I'm heading to the UK for a vacation and I just recently bought a st25a, not the 'i'. Is it compatible with UK networks, specifically, is Vodafone a good choice for two weeks of pre-paid data + voice?
Will work fine on 2G on all networks, for 3G it will work on Three, Orange and T-Mobile as they all use 2100, O2 and Vodafone use both 900 and 2100 so it will vary by region.
Not sure about Vodafone, don't know anyone who uses them, Giff Gaff are pretty good though. Or with Virgin Mobile (2100) you could get a 30 day contract sim (can cancel after 1 month), it's £12 for 1200 mins, unlimited texts, unlimited data. Or giff gaff for the standard pay as you go.
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Just got my shiny SGS2 and wonder - what is the best data plan price could be in Ontario (Toronto particularly).
Got my phone from Virgin Mobile unlock and connected to Fido.
A friend of mine told me that Wind has the best price - $10 a month for unlimited data (only throttling the channel after first 5Gb). Went to Wind booth and asked to put Wind demo SIM card into my Samsung. No luck, the phone can see the Wind Home Network but couldn't connect to it.
Fido has regular data plan $60 a month for 5Gb that is kinda expensive.
Found in Internet that Fido has retention plan $30 for 6Gb. Called the support but they told me - this is only if I buy new smartphone from them sign for 3 years contract, otherwise - no $30 for 6Gb even when I threatened that I would cancel and go to different provider.
Any thoughts about cheap data plans in Canada, Ontario, Toronto that DO work with Samsung Galaxy S2?
I would've stuck with Virgin as they currently have a limited time offer of 6GB data for $30 and they're plan offerings aren't bad at all if you don't have the luxury of a retention offer from your current provider.
I have accounts on three different carriers for me and my siblings and here's how they compare:
Brother's on Fido:
100/Unl.E/WE starting 7pm
Unl. txt msg
Call Display w/Name Display
Canadian LD Option 25 Minutes
6GB Data
=$75 after taxes
Sister's on Virgin:
200/Unl.E/WE starting 6pm
Unl. txt&pic msg
Fav 10 Canada-wide
Call Display w/Name Display
1GB Data
=$70 after taxes
Mine on Bell:
150/Unl.E/WE starting 6pm
Unl. txt&pic msg
Fab 10 Canada-wide
Call Display & Voice Mail
6GB Data
=$87 after taxes
Wow, holy expensive plans, batman.
30-45$ (Plus tax) here for:
300 minutes
unlimited fido to fido
Evenings and weekends at 6
2500 SMS/100 MMS
Voicemail + Call display
Evolutive data plan (100 megs, 10$, 500 megs, 20$, 1GB, 25$)
(Telus corporate plan + Retention = Win)
Do people really need 6GB? Retention works only if you've been with a carrier for a long time... Going on 6 years with fido, I'm sure if I call them they'll give me something free. haha
Wait until the iphone 5 is released... When it is, they'll have 6GB data plans for 30$... Virgin though seems to have a pretty good network. Fido/Rogers, not so sure anymore...
karendar said:
Do people really need 6GB? Retention works only if you've been with a carrier for a long time... Going on 6 years with fido, I'm sure if I call them they'll give me something free. haha
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Been with Fido for 7 years now without interruption.
Call them today and they haven't given me the retention plan.
Not unless I bought a phone from them (I just got my SGS2 ha-ha, what Fido can offer me instead?), sign a contract for 3 years and other crappy terms...
Man, I am disapoint with Fido.
^ Strange, I got the 6GB/$30 retention plan by committing to 2 years of Data (eg an ECF is < 2yrs) without any hardware (I am using an unlocked SGS II from Europe now).
Unlocked SGS2 will only work on Rogers, Bell and Telus (and their sub-brands, Fido, Virgin, etc.) because SGS2 supports 1900/2100 MHz HSPA.
Wind and Mobilicity use 1700 MHz (AWS) HSPA frequency for their network, which the global version of the SGS2 does not support. You will have to wait for the T-Mobile USA version.
On the other hand, the unlocked global version of HTC Sensation will work on Wind and Mobilicity, but not on Bell or Telus, and only at EDGE speeds on Rogers network.
