GSM 800-850-900-1900 Americas?

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mcdgi - 01 Feb 2004 23:15 GMT

I have an unlocked motorola timeport p7389, which can operate at 800,1800,
and 1900 bands. I would like to be able to use the phone mainly in Panama
and Jamaica, but some other countries in So America too once in awhile. In
Jamaica I see I can operate on Cable and Wireless at 1900 mhz, but I read
that Panama has GSM only on Cable and Wireless at 850 mhz.
Two questions for you all:

1) With apologies that this may be a dumb question, , but will a triband
900-1800-1900 GSM phone have a prayers chance of working in say Panama
which apparently only has service at 850, is it close enough to 900?

2) Assuming the answer to the first question is NO, what is the best phone
to use that operate on all 4 GSM bands, 850,900, 1800 and 1900?

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Mike S. - 02 Feb 2004 01:53 GMT

>I have an unlocked motorola timeport p7389, which can operate at 800,1800,
>and 1900 bands. I would like to be able to use the phone mainly in Panama
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>900-1800-1900 GSM phone have a prayers chance of working in say Panama
>which apparently only has service at 850, is it close enough to 900?

No chance, period.

>2) Assuming the answer to the first question is NO, what is the best phone
>to use that operate on all 4 GSM bands, 850,900, 1800 and 1900?

There are very few quad band GSM phones on the market now.

The NEC 515 and 525 are out there but there are plenty of complaints.

The Motorola V500/V600 are first starting to come out in limited
quantities; with early, buggy firmware according to some users.

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Todd Allcock - 02 Feb 2004 05:56 GMT

> I have an unlocked motorola timeport p7389, which can operate at 800,1800,
> and 1900 bands. I would like to be able to use the phone mainly in Panama
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> 900-1800-1900 GSM phone have a prayers chance of working in say Panama
> which apparently only has service at 850, is it close enough to 900?

800 and 850 are the same band. Some idiots in the US decided to refer
to the 800 MHz band as "850" when the band is used for GSM instead of
analog, (ironically to prevent confusion!)

So, if your timeport does 800, it does 850. 900MHz, however, isn't
"close enough" to 850!

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mcdgi - 02 Feb 2004 13:54 GMT

Thanks for the great responses, it does not look like my timeport is going
to work in Panama. I noted the motorola V500/600 may be buggy, but in
googling for more information ran across the motorola V400.

Any scuttlebutt on the V400 on such matters as reliability of firmware and
such?

Thank again

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Bob Bupka - 13 Feb 2004 01:32 GMT

Get a Motorola V400 and get it unlocked. You can use Cingular sim card
there but it is expensive. I recommend buying a prepaid sim card in those
countries when you get there. Also have cingular provision your account for
international roaming.

> Thanks for the great responses, it does not look like my timeport is going
> to work in Panama. I noted the motorola V500/600 may be buggy, but in
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Thank again

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