phone to roam with in south korea

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nospam - 29 Dec 2003 02:23 GMT

I've got a customer that has t-mobile service and wants to take his phone to
south korea too. I think that as best as i can tell, there is no gsm system in
s korea that he can roam on if he had a world phone w/ gsm 900, 1800, 1900...

So is the system there cdma or wcdma, and what are some choices of phones that
could do both u.s. and s korea? I think the nokia 6650 may be a candidtate,
does the wcdma and gsm at least, of course costs 500 unlocked on ebay.. But
then i'm not sure if i need wcdma or cdma.

Or a second phone may be acceptable to take to s korea, insert the t-mobile sim
on which international roaming is provisioned, so what phone would we need for
s korea only and to use the tmobile sim so he could make and receive calls on
his t-mobile u.s. number?? if this makes sense, any help is appreciated,
thanks in advance. jay

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matt weber - 29 Dec 2003 02:58 GMT

>I've got a customer that has t-mobile service and wants to take his phone to
>south korea too. I think that as best as i can tell, there is no gsm system in
>s korea that he can roam on if he had a world phone w/ gsm 900, 1800, 1900...

That is correct. S Korea is sometimes referred to as the CDMA kingdom.

>So is the system there cdma or wcdma,

Both, but one is a superset of the other as far as most phones are
concerned.

>and what are some choices of phones that
>could do both u.s. and s korea?

Depends. The PCS band does not exist in S. Korea, however CDMA may be
in the 800Mhz band, which exists in both places. The bind is that
there is no such thing as a SIM in CDMA, so International Roaming
agreements tend to be rare (but not non-existent). Contact you the
CDMA providers in the USA like Verizon and see if they have an
agreement in S. Korea.

I think the nokia 6650 may be a candidtate,

>does the wcdma and gsm at least, of course costs 500 unlocked on ebay.. But
>then i'm not sure if i need wcdma or cdma.

>Or a second phone may be acceptable to take to s korea, insert the t-mobile sim
>on which international roaming is provisioned, so what phone would we need for
>s korea only and to use the tmobile sim so he could make and receive calls on
>his t-mobile u.s. number??

No such luck. CDMA doesn't know what a SIM is.

> if this makes sense, any help is appreciated,
>thanks in advance. jay

You would probably be better off to rent a phone in South Korea.

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- 29 Dec 2003 03:27 GMT

> No such luck. CDMA doesn't know what a SIM is.

Matt's a tad off the mark with this. CDMA does actually know what a SIM is,
at least in S. Korea it does.
http://www.ktfroaming.com/

Signature

Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

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Joseph - 29 Dec 2003 14:34 GMT

>>Or a second phone may be acceptable to take to s korea, insert the t-mobile sim
>>on which international roaming is provisioned, so what phone would we need for
>>s korea only and to use the tmobile sim so he could make and receive calls on
>>his t-mobile u.s. number??
>No such luck. CDMA doesn't know what a SIM is.

CDMA phones are now coming out with a "R-UIM" card slot which is
similar to a SIM. You'll still need to rent a phone in Korea, but you
should be able to get one that will accept your SIM and use on their
system.

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