VZW CDMA in China?

December 9, 2006 6:34 PM

Will my Verizon CDMA 800 / 1900 phone work in China?

Going next week. I have a US motorola e815 on Verizon's CDMA 800 / 1900 mobile network. (I assume 800/1900 is the wavelength(s)?) Can I buy a new sim card for this phone in China and use it while I'm in there to call back to the US? Should I even bother? I'll be in between beijing and guangzhou on a 2.5 week trip.)

If there is a way to get this phone to work, what's the best (ie, cheapest/most efficient) way? Do I need to unlock the phone first?

If this is all futile and I should just use one of those web phones over there then I guess that's okay :-(

(Also, may be going to Hong Kong too, any advice on a particular model brand-spankin-new gadget-o-licious phone that I can buy over there that will work on my verizon cdma network back here?)

Thanks!

posted by prettyboyfloyd to Technology (11 answers total)

As a Verizon Wireless operations employee I'm fairly positive it will not work. The e815 doesn't have a slot for a SIM card and I am unaware of any roaming agreements in China. If they run on the same frequencies you might be able to make calls with a credit card but that's about it.
posted by Octoparrot at 7:11 PM on December 9, 2006

According to this random page I googled up, your phone itself will work (has the right band). I don't know anything about the verizon/sim card aspect though.
posted by jacalata at 7:27 PM on December 9, 2006

A CDMA phone might work, but only in roaming mode (read: large charges), assuming that Verizon has an agreement with Chinese carriers for roaming in the first place. You don't have the option of unlocking your phone and using a pay as you go SIM in it, that's a GSM option.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 7:41 PM on December 9, 2006

Response by poster: hmmm - bummer. maybe i'll be able to get a better one over there :-(

Thanks for the info - may just bring it to see what the telephone folks say when I get there. (I don't intend on spending the gajillions of dollars per minute in reaming charges either. Not meaning to disparage in any way octoparrot...just a harmless pun.)
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 8:17 PM on December 9, 2006

Get a GPS phone and SIM card there if you really need one.
posted by k8t at 8:56 PM on December 9, 2006

Phones are cheap and plentiful. You can get a China Mobile set up with phone, sim card and minutes to last a month for $30.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:43 PM on December 9, 2006

Just a personal note, I had to have a Chinese resident buy my SIM card in China. He needed to show his ID to get it. When asked, he seemed to indicate that it was a requirement and it wasn't specific to the carrier (This was after the previous SIM card was cancelled after lack of use - as I hadn't used it in China for about 3 months. I had inherited that card, so don't know what hurdles where jumped to get it).

Recharging the SIM balance could be done from a card bought at any convenience store in town.

Just FYI.

Oh, and it turned out to be much easier to also have one for Hong Kong so I didn't have to deal with the roaming issues.

Based on the need to keep switching SIM cards, I bought a new phone in HK and went with T-Mobile in the US, since at the time they were the only ones who used a removable SIM. That way I could have one phone and one place with all my addresses and call history.
posted by qwip at 11:55 PM on December 9, 2006

Also just adding that I travel a lot and wanted to have my phone and with the same number. In the end, I switched carriers and decided to go with T-Mobile GSM in the U.S. (my phone has a removable SIM but so far I havent had to touch it)

The phone worked flawlessly on recent trips to Croatia, Hong Kong and China (Guangzhou)
posted by vacapinta at 12:23 AM on December 10, 2006

I've been researching this myself for a pretty wide range of countries. As it happens I'm also going with T-Mobile. You're right that VoIP (voice over IP) might be the simplest & cheapest option for you by far.
posted by allterrainbrain at 3:46 AM on December 10, 2006

And if you want gadget-o-licious, what you may want is a phone that both uses a traditional voice network and makes voice calls over wifi, so you can take advantage of wifi hotspots/etc. using your own phone. These are starting to become available in the U.S., and more broadly, your options in this area are changing and expanding FAST. So google away, and take any generalizations you read (especially anything written more than a couple of months ago) with a grain of salt.
posted by allterrainbrain at 4:03 AM on December 10, 2006

Just a personal note, I had to have a Chinese resident buy my SIM card in China. He needed to show his ID to get it.

Wow, that's completely different from a year or so ago, when anyone could pick up a prepaid SIM card for ridiculously cheap at a newspaper stand or even Beijing airport.
posted by alidarbac at 7:04 AM on December 10, 2006