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World phone... Additional costs?

Google Voice cannot be forwarded to an international number. There are services that will provide that (Skype to Go, Keku, Local Phone)..... no Google voice yet.

I'm strongly considering going with one of the other solutions. That way, if someone calls my google voice it will work like this: Google Voice ---> Skype to go number ----> international number.

My Google Voice number is my Cell number. So it would be an easy thing for family to get in touch abroad.
 
Exactly the reason I got this phone. In the states it uses the CDMA Sprint account. In the UK it uses the UK account associated with the UK based pay as you go SIM card. Sure, I have a states phone number and a UK phone number, but who cares. I'm using local service no matter where I am. Land at Heathrow, reload the UK sim and enjoy my trip without issue.
 
Which pay-as-you-go SIM card do you use in the UK? Does it have a data plan? I'm hoping to use this phone with full voice and data capabilities in both the UK (local SIM) and the US (CDMA).
I read many conflicting messages out there about whether the photon will work with a local SIM card with data plan in Europe. I do not want to use Sprint international data roaming...
 
traveldroid said:
Which pay-as-you-go SIM card do you use in the UK? Does it have a data plan? I'm hoping to use this phone with full voice and data capabilities in both the UK (local SIM) and the US (CDMA).
I read many conflicting messages out there about whether the photon will work with a local SIM card with data plan in Europe. I do not want to use Sprint international data roaming...
Click to expand...

It will work. Check out this forum for a recommendation for local pre-paid carriers......

PrePaidGSM.net Forum
 
Thanks Sporklover for the quick response!! The prepaid forum is very helpful as well. Have you personally used the Photon 4G in the UK/Europe and successfully had data access through a local SIM? I read that people had problems with getting the Photon 4G APN to work with Vodaphone, for example. Or that the local GSM SIMs won't work wherever there's CDMA coverage...

The reason why I ask is that I'm trying to decide whether to 1) invest in the Photon 4G here and use it both in the US and in the UK by swapping SIM cards, or 2) keep my old Droid for the US and buy a new phone with data plan in the UK. I'll be spending a significant amount of time in the UK every year, not just short trips back and forth.

SporkLover said:
It will work. Check out this forum for a recommendation for local pre-paid carriers......

PrePaidGSM.net Forum
Click to expand...
 
i'm in mexico with my new Motorola Photon 4G and i went to buy a SIM card and the guy let me test one and when i turned on the phone service i received a txt.msg from sprint saying the cost per minute would be $1.69 and data would be $0.004/kb or something along those lines.

so it appears to not have worked.
am i doing something wrong?

or does the phone default to CDMA and only use GSM when CDMA is not available?

i'm chatting with sprint to "activate my sim" but i'm not sure that will actually do anything.
 
oh duh...maybe.


home -> settings -> "wireless & networks" -> "mobile networks" (at the bottom)

you can set GSM/CDMA stuff there.
so i will try a SIM card again!
 
traveldroid said:
Thanks Sporklover for the quick response!! The prepaid forum is very helpful as well. Have you personally used the Photon 4G in the UK/Europe and successfully had data access through a local SIM? I read that people had problems with getting the Photon 4G APN to work with Vodaphone, for example. Or that the local GSM SIMs won't work wherever there's CDMA coverage...

The reason why I ask is that I'm trying to decide whether to 1) invest in the Photon 4G here and use it both in the US and in the UK by swapping SIM cards, or 2) keep my old Droid for the US and buy a new phone with data plan in the UK. I'll be spending a significant amount of time in the UK every year, not just short trips back and forth.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've read about that APN restriction also. Sounds like Sprint had Moto write the firmware such as to not allow you to save any APN settings not associated with their network code. This is crazy. If they're gonna unlock the phone to foreign SIMs, they should unlock it fully. Very annoying.

I guess the only consolation is that this phone has by now been rooted and its bootloader has been unlocked so I hope at some point someone is going to overwrite this silly restriction with a new ROM and possibly someday also remove the US GSM radio restrictions on it too but right now it looks like data overseas on this mopho is a no-go (unless you want to pay Sprint's ridiculous rates).
 
brandwashed said:
oh duh...maybe.


home -> settings -> "wireless & networks" -> "mobile networks" (at the bottom)

you can set GSM/CDMA stuff there.
so i will try a SIM card again!
Click to expand...

Yeah, you'd want to change the setting to "Any GSM/UMTS". As for data you are probably SOL since it sounds like Sprint has effectively locked the APN settings. If you are able to change them and make it stick, do let us know though.