If you use the SGS2 on Wind network, it will probably roam on the Rogers/Bell/Telus network (whichever they have roaming partnership with) (Wind Away zone). Not sure though.
TWiTCommander said:
Wind and Mobilicity use 1700 MHz (AWS) HSPA frequency for their network, which the global version of the SGS2 does not support. You will have to wait for the T-Mobile USA version.
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Click to collapse
Is this "T-Mobile version" has different chip and some kind of different hardware or it will be just another ROM, software update etc.?
I mean can we theoretically reprogram Bell SGS2 to work with Wind or this is hardware issue?
It's a hardware thing. The T-Mobile/AWS version will use a different cellular baseband radio chip and antenna. It's kind of like the iPhone - you get 3G on Rogers/Fido/Bell/Telus/AT&T, but only EDGE on Wind/Mobilicity/T-Mobile - because the iPhone cellular baseband radio does not support AWS frequencies.
sly2m said:
Been with Fido for 7 years now without interruption.
Call them today and they haven't given me the retention plan.
Not unless I bought a phone from them (I just got my SGS2 ha-ha, what Fido can offer me instead?), sign a contract for 3 years and other crappy terms...
Man, I am disapoint with Fido.
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Click to collapse
I manage a multi-carrier wireless store (Rogers, Fido, Bell, Virgin, etc) and suggest you call Fido back and talk to the cancellations department (also called customer retention). Tell them you are going to switch to Virgin because they will give you a better plan without contract. Speaking from experience, they can give you a plan with promotional discounts even without having to sign a contract.
If that doesn't work, PM me and I'll actually switch you to something better. Like Virgin for $75 (Unlimited Talk and Text, 6GB Data, Caller ID, Voicemail), no contract.
GetHyper said:
I manage a multi-carrier wireless store (Rogers, Fido, Bell, Virgin, etc) and suggest you call Fido back and talk to the cancellations department (also called customer retention). Tell them you are going to switch to Virgin because they will give you a better plan without contract. Speaking from experience, they can give you a plan with promotional discounts even without having to sign a contract.
If that doesn't work, PM me and I'll actually switch you to something better. Like Virgin for $75 (Unlimited Talk and Text, 6GB Data, Caller ID, Voicemail), no contract.
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deleted post
Hey Guys,
I am situated in Germany and in my opinion, the ATT Versions of the S2 is the most beautiful one. My carrier ist o2.
Is it possible to buy a S2 ATT via the US Ebay and use the phone without any restrictions in Germany?
I guess I need to root it first, then unlock it and then I am good to go? Are these thins easily and safely to achieve? Is it that simple? What about the network, is the american version compatible with the german network? Can I use hsdpa?
Any other restrictions?
Thank you in advance.
the usual problems with US phones in europe... no 3g, but if your only there short term, it may be worth picking up, otherwise just get the euro version with the correct bands.
also i havent checked but there may be a quad band umts unlocked
AT&T version only has tri-band (850/1900/2100) HSPA+ radio. So if your carrier O2 uses 900 band for 3G service, your phone will only work in 2G mode.
International version of GS2 has quad-band HSPA+ and it works everywhere.
I moved to Australia this week. I brought my MoPho with me. It was a hassle getting it to work but i figured it out and thought to tell you how it went. I put a Vodafone AU SIM card in my phone but 3G would not work. I knew for a fact i was in a coverage area for 850Mhz 3G so I was pretty annoyed it would not work. Turns out with the Photon you have to manually ass the APN for Vodafone and probably a few others. I was able to get all the settings I needed from here.
http://ausdroid.net/apns/
tl;dr Sometimes when abroad you need to manually add the APN for the carrier.
I need to do that for my carrier too (Slingshot NZ, 850/2100Mhz) but after that it works fine, 3G GSM data is borked on the current ICS build though.
Ya. Im going to wait awhile before i put on another custom ROM. Still trying to get used to everything in Australia. Cant risk being without a phone. Im going to keep an eye on cm9. Until then i only have the precious data connection on my phone which is caped at 4GBs :'(. I miss unlimited.
0mfgroflmao said:
I need to do that for my carrier too (Slingshot NZ, 850/2100Mhz) but after that it works fine, 3G GSM data is borked on the current ICS build though.
