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Help International Use

C

Cypras

Newbie
Hi,

I live in New Zealand and am looking to buy a Samsung Galaxy S3 here.
I would buy a Telecom XT sim card to use in the phone. However I am planning to move to USA next year and am wondering if I can just buy a sim card there from one of their providers (At&T? Verizon?) and put it in my S3 that I bought in NZ and have it work just like normal?

Is this possible, or what are my options?

Thanks.
 
I'm not in the USA but I cannot imagine that this is not possible. I work in the UK in a business allied to the tourist industry and many of my clients on extended trips to continental Europe buy local SIMs to put in their existing phones to avoid international roaming charges. It may well be on a PAYG basis rather than a monthly contract, but even so I cannot imagine AT&T, Sprint or whoever turning away a new customer simply because that person doesn't want to buy a new phone!
 
So you would imagine I can buy a local sim card in the USA and then I will be on a plan from a US provider? I wonder if I could just take my phone into one of the providers and let me do it all for me. Anyway I just was hoping it would work because I don't want to buy a S3 here and then not have it work over there in a year.
 
You would first have to check the frequency bands supported by the phones sold in New Zealand were supported by either T-Mobile or AT&T in the US. Odds are, it would work on AT&T (the European version will).

In addition, you have to make sure you get the phone unlocked before you move for an american sim to work. But if it is, you should be able to go to any AT&T store and sign up for a plan without a contact and get a sim for it.
 
Thanks for the help,

Any chance you know how to check what frequencies we run and what the American ones run? About unlocking the phone, how does one achieve that? And is it legal?
 
Cypras said:
Thanks for the help,

Any chance you know how to check what frequencies we run and what the American ones run? About unlocking the phone, how does one achieve that? And is it legal?
Click to expand...

I know that AT&T or T-Mobile should work for you. And it is legal to unlock the phone for AT&T or T-Mobile. I know that the international version of the One X works on AT&T.
 
Cypras said:
Thanks, do you know how to unlock the phone? You know if the international S3 works on AT&T, etc?
Click to expand...

I don't know the answers to those questions, but I'm sure someone else will be aable to help you with that. This is a very good and helpful forum. The best!
 
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Jacqui D: All Telecom phones are unlocked, so there would be no problem placing another SIM card in it, as long as the network you are using is compatible with the phone.
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Josh: How could I tell if the network I was going to join would be compatible with the phone?
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Josh: The phone being Samsung Galaxy S3
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: So the network would need to work off a 3G, Wideband CDMA network, using the 850mhz and 2100mhz frequencies
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Josh: Okay, and then I will be able to just swap sim cards between telecom and an american provider (with those 3d, wideband, etc) depending on which country I am in?
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: Yes that's correct.
chat_enduser_message.png
Josh: You happen to know any American networks that work off those?
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: No I do not know, you would need to contact them to discuss.


That is a discussion I had from the company in which I would buy the phone from. Interesting, so know I need to find an american provider which uses those settings.
 
Cypras said:
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: All Telecom phones are unlocked, so there would be no problem placing another SIM card in it, as long as the network you are using is compatible with the phone.
chat_enduser_message.png
Josh: How could I tell if the network I was going to join would be compatible with the phone?
chat_enduser_message.png
Josh: The phone being Samsung Galaxy S3
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: So the network would need to work off a 3G, Wideband CDMA network, using the 850mhz and 2100mhz frequencies
chat_enduser_message.png
Josh: Okay, and then I will be able to just swap sim cards between telecom and an american provider (with those 3d, wideband, etc) depending on which country I am in?
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: Yes that's correct.
chat_enduser_message.png
Josh: You happen to know any American networks that work off those?
chat_agent.png
Jacqui D: No I do not know, you would need to contact them to discuss.


That is a discussion I had from the company in which I would buy the phone from. Interesting, so know I need to find an american provider which uses those settings.
Click to expand...

According to Wikipedia (Cellular frequencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) AT&T runs 3G on 850 and 1900 while T-Mobile runs on 1700 and 2100 bands.

There is one more hitch though. T-Mobile runs it 3G asynchronously. This means that your phone has to support both the 1700 and 2100 bands to get 3G coverage. AT&T does not, but the 1900 band is more plentiful (although they are adding mostly 850 bands because it penetrates buildings better).

If you know where you will be moving too, I'd contact AT&T online and see if they know what the 850 coverage would be in that area.

One final note is that the frequency bands Jacqui told you were what Telecom uses, but the phone you buy may support other frequency bands as well. This is referred to as being Tri-Band or Quad-band (or sometimes as a "World Phone").

EDIT: Just did a check and the New Zealand version of the Galaxy S3 appears to support the following 3g bands: 3G 850 (XT/US3G), 3G 900, 3G 1900, 3G 2100. So it looks like you should have no problem accessing AT&T in the US.
 
So NZ's version is just the international one? So At&t will work, need to look into Sprint, and the others then. I take it that At&t runs on the wideband CDMA network?

Edit: Contacted Sprint, and Verizon. Waiting for replies.

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it.
 
Cypras said:
So NZ's version is just the international one? So At&t will work, need to look into Sprint, and the others then. I take it that At&t runs on the wideband CDMA network?

Edit: Contacted Sprint, and Verizon. Waiting for replies.

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Sprint and Verizon networks work on CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile work on GSM networks.
 
mak916 said:
Sprint and Verizon networks work on CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile work on GSM networks.
Click to expand...
Therefore AT&T won't work with the NZ S3 because it's not on CDMA network?

"Jacqui D: So the network would need to work off a 3G, Wideband CDMA network, using the 850mhz and 2100mhz frequencies"

Sprint is out, sent them an email and got this response:

"Only the sprint logo models can be activated on the sprint network.
Sprint service works on CDMA technology."
 