BTW, notice Sprint has doubled the cost of CDMA data roaming in a bunch of countries recently. Still cheaper than GSM data roaming but now not as good of a deal anymore.
 
traveldroid said:
Thanks Sporklover for the quick response!! The prepaid forum is very helpful as well. Have you personally used the Photon 4G in the UK/Europe and successfully had data access through a local SIM? I read that people had problems with getting the Photon 4G APN to work with Vodaphone, for example. Or that the local GSM SIMs won't work wherever there's CDMA coverage...

The reason why I ask is that I'm trying to decide whether to 1) invest in the Photon 4G here and use it both in the US and in the UK by swapping SIM cards, or 2) keep my old Droid for the US and buy a new phone with data plan in the UK. I'll be spending a significant amount of time in the UK every year, not just short trips back and forth.
Click to expand...

I'll be in Europe next Sunday. I'll report back.
 
Took a chance on the Photon and it worked in the UK! Bought Vodafone PAYG SIM with voice and data at Carphone Warehouse (they have branches all over London and sell plans from different carriers). Popped it into the Photon and the voice part started to work right away (switch network settings to GSM/UMTS first). To get the data part to work, you'd have to call customer service and have them manually reset for you. Note this is done by Vodafone at the network, not by you on your phone.
After the manual reset, you'd have to patiently wait for up to 24 hours for it to take effect. I waited around 8 hours before the data part started to work.

SporkLover said:
I'll be in Europe next Sunday. I'll report back.
Click to expand...
 
I rejoiced too soon...

The Photon will definitely not work with a local SIM card. I bought a vodafone SIM card, and they had to manually set the APN to make it work for data. It works temporatily, but every day(around noon) the phone erases the local APN, eliminating the data connection. I have tried this three times. Sprint international support says that they "cannot guarantee" that it will work for data. Believe me, although unlocked for voice, the Photon is definitely not unlocked for data.

traveldroid said:
Took a chance on the Photon and it worked in the UK! Bought Vodafone PAYG SIM with voice and data at Carphone Warehouse (they have branches all over London and sell plans from different carriers). Popped it into the Photon and the voice part started to work right away (switch network settings to GSM/UMTS first). To get the data part to work, you'd have to call customer service and have them manually reset for you. Note this is done by Vodafone at the network, not by you on your phone.
After the manual reset, you'd have to patiently wait for up to 24 hours for it to take effect. I waited around 8 hours before the data part started to work.
Click to expand...
 
Went to Lebanon last week with my photon. I purchased a prepaid Alfa simcard. Voice worked fine but data did not. Im not sure if it was a phone issue or a network issue tho....according to the research I did I believe it is the latter.
 
traveldroid said:
I rejoiced too soon...

The Photon will definitely not work with a local SIM card. I bought a vodafone SIM card, and they had to manually set the APN to make it work for data. It works temporatily, but every day(around noon) the phone erases the local APN, eliminating the data connection. I have tried this three times. Sprint international support says that they "cannot guarantee" that it will work for data. Believe me, although unlocked for voice, the Photon is definitely not unlocked for data.
Click to expand...

this is such BS:mad:
 
hmmm I'm curious were any previous world phone on Sprint also locked on Data and if they were were there a workaround made by a dev? Is fo maybe luck can happen again, if not then yeah i'll agree its total BS.

TS out
 
I used my BB9630 with local SIM cards no problem. after reading up more and chatting with a guy over on the sprint community forums, sounds like the APN settings issue, may just be a software bug. Apparently this guy has some inside connections at Sprint, so he said he was gonna check around and give an update. I'm also exchanging some PM's with a Sprint employee. I'll post here if I find out anything.

MV
 
traveldroid said:
Took a chance on the Photon and it worked in the UK! Bought Vodafone PAYG SIM with voice and data at Carphone Warehouse (they have branches all over London and sell plans from different carriers). Popped it into the Photon and the voice part started to work right away (switch network settings to GSM/UMTS first). To get the data part to work, you'd have to call customer service and have them manually reset for you. Note this is done by Vodafone at the network, not by you on your phone.
After the manual reset, you'd have to patiently wait for up to 24 hours for it to take effect. I waited around 8 hours before the data part started to work.
Click to expand...

What did you say to vodafone on the phone? What do you mean by they had to manually reset it for you? Did this allow you to enter the APN settings and save them properly?

Do you think you could try this out with a three sim card and see if it works?

thanks.
 
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