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Click to collapse
hodiedodie said:
I moved to Australia this week. I brought my MoPho with me. It was a hassle getting it to work but i figured it out and thought to tell you how it went. I put a Vodafone AU SIM card in my phone but 3G would not work. I knew for a fact i was in a coverage area for 850Mhz 3G so I was pretty annoyed it would not work. Turns out with the Photon you have to manually ass the APN for Vodafone and probably a few others. I was able to get all the settings I needed from here.
http://ausdroid.net/apns/
tl;dr Sometimes when abroad you need to manually add the APN for the carrier.
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Click to collapse
Yea ill be down under in January
The telstra pre pay sim works better than vodafone .
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Well. Thats a tricky question. Bellow i will list the different networks and what they support compared to the photon. Currently all three major carriers can provide 3G to the Photon. Telstra simply has a better network but it has nothing to do with how it interacts with the phone. For both Optus and Vodafone so far i have had to manually set the APNs. It was a ***** with the Optus one because of the separate APNs for internet and mms. Even though optus doesnt have umts850 and the photon doesnt have umts900 i am downloading about 4Mbs in East Killara (Suburb by Sydney) throught Optus' 2100 single band HSDPA+. I have not tested Telstra because they are so freaking expensive.
Photon supports:
800/1900 MHz (EV-DO Rev. A),
GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz,
UMTS/WCDMA 850/1900/2100 MHz (HSPA+ at 14.4 Mbit/s)
OPTUS/Amaysim: (I only recommend for when time is being spent in Capital Cities that support 2100 single band)
GSM - 900/1800
UMTS - 900/2100 (2100 single band)
TELSTRA:
2G - 900/1800
3G - 850/2100 (850 is NextG)
LTE - 1800
Vodafone:
2G - 900/1800
3G - 850/900/2100
ttkyles said:
Yea ill be down under in January
The telstra pre pay sim works better than vodafone .
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vodafone's 3g did not work for me at all, apns could not be set,
after a bit of hassle i got optus working and am happy so far, vodafone is sooo bad in aus anyway.
Yea i used my sprint touch pro 2 all last year down under.
Hoping the photon puts my tp2 on the shelf.
I agree with hodie though
Optus is good when your in Melbourne, sydney, perth,etc.but i thought telstra had the better overall service.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
3G issue
Hi,
Im from Dominican Republic and I got a Photon, the phone use to works fine with my carrier, but since 2 weeks ago the 3G network is unavailable. My carrier is Claro Dominicana (GSM 850 MHz) and searching for the possible problem I think that one of the motorola update block that band since is the same one as ATT. I had rooted the phone and try with custom roms and also restore it to the stock rom but with no luck. Does anyone have face this issue? Is there a solution for this?
Thanks.
Hi Everyone
Im off to America for a few weeks at the end of the month.
Im just wondering what networks will my UK (Soon to be unlocked) 920 work on?
From what i can tell it will only work on AT&T 3g/4g but was hoping to use Tmobile as it looks cheaper. (Not bothered about 4g as long as it picks up 3g.
Or could someone from across the pond let me know the best Pay and go plans... i only wanna make a few calls but manly for data, as my EE network want £50 for 200mb.
Whether you can use T-Mobile and get 3G depends on where you will be. T-Mobile is re-allocating some of their spectrum and so in an ever-expanding set of places, you can get 3G on 1900MHz, and your UK 920 will get 3G data in those places.
See airportal.de to get an idea of the regions that are being refarmed. Many metropolitan areas are covered.
So I've been globetrotting with my Incredible 4G/aka Fireball with CM10.1 (currently the unofficial 20130420 build by mdmower) for about 6 months now and it works great on VZW's global plan, Used it all over Europe and across US / Canada using Verizon's plan. Feel free to ask any questions below if you are curious about my experiences with that. I can't promise a speedy response but will do my best to answer.
The point of this post is actually to see if anyone wants me to try any specific services or networks while I am in Europe later this month. I see a number of posts asking if it will work in -insert country here- or on -insert service provider here- so if you want a guinea pig, here I am.
I was thinking of buying a pre-paid SIM or 3 and basically try different services and setups for kicks and giggles. I am flying into Amsterdam and will end up in Belgium and Germany at different points in my trip and this summer have projects in Asia and Scandinavia.
I'll either grab cards off of Amazon before I go or when I land hit up a kiosk or vending machine.