Cypras said:
Therefore AT&T won't work with the NZ S3 because it's not on CDMA network?

"Jacqui D: So the network would need to work off a 3G, Wideband CDMA network, using the 850mhz and 2100mhz frequencies"

Sprint is out, sent them an email and got this response:

"Only the sprint logo models can be activated on the sprint network.
Sprint service works on CDMA technology."
Click to expand...

AT&T and T-Mobile are the only ones that will work and AT&T is the only one where you will get 3g.

All 3G is WCDMA in the US, but voice is GSM on AT&T and T-Mobile and CDMA on Verizon and Sprint. If it uses a sim card, it has to be AT&T or T-Mobile in the US.
 
Therefore at&t and t mobile are my only choices since a sim card is required. What do you mean by voice? What if I didn't need 3g? Any other options come up?
 
Cypras said:
Therefore at&t and t mobile are my only choices since a sim card is required. What do you mean by voice? What if I didn't need 3g? Any other options come up?
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By voice, I mean the ability to use your phone as a phone ;)

Because the phone you will be buying uses a sim card, AT&T and T-Mobile are still your only real choices. There are a handful of regional carriers in the US, but unless you are in their area of the country you can't use them (since there will be no place to get a sim card from) and not all of the regional carriers use sim cards.

If you don't want 3g, you can go with T-Mobile, but if you do want 3g, you have go with AT&T because of the funky way T-Mobile does 3g.
 
ardyer said:
By voice, I mean the ability to use your phone as a phone ;)

Because the phone you will be buying uses a sim card, AT&T and T-Mobile are still your only real choices. There are a handful of regional carriers in the US, but unless you are in their area of the country you can't use them (since there will be no place to get a sim card from) and not all of the regional carriers use sim cards.

If you don't want 3g, you can go with T-Mobile, but if you do want 3g, you have go with AT&T because of the funky way T-Mobile does 3g.
Click to expand...

Therefore on At&T and T-Mobile I can't use my phone as a phone? Like to call people and text since it's GSM? O.o

So there is no way to have complete functionality changing to At&t or T-Mobile? Complete functionality like I would have in new zealand?
 
Cypras said:
Therefore on At&T and T-Mobile I can't use my phone as a phone? Like to call people and text since it's GSM? O.o

So there is no way to have complete functionality changing to At&t or T-Mobile? Complete functionality like I would have in new zealand?
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i think its the opossite , the only way you can use your phone as your phone is to go thru AT&t or tMobile, with Tmobile their data is much much slower because of the way their 3g is structured it wont work as well but you still get phone calls and such.

Verizon and Sprint use CDMA but dont really use Sim cards with exception of newer 4g phones i could be wrong but the SIM card is needed only for data for those too(correct me if i am wrong) but international phone (if its GSM) will not work on Verizon or Sprint
 
I was told this from my New Zealand provider about the S3:
"Jacqui D: So the network would need to work off a 3G, Wideband CDMA network, using the 850mhz and 2100mhz frequencies"

and then ardyer said that at&t and t-mobile work off of "All 3G is WCDMA in the US, but voice is GSM on AT&T and T-Mobile" Therefore the NZ S3 won't work as a phone because voice runs off GSM on AT&T and T-Mobile when it needs to work off of WCDMA.

I think that's right, not sure. I need all functionality if I was to go onto At&t, not just some features. I need them all. From texting, calling, wifi, and the rest.
 
Okay, here it goes.

I looked up your current provider. Voice runs on gsm, 3g runs on wcdma. The only US providers that have voice on gsm and 3g on wcdma are AT&T and T-Mobile.

Now, although both use wcdma for 3g, only AT&T uses the bands supported by the version of the galaxy s3 sold in NZ.

So, if you want voice and 3g in the US, you have to go with AT&T. No other major US provider will work with your phone.

All this said, you may have to reconfigure some settings so that you will be going through AT&T servers instead of Telecom's.
 
I didn't read all the posts just the first 4 or 5. So forgive me if someone already said this.

If you get the GSM unlocked version. You can come use it here and use an AT&T sim card when you come here. I do this all the time, I use an unlocked AT&T phone and use a local sim card in India everytime I go to India. However I doubt you cannot not buy there phone. So what y would probably do if they won't let you do that is sign the contract. Take whatever phone they give you and just sell it. And switch the sim out to your GS3 and use that?

Btw yes it has to be AT&T and not Verizon or Sprint. Don't know about T-Mobile, but pre-paid like Straight Talk should work but don't take my word for it. And when it comes to Boost, I think that won't work again cause thats based off sprint and might be cdma
 
RamOG said:
I didn't read all the posts just the first 4 or 5. So forgive me if someone already said this.

If you get the GSM unlocked version. You can come use it here and use an AT&T sim card when you come here. I do this all the time, I use an unlocked AT&T phone and use a local sim card in India everytime I go to India. However I doubt you cannot not buy there phone. So what y would probably do if they won't let you do that is sign the contract. Take whatever phone they give you and just sell it. And switch the sim out to your GS3 and use that?

Btw yes it has to be AT&T and not Verizon or Sprint. Don't know about T-Mobile, but pre-paid like Straight Talk should work but don't take my word for it. And when it comes to Boost, I think that won't work again cause thats based off sprint and might be cdma
Click to expand...

Can't say I understand much of what you said, sorry.
 
Well to put it plain, if you get an unlocked gsm version of GS3 in NZ. You can use it in USA but only with AT&T.

I don't proofread much. I should definitely do that, because I just read my post and I don't understand half of it hahaha. I think I don't proofread thinking its just a forum. Boy was I wrong, I definitely will start doing that from now on.
 
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