If you are planning to travel abroad soon, you probably wonder if your cell phone will work in a country you are going to travel to. However, it entirely depends on the country of your residence and the country you are going to. For instance, if you live in Canada or the US and want to visit Europe, Australia, Asia or South America, there is a high probability that your phone will not work in these countries. On the other hand, if you are from England or Australia, your cell phone may not work in the US.
There are two reasons why your phone may not work in some countries, but work in others:
1. Two major phone network technologies are being used in the entire world: GSM and CDMA (PCS included). Around 80% of the whole world uses GSM technology and you can find GSM network in almost any country in the world. On the other hand, only around 20% of the world uses CDMA and CDMA networks may be found in a few countries, but mostly available in Canada, Mexico and the US. Thus, if you are from the North America, your phone may be a CDMA phone and it will not work on GSM networks.
2. Currently five different GSM frequency bands are being used by network providers around the globe. For instance, Europe and Asia use 900/1800MHz, North America uses 850/1900MHz, Caribbean and South America use 900/1800/1900MHz. Thus, if you are from Europe, your phone may not have a required frequency to work in the US. On the other hand, if you are from Canada, your phone will not work in Australia.
Thus, every time you travel outside your home country, make sure that your phone is GSM compatible and works in a frequency band compatible with the frequency band of the country you are travelling to.
However, what would you do if your existing cell phone does not work on the frequency band of the country you are visiting to? Even if your phone does not work in the country you are visiting to, you have a great option of buying a dual band phone, tri-band phone, quad-band phone or a 3G dual-mode phone.
A dual phone is a phone that will work in the country you are going to, but not in the country of your residence. Currently, there are two types of dual band phones: 850/1900MHz phones that are suitable for North America only and 900/1800MHz that are suitable for Europe and Asia/Pacific only.
A tri-band phone works in almost any country with the exception of Japan and South Korea. Currently, there are two types of tri-band phones: 900/1800/1900MHz phones that are suitable for North America, Caribbean, Asia Pacific and Europe and 850/1800/1900MHz that are suitable for North America and Asia/ Pacific.
Quad-band phones work in the majority of countries with the exception of Japan and South Korea. Currently, there is one type of quad-band phones: 850/900/1800/1900MHz phones that work with any GSM operator in the world.
3 G dual-mode phones are perfect for anyone, who needs to travel to Japan and South Korea because they work in both mentioned countries and in almost any other country in the world. These phones are the combination of GSM and WCDMA technology. Currently, there are two types of 3 G dual-mode phones: 3G/900/1800/1900MHz phones that are suitable for South Korea, Japan, Asia/Pacific, Brazil, Africa, Europe, the US, Canada, Caribbean and Central and South America and 3G/850/1800/1900MHz phones that are suitable for Japan, Central and South America, USA/Canada, South Korea, but won’t work in Europe, Africa, Brazil and Asia/Pacific.
Dual-band phones are the cheapest phones, however, if money is not an issue, we recommend buying a tri-band phone, so you could use it anywhere in the world and in your own home country once you are done travelling.
On the other hand, if your current phone works in the country you are going to and your phone is unlocked, all you need to do is to buy a local SIM card once you make it to your destination country. A SIM card is a device that enables your cell phone to work on GSM network. Any SIM card will work in unlocked phones. If you are not sure if your mobile phone is locked or unlocked, you can easily find out by inserting a SIM card from another phone carrier into your phone. If you can see the menu on your phone, then your phone is unlocked. If instead, you cannot see the menu and your phone gives you an error message such as “SIM card not accepted”, “Phone restricted” or “SIM not valid”, your phone is locked.
Furthermore, even if you found out that your cell phone is locked to your network provider, you can still unlock it by visiting our phone unlocking website FreeUnlocks.com. FreeUnlocks.com is a premier phone unlocking service provider where almost any mobile phone can be unlocked within a matter of few minutes. At FreeUnlocks.com we offer phone unlock codes at very competitive prices or for free via TrialPay e-commerce website, which is also our business partner of many years.
If you do not want to spend extra money that you could spend on travelling to unlock your phone, choose the free unlocking option and proceed with selecting and completing any one free offer presented by TrialPay merchants.
After you have selected the offer and successfully completed it, your SIM network unlock PIN will be paid by TrialPay and generated by FreeUnlocks.com. On average, we spend about 30 minutes on generating an unlock code for our customers, but in some cases (depends entirely on your phone’s model), it can take more time for us to generate the code (sometime even up to 48 hours).
Further, once we have generated an unlock code for your mobile device, we will immediately email this code to you along with the instructions on how to unlock a phone in no time.
After receiving your code, all you have to do is to enter the code you have received into your phone and it will be instantly unlocked for life. Now, as long as your phone is compatible with a frequency band used in the country of your destination, it can be used there by simply switching a SIM card in your phone.
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