 according to the guy in the
>> Nokia store.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> to put in a Sim Card from some other company. If its not, whether your
> phone has the right bands or not, it won't work at all.

I'm a bit confused because according this website
http://www.mobilecomms-technology.com/projects/philippines_gsm/

The SMART GSM network is the first dual band GSM network in the Philippines,
covering both the GSM 800 and 1800 frequencies

I was in the PI in 2002 and I had an Ericsson T68i tri-band GSM
900/1800/1900 and I used a prepaid SMART SIM card and it worked flawlessly.
The above website seems to imply I must have been using GSM 1800.

As for SMART vs GLOBE, the locals told me that SMART has better coverage and
reception if you are in Metro Manila but that GLOBE is better outside of
Manila in the outlaying provinces.

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Mike S. - 22 Apr 2005 20:43 GMT

>>> The Philippines uses 900/1800 according to the guy in the
>>> Nokia store.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>The SMART GSM network is the first dual band GSM network in the Philippines,
>covering both the GSM 800 and 1800 frequencies

This must be a misprint. 800 MHz is only used in the Americas. Globe and
Smart use 900/1800.

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Mel3k - 24 Apr 2005 17:01 GMT

> >>> The Philippines uses 900/1800 according to the guy in the
> >>> Nokia store.
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> This must be a misprint. 800 MHz is only used in the Americas. Globe and
> Smart use 900/18000

The GSM networks in the Philippines are:
Globe Telecom (GSM900/1800)
Smart Communications (GSM900/1800)
Sun Cellular (GSM1800 only)

Note- GSM1800 coverage on Smart and Globe is only in major cities,
rural areas covered by Globe and Smart are on GSM900

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