Travelling to England with CDMA

[EgeBamyasi]

I have a Sprint (CDMA) Hero (still 1.5 - not rooted) and will be travelling to England, taking it with me. I already know it won't work over there as a phone/Sprint network. But I can still use the wifi. Is there anyway that I can use wifi on the phone to make calls? I know Skype is no longer available for Android (a shame) but was wondering if any creative minds on this forum knew of a solution.

Thank you!

 

[InstantKarma]

You could buy my old MyTouch off of me, but that's exactly why I'm hanging onto it.


Sorry, I'm no help.

 

[A.Nonymous]

You could pick up a cheap disposable GSM phone.

 

[Tony.]

The HTC Hero Will work in the UK. Just ask your carrier for a roaming plan

 

[Xyro]

The HTC Hero Will work in the UK. Just ask your carrier for a roaming plan

Even though every network (to my knowledge) in the UK is GSM based?

I always assumed CDMA phones would be useless here in the UK, but admittedly I don't have any experience with this.

 

[nkk]

The HTC Hero Will work in the UK. Just ask your carrier for a roaming plan

Having taken a Droid Incredible to London a few months ago (and actually understanding physics), I can tell you that this statement is untrue. There are no CDMA networks in the UK. That makes it a physical impossibility for it to work, as they work at very different wavelengths.

-Nkk


EDIT: My sincerest apologies to Tony. I would have never even guessed that there were two phones named the Hero.

 

[faugusztin]

The HTC Hero Will work in the UK. Just ask your carrier for a roaming plan

HTC Hero CDMA is not equal to HTC Hero GSM. It is like saying that all cars will work without problems using diesel, even those having petrol engines. Same name (Hero) doesn't mean it uses same radio.

 

[Tony.]

Ah but the Hero is a quad band GSM phone so with an appropriate roaming plan will work in the UK


Network1HSPA/WCDMA:

• 900/2100 MHz
• Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

• 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)


HTC - Products - HTC Hero - Specification

I checked before posting

 

[Xyro]

That's the spec sheet for the GSM hero, which is indeed Quad-band. However, the Sprint Hero is Dual-band 800/1900, apparently.

Nor does it have a SIM card, which I imagine would hinder it even if it could communicate via GSM frequencies.

 

[Tony.]

Well that is a silly idea, two phones with the same name I am guilty of using the HTC website for the specifications.

After more research I will have to amend my original statement, this is how we learn I suppose

While they share the same name, the Sprint HTC Hero looks nothing like its European GSM counterpart

 

[Xyro]

Tell me about it!

To add to the confusion, the GSM Hero section (where I spend a lot of time), is ambiguously named the 'HTC Hero' section. Bumping threads over to the Sprint Hero section is a full time job

But yeah.... I think EgeBamyasi had a question

 

[nkk]

As Tony ammends his statement, I feel the need to apologize to him. I would have never even guessed that there were two different Heroes, and thus I never considered that perhaps he was right.

-Nkk

 

[anthgav]

If your contacts are on Facebook you could use an app called Vonage

 

[syco]

Now the off topic discussion is done....

I have a Sprint (CDMA) Hero (still 1.5 - not rooted) and will be travelling to England, taking it with me. I already know it won't work over there as a phone/Sprint network. But I can still use the wifi. Is there anyway that I can use wifi on the phone to make calls? I know Skype is no longer available for Android (a shame) but was wondering if any creative minds on this forum knew of a solution.

Thank you!

Anyone want to read (more than the first sentence of) the OPs question, maybe even answer it for him? I know it's an old thread, but this thread will haunt googlers (me) as the question is never answered.

As far as I know, you can use the Wi-Fi regardless of the CDMA issues. BTW, at this time, Skype is available for the Android. On the Skype site
Video Calling and Android Video Chat - Skype for Android - Skype
Or in the market
https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Skype

If anyone can confirm, that would be great, as I plan to use skype in the UK.