[hl0m4n]

if a phone has a SIM tray (iphone 3G in this case), if i am using the phone in america the tray is empty or do i have a US SIM? so lets say i go to thailand, can i buy a thailand SIM put that into the phone and buy thailand's international calling cards and use that and their rates and when i get back to the states i insert my america SIM back into the phone and i am back on the america rates i have with at&t?

sorry about the kind of double post. i need to know asap cause my contract with verizon is ending in about 15 days and i am in korea right now and i don't know much about this stuff. so help is much appreciated. thanks.

[schadenfreude]

You have a US (ATT) sim in your iphone. You can't use a Thai sim since the phone is locked to ATT. An unlocked phone can use any sim from any carrier, as long as the phone uses the carriers frequencies, but one of the problems with the iphone is that it's locked down to ATT without some hacking.

[hl0m4n]

thanks for the response. that explains alot. if the phone is locked why do they give you the SIM ejection tool?

you can hack the iphone yourself, i believe it is just a program or something you can buy on ebay. but the new 3g iphone you have to buy in store and activate? any way i can just buy the phone and than buy the unlocking tool from ebay and use a US SIM card and when i go to Thai i can swap it out and use theirs along with the proper phone card?

what does it mean when people on ebay say iphone unlocked and will work on any SIM and GSM? SIM i understand but what is GSM? i am so newb at this stuff i know so please excuse. also i found out the iphone 3g is on a tri-band 850/1900/2100MHz and it good basically everywhere in the world along with something called HSDPA.

[Taittinger]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

thanks for the response. that explains alot. if the phone is locked why do they give you the SIM ejection tool?

you can hack the iphone yourself, i believe it is just a program or something you can buy on ebay. but the new 3g iphone you have to buy in store and activate? any way i can just buy the phone and than buy the unlocking tool from ebay and use a US SIM card and when i go to Thai i can swap it out and use theirs along with the proper phone card?

what does it mean when people on ebay say iphone unlocked and will work on any SIM and GSM? SIM i understand but what is GSM? i am so newb at this stuff i know so please excuse. also i found out the iphone 3g is on a tri-band 850/1900/2100MHz and it good basically everywhere in the world along with something called HSDPA.

You will have to check the frequencies used where you are traveling. ATT phones are generally more flexible globally than Verizon.

[hl0m4n]

after some research i think i finally got it. please correct if i am wrong.

phone GSM= service provider like AT&t and T-Mobil and the SIM is the card needed to be connected to the GSM (service provider).

so unlocking any phone (iphone in this case) allows a user to use any GSM that also uses SIM cards like T-Mobil and Nextel.

not only this but an unlocked phone can work anywhere in the world as long as it matches the countries phone frequency.

so if i bring an unlocked phone to thailand, all i need to do is buy a SIM card and than buy a calling card and voila the phone is working assuming that the frequency is capable. same thing with south korea, swap the SIM card buy a calling card and voila.

if i am wrong please correct me. but who are people getting the iphone 3g sealed at their homes as i read that they need to be activated in the store upon purchase. there is software already (one click also) to unlock the iphone 3g already

what are phone companies that use SIM cards besides at&t and t-mobil? im with verizon right now and they do not use SIM cards...

More Info: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9717097-1.html

[Taittinger]

You can use any phone in any country provided the frequency matches, regardless of the SIM or carrier or locked status. If you buy a local SIM, I do not know why you would need a calling card.

Example, I can use my Nokia with an ATT SIM here, China, Europe, using the International Dialing plan. If I want to reduce rates, I could buy a SIM from a local carrier and swap out the ATT SIM. Not sure what you would do with the calling card.

The iPhone is not a good world phone.

Get a Quad-band phone.

ATT and TMobile are the primary GSM carriers in the US. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA.

[hl0m4n]

thanks for the help man. yes you can use the ATT international calling plan but it is expensive. thailand for example everyone uses nokia and there people buy calling cards. you go into the 7/11 buy 500baht ($15 us dollars) scratch off the code and register it. the phones here looking at my friends in thailand, have a SIM card and they just keep buying these phone cards and enter the code into their phone and they can call anywhere. the iphone is a quad band phone both the new 3g and old, im thinking of just buying the old one on ebay unlocked, not unless this 3g network thing is really worth it.

hopefully this clears things up with the calling card. so if i am in NY, i don't believe we have such a calling plan like thailand does where you just keep buying these calling cards to use the phone (kind of like a go phone here back in the states or pay as you go).

but if all does work i can switch my cellphone to t-mobil and use their sim card and service in the states on an iphone and when i go to thailand swap out the sim card to theirs buy the calling cards and it will work? does the iphone even support thailand and korean text?

[Taittinger]

Ok, now I understand about the calling card. I was thinking about the traditional calling cards.

[hl0m4n]

on apple's site it says the iphone can be used basically anywhere in the planet and since both new and old iphone are quad band it should work in thai and south korea no and all one must do is use a SIM card in the country buy the calling cards and voila done?

i don't understand by the phone has to be compatable with the countrie's phone frequency. it is advertised on the apple's site the phone works around the world so doesn't that mean the phone itself (not the SIM Or GSM) is compatable all over the world?

thanks again.

[Taittinger]

Apple is referring to the quadband feature of the iPhone. With the quad-band, one of the four frequencies needs to match one of the frequencies used in the country. Obviously having four potential frequencies to use with the phone gives you better chances to match than two or three.

GSM is the standard that the phone uses for transmitting data along those frequencies, somewhat analogous to cable versus satellite versus fios. Most of the world uses GSM.

I am sure someone else can explain better but this is my understanding.

