Australian Mobile Phones in the USA

[llamatron]

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone had experience with this. For the past 2 years I've been on a contract plan with three mobile, I activated international roaming and successfully used my phone in Singapore and the U.K. however both times I went to the USA (Hawaii and California) the phone did not work (i.e. couldn't connect to any networks / get any reception).

Just wondering if anyone here has been able to use their Australian phone in the USA and if so what provider they are with.

[griffin]

Could just be 3 have no telco partner in America (or the parts you were in). I'm on Vodafone, and it was able to locate and connect to telcos in the states I've used it in (CA and Ohio).
Talk to your phone company and see if it is a problem on their end or yours (your phone).

[Sleeve]

I'm on Vodafone with my Blackberry and I connected to all networks when I was there (California and Illinois) in May. I made sure to turn off data services though because even though I get free unlimited internet here, it's not free when roaming. Something like 1c for every kb. When you receive a ton of emails each day that are around 720kb each, it adds up veeeeery quickly.

[Maxiewolf]

How old is your phone? You might need to manually change the band.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/roa_auht.shtml these are all the networks that 3 Network uses for roaming.

AT&T and TMobile seem to be your only options in the USA, GSM 850/1900 and 3G 850 (Telstra phones tend to work good for that. Same band as Next G) - But alot of 3 Phones are meant to roam on parts of the Next G network so you may get lucky. Most other carriers use 3G 2100 here. so if your phone doesnt have 3G 850 you might be having trouble.

3G 2100 tends to work really widespread in asia.

[Scrapper]

It may not even be the carrier. I was recently looking at mobile phones on ebay and they said some of the Japanese phones work perfectly in other countries like UK and Australia and what not but they won't work in America or Canada I think it was to do with the actual phone not being compatible for their signals or something. It beats me I am not very good with those type of things but that's all I remember it saying.

[5FDP]

I'll just chip in my two cents worth - I have worked for a major telco in Australia for the past 7 years; specifically in technical support for mobile.

Roaming is dependant on the type of handset you are using while roaming (for the US it has to be at least a triband), and whether or not your carrier has roaming agreements in the country you are visiting. Of course, you must have roaming enabled on your service for this to work and ensure your carrier removes any IDD barrings so you can call out.

There are also other reasons why this would not work such as an ageing SIM card - check the numbers on the back of the SIM; the 9th and 10th digit relate to the year of manufacture and you want to make sure it's no older than 10 years. You'd be surprised how many people own a 10 year old SIM :D

When you are OS and the phone doesn't appear to attach to a network, perform a manual network selection on the handset to see which networks it is able to detect. When selecting an available network that your provider has an agreement with, it should display 'home network selected'. If you can't connect, then either your carrier doesn't have agreements with that carrier or, there is a problem with the network.

If you are still having issues, contact your providers technical support department.

Hope this helps.

[jaydisc]

Yeah, what kind of phone do you have? It's all about the frequencies as others have said.

Also, int'l roaming is a complete and utter rip off. You can buy a T-Mobile prepaid sim starter pack for US$50 with a bit of credit and throw it away when you're done.

[llamatron]

The phone is an LG Shine which is a total piece of crap. Will be getting a new one and probably switching to Vodaphone in a month or two.

International roaming is ok because I just use it for sending sms messages which comes under the value included in the cap.

[Maxiewolf]

Frequency in the LG Shine (if its the old one with the scroll wheel type thing) are 900/1800/1900 GSM

There was another version that had a (reeally annoying) joystick type thing from telstra that had the 3G850 mhz.

but yeah either of them shoudl work on the 1900 frequency anyway. it may just be a case of changing the setting from auto to manual. which in an lg is usualy pretty easy.

But if your getting a new one just ask for quad band instead of tri and you should be fine.

[llamatron]

Thanks for the replies.

A lot of the new phones I've been looking at are 3G 900 / 2100 MHz ones, which it would appear may not work in the USA? To really protect myself I'd want something that's a GSM tri or quad band?

[jaydisc]

International roaming is ok because I just use it for sending sms messages which comes under the value included in the cap.

I can say with near certainty that sending sms's while on international roaming will not be included in your cap and will be charged over and above at a rate of $0.75 or higher. Some carriers charge a similar amount for every RECEIVED sms while roaming internationally.

Specifically for Vodafone, outgoing is charged at $0.75:
http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/services/roaming/postpay/index.htm

[llamatron]

Yeah, my bad, misread the T&C's.

[Maxiewolf]

How often do you go trekking to need the international roaming or o/s usage of the phone anyways? more than once or twice a year? Cos ifyou do it might be better to get a handset from o/s and just use it when your away.

[llamatron]

That's a good point actually. I'll look in to doing that.

[griffin]

I use my own phone when in US for convenience to me and others (who I may not have contact with before I leave the country), and means I don't have to carry around 2 phones (I also use my phone as a backup camera). My limited use of my phone at botcon means my international call costs end up being very low, and probably less than the $50 disposable phone cost. But weigh up your options based on your own needs, because if you are spending a fair bit of time in America with others whom you need to contact often, or doing lots of other stuff which has you needing a phone a fair bit as well, the disposable option would end up being cheaper.