Not sure if this is of any use to anyone but since I'm already going to satisfy my own curiosity I'd offer my results to the community.
Now everyone stand back.... I'm about to SCIENCE! :laugh:
i'm heading to italy this summer and wondering what it will take to make this phone work. this is my first 4g phone with a sim card...
my previous verizon phones have always worked around america (mexico, dominican republic, etc). when i went to asia last year (japan, thailand) i only used wifi for email and data - the roaming worked but was outrageous price.
I'm using this phone in Ukraine with no issues. I have Ukranian GSM service provider and another one for CDMA. No LTE in Ukraine.
The only tip, that this phone doesn't support my GSM provider's Mobile Internet. Never the less, it does support it on other Ukranian GSM providers.
When I was in German, I bought myself German prepaid sim-card and sucsessfully switched to its network
j13smiley said:
i'm heading to italy this summer and wondering what it will take to make this phone work. this is my first 4g phone with a sim card...
my previous verizon phones have always worked around america (mexico, dominican republic, etc). when i went to asia last year (japan, thailand) i only used wifi for email and data - the roaming worked but was outrageous price.
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Click to collapse
That's kind of my thought on the matter too, how easy is it to switch carriers on a device which is normally carrier locked. I see there are some configurations needed for the CM10.1 to work on a different carrier and want to try and see how it works. I will be giving that a whirl and see.
I noticed that last time I was in Belgium I had very spotty coverage with VZW and very slow data while nobody else had any problems getting decent speeds, but in Netherlands I usually had same or better signal than locals and mostly full 3G signal in main train routes and larger downtown areas like Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven. Germany was about the same but I wasn't paying much attention to my phone while briefly passing through.
VZW lists the radios as:
Network
LTE 700 MHz (band 13)
CDMA 1x/3G 800/1900 MHz
UMTS/HSPA 2100/900
Quad Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900)
With this gamut I would think it can attach to any network for voice and data with the right settings. I also plan on paying closer attention to what kind of signals I am attaching to and speeds, etc.
After spending a week abroad I found that if you are just visiting using the Global Plan through Verizon is by FAR the best solution.
First, a "Local" SIM card runs about 10 Euro from most providers, T-Mobile (NL) and KPN were the ones I selected. Vodafone is in partnership with VZW for service in Netherlands so I skipped them assuming same coverage. With the 10 Euro you get varying minimal amounts of voice minutes for local calls... assume it's JUST a SIM though, you pay extra for minutes, texts and data.
The Pre-Paid SIMs I had access to do not offer roaming. I was told you need a plan for roaming. When I went into Germany or Belgium I lost service.
Data plans on pre-paid plans for a smartphone are about 25-30 euro for 100mb.
It's only $25 per 100mb chunk through VZW.
Texting plans range from 5 Euro and up. I didn't get one, didn't need it since I use WhatsApp and Viber for that.
Coverage and data speed would the ONLY reason I would go with a pre-paid SIM again. T-Mobile had exceptionally fast data and amazing coverage while I was in the NL. KPN was comparable to Vodafone (thought my VZW global plan).
Switching to other providers was difficult and cumbersome and CM10.1 does NOT handle global roaming very well. Can't just jam a SIM in and it works (See MDMower's Unofficial CM post for settings) Once the settings were made I made a TWRP backup to make switching possible without a PC.
CM 10 and 10.1 did not show a signal bar even when I had signal so it was VERY difficult to ascertain signal strength and relied on just speed and what I perceived of signal strength.
Stock Rooted works great for Global Roaming but did not like SIM cards from other providers.
Recap; If you plan on visiting a country outside of USA and use this phone (or any Global phone really) then it's best to add in a global plan at $25-30 a month and the $25 100mb package. A SIM will cost you about that or more and doesn't allow you to use your same phone number or roam into other countries without added expense.
It's best to stick with Stock Rooted on that plan. IF you plan on using a local SIM for data speeds and you are staying in one major city/area for the duration then it will work alright but make backups of different configurations before you do the switch... Plan on spending an hour or two getting your phone configured and setup with the right settings and my signal bar never worked in CM, even if you have full signal.
From now on I will use only VZW plan on Stock Rooted. It's the best way to have a reliable phone when travelling abroad.