Regarding Sprint's TP2's SIM Subsidy/Network Situation

[stevedusa]

As I promised earlier I would put up the situation regarding the Sprint's Touch Pro 2's SIM subsidy lock situation once I am in China, so bear with me.

I have my Sprint's roaming SIM card activated, now... as soon as I land in Canton (Guangzhou), China, I turned my TP2 on and left it in "GSM Only". That did not do anything since it did not find any networks.

So I left it at Global, what do you know, it actually roamed onto China Unicom (CDMA provider)'s CDMA network! Of course 1xRTT only and I actually made a call back to the States, the audio quality is actually pretty darn good.

I swapped out the Sprint's GSM card and put the China Telecom SIM in and changed the mode to GSM only. Next thing you know, it registered onto the China Telecom's GSM network with the name "CHINA MOBILE" on the screen. I was able to make phone calls, send and receive text/MMS right away. Of course, EDGE speed only, the UTMS 3G in China isn't that quite widely rolled out so I can't quite test the extend of the international 3G capacity on the phone.

So to cap the situation... it has no subsidy lock EXCEPT for going onto an US-based tower.

Now to deal with the jet lag...

[2k4mach]

sweeet, thats good to know since im headed to japan here in a couple weeks.

[dallas contractor]

Good to hear.

[christr]

Originally Posted by 2k4mach

sweeet, thats good to know since im headed to japan here in a couple weeks.

Does regular GSM still work in Japan? I thought it was all HSDPA now or something like that.

--Chris

[jj14x]

I wonder if the "China Telecom" sim would have worked if Sprint's roaming SIM card had not been activated.... (I don't see why it wouldn't, but just worried if I should do that before I go on my vacation to another part of Asia

[grandpanda]

Thanks for the update. Have been waiting for it.

I think this is an important piece of information for many Sprint users.

Originally Posted by stevedusa

As I promised earlier I would put up the situation regarding the Sprint's Touch Pro 2's SIM subsidy lock situation once I am in China, so bear with me.

I have my Sprint's roaming SIM card activated, now... as soon as I land in Canton (Guangzhou), China, I turned my TP2 on and left it in "GSM Only". That did not do anything since it did not find any networks.

So I left it at Global, what do you know, it actually roamed onto China Unicom (CDMA provider)'s CDMA network! Of course 1xRTT only and I actually made a call back to the States, the audio quality is actually pretty darn good.

I swapped out the Sprint's GSM card and put the China Telecom SIM in and changed the mode to GSM only. Next thing you know, it registered onto the China Telecom's GSM network with the name "CHINA MOBILE" on the screen. I was able to make phone calls, send and receive text/MMS right away. Of course, EDGE speed only, the UTMS 3G in China isn't that quite widely rolled out so I can't quite test the extend of the international 3G capacity on the phone.

So to cap the situation... it has no subsidy lock EXCEPT for going onto an US-based tower.

Now to deal with the jet lag...

[2k4mach]

Originally Posted by christr

Does regular GSM still work in Japan? I thought it was all HSDPA now or something like that.

--Chris

i hope not, i havent been there in 4 years so i really dunno. guess ill find out when i get there lol.

[Meanee]

Great news, thanks! I am going to Mexico on 3 weeks, wanted to make sure I can get in touch once there.

[christr]

Here's some notes about Japan. Doesn't appear to be much if any GSM there.
http://euc.jp/misc/cellphones.en.html#tech

But Telestial (common place for getting foreign SIM cards) seems to just say you can pop in their SIM and go... so I donno. I've seen other stuff online saying only HSPA works there (which is W-CDMA).

Worth a shot to try tho.

--Chris

[christr]

Adding to the last one. If you check Verizon's international roaming pages for Japan it looks like you'll just roam using regular CDMA. But no video/picture/data messaging. You'd need a UMTS device for that.

http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Roa...fic/Japan.html


--chris