[hl0m4n]

hey i think i found it. http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml it lists the world's phone frequencies. so if you go to thailand for example and it says gsm 1900 that means its on the 1900 mhz frequencey and gsm 1800 = 1800 mhz and 3g=3g 2100 right? if that is the case all these are supported on the iphone and i should be good when using it in thailand/korea right?

now if that is answered the only question left is does the iphone support thai and korean text?

[asdflkijd]

Blackberry > i-phone

[hl0m4n]

if the phone doesn't support a language (example: thai) and i am using the phone in thai and recieve a text message in thai, does the text come out fine or does it come out in scrabble signs like *$&?

[hl0m4n]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

if the phone doesn't support a language (example: thai) and i am using the phone in thai and recieve a text message in thai, does the text come out fine or does it come out in scrabble signs like *$&?

bump for an answer on this. sorry for the rush, contract is ending soon with verizon, im comming back to the states soon, and i need all the info i can get. thanks again.

[badfish]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

bump for an answer on this. sorry for the rush, contract is ending soon with verizon, im comming back to the states soon, and i need all the info i can get. thanks again.

It will not display Thai fonts without the thai language pack installed on it. Trust me, I know, I brought in a bunch of Iphones in December. Any shop in MBK can install it on the old iPhone but they have very limited experience on the new iPhone. You have 2 challenges right now. You need to unlock your phone first of all and last I checked, Dev Team just released the pwnage tool to jailbreak the phone so you can install the Thai pack. But then it doesn't unlock it. Right now, you are kind of stuck.

MBK is the place to go for anything mobile phone related on the 4th floor. But they do not have any tools not available to the public, ie. unlocking tools, jailbreaks, etc. The old iPhone is much much easier as long as you are on 1.1.4 or below. They can be unlocked an jailbroken using a simple program called ziphone which is free. This is your best bet, get the old phone.

MBK might pay a premium for your new iPhone even though the phone isn't all cracked yet. The reason is there are a lot of high rollers that just want the latest phones. I have a friend there you can contact if you want to know how much they will pay or you can walk around asking them how much they want to pay for your phone. You might make some money.

3G isn't widely implemented in Thailand FYI.

[lvwirelessguy]

Originally Posted by Taittinger

You can use any phone in any country provided the frequency matches, regardless of the SIM or carrier or locked status. If you buy a local SIM, I do not know why you would need a calling card.

Example, I can use my Nokia with an ATT SIM here, China, Europe, using the International Dialing plan. If I want to reduce rates, I could buy a SIM from a local carrier and swap out the ATT SIM. Not sure what you would do with the calling card.

The iPhone is not a good world phone.

Get a Quad-band phone.

ATT and TMobile are the primary GSM carriers in the US. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA.

The iPhone is fine as a world phone it has GSM 850/900/1800/1900

It will work anywhere GSM is available, which is pretty much anywhere except for Japan

go to www.ziphone.org and unlock your phone, takes 5 min max. You dont need to be a techie to figure it out

[badfish]

Originally Posted by lvwirelessguy

go to www.ziphone.org and unlock your phone, takes 5 min max. You dont need to be a techie to figure it out

OP has a iPhone 3G which currently cannot be unlocked by ziphone.

[lvwirelessguy]

Give the elves at ziphone some time, it will be cracked

[badfish]

Originally Posted by lvwirelessguy

Give the elves at ziphone some time, it will be cracked

Elf you mean, it's just Zibri who borrows the work of Geohot and DevTeam. Zibri already has expressed little interest in doing this all over again. DevTeam will be the first to release something. They already made the jailbreak very easy. Time is something the OP doesn't have...

[hl0m4n]

the only two GSM in south korea is sk and tk which are on 3g 2100 so i would def need the iphone 3g for here. i don't have the phone yet, i did buy the thai sim card and a phone card along with a south korean sim card along with phone card so i have a few minutes next time i make the trip.

for the iphone 3g back in the states i plan to buy one of those pay as you go phones from t-mobil, use the SIM card from that for in the states cause the att plan is just nuts and complicated.

i know the phone will not display thai text without the language pack but i only need it for one thing. when you register a prepaid phone card in thailand you get a text message with your new balance. i can understand if the thai language will display as *%&#%&# but the number (balance) is the only thing i really need to be able to read.

even if i get a thai text message i don't care if it comes out to %&#*%&% as long as i can recieve english text messages and get my new balance (numeric) with thai message being %*%, it is ok.

thanks for your help badfish. im currently in korea right now stayed in thailand with friend for 6 weeks already haha. i just got all these SIM cards for south korea and thai prepped and ready so all i need to do is buy the phone when i get back to the states which is soon.

[hl0m4n]

also the old iphone doesn't have 3g 2100 on it. so if i bring it to south korea which GSM is 3g 2100, the old iphone will not even work here even with the SIM card right?

[badfish]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

i know the phone will not display thai text without the language pack but i only need it for one thing. when you register a prepaid phone card in thailand you get a text message with your new balance. i can understand if the thai language will display as *%&#%&# but the number (balance) is the only thing i really need to be able to read.

even if i get a thai text message i don't care if it comes out to %&#*%&% as long as i can recieve english text messages and get my new balance (numeric) with thai message being %*%, it is ok.

The phone will display that SMS message in English if you change the settings on the card. I assume you have either a DTAC or 1-2 Call card in Thailand. I know in Central World, on about the 4th or 5th floor in the theater area, there is a DTAC shop where you can easily have one of the people there change the default language on your card. They can also change the promotion. My DTAC card is on a 1 year expiration after any refill and in English when they send me those balance messages. For some reason, they also send another message in Thai once in a while. 1-2 Call cards have the same features. The best thing to do is go through the list of embedded phone numbers on the SIM card and call one of their help lines to see if they can do it over the phone for you. Their operators speak English.

I'll be back in BKK at the latest by December.