Database Users

Taking an Exec to the US: worthwhile???

Hey guys.
I'm just about up for an upgrade with O2 from my XDAs (which I adore, even though I use like 10% of its capabilities!!) but the problem is that I'm living in the US now. So, I really want the Exec, as it'll save me lugging a laptop about, but am worried that it'll get uber expensive to run here, due to crazy roaming costs.
I'm thinking about changing my tarrif over to a "Data Only" with 5mb per month, at some 8 Pounds a month, but am I right in saying that as soon as I log on to GPRS in the US that I'll be charged "Roaming" fees and that my 5mb will go untouched? If so, is there anyway to get around this, as I like the look and the functionality of the Exec, but don't really have a desire to fork out $1000 for one! Are there going to be any compatability issues in using a UK handset as a main device in the US? Are O2 going to let me swop from my 200 Minutes plan to an Online plan that costs just 8 Pounds? Are there any requirements to being a "Business User"? I've Emailed O2, but to say that they were unhelpful is a huge understatement and then some!!
Lastly: can I play Java games on it/my XDA? Whenever I go to an onlione store with Java games, all of the handsets I see are Motorola and Nokia, etc, and never an XDA. I'm asuming that it must be able to play them, but does anyone have any comments or tips on the process? Thanks guys.

Why dont you just use a sim card from the US depending on where you go you can just buy a sim card if your phone is unlocked hope that help

Hmm. Okay, I think that that would make sense (tbh, I hadn't thought of that!). Okay, is the Exec unlockable? If so, how does one go about it? IE: is it an easy process?

The Exec should already be unlocked: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=30330

yes all execs are unlocked. I have a spare one if you are willing to buy.

Hi GadgetGirl: thanks for the tip and link. I'll check it out.
Zillocx: thanks man, but I already have a line on one. Thanks for the offer though.

Teflon,
be sure to consider a T-Mobile USA SIM since T-Mobile uses GSM 1900 only which is the only US band that the Exec supports. Cingular uses GSM 850/1900 in most major US markets so you'd experience inconsistent since the Exec doesn't have GSM 850. T-Mobile USA is also the best US GSM network to use for data. They have unlimited data plans if you sign a contract with them. If I recall correctly, the unlimited plans run between $19.99 and $49.99 (Unlimited Internet Plan) per month.
http://www.t-mobile.com/services/webandinfo.asp (T-Zones Mobile Web Plan, $5.99/month)
http://www.t-mobile.com/plans/default.asp?tab=internet

I use a universal (Jasjar) and I live in the US, so I can tell you that it's definitely worthwhile I can also give you a bit of advice about a service provider...
Your two options for GSM providers are T-Mobile and Cingular. Like Triband said, T-Mobile only uses 1900MHz, so you know you'll get a signal as long as T-Mobile has coverage there. Cingular uses both 850MHz and 1900MHz, so you can run into some issues with Cingular. Generally, however, in the cities and more populated areas Cingular will have 1900MHz coverage while rural areas are more likely to be 850MHz only. Overall Cingular has better coverage then T-Mobile, but unfortunately there are no maps or anything available to consumers that show where they have 1900MHz coverage and where it is only 850MHz. I'm using Cingular with my Jasjar and I've had very few coverage problems.
Prepaid service in the US is considerably more than it would be with a contract, so if you're going to be in the US for a while, or you will be using your phone a lot you might not want to go prepaid (although I'm sure its much less than international roaming). Here Cingular has an advantage because they'll let you sign a month to month contract where you can cancel whenever you want. With T-Mobile you must sign a contract for a full year.
Please let me know if you have any other questions
Brett

Hi BrettS, where did you bought the Jasjar?

cktlcmd said:
Hi BrettS, where did you bought the Jasjar?
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I got mine from Expansys USA http://www.expansys-usa.com/
Brett

Hey guys,
Well, I just got married, so I'll be living in the US on a permanent basis. I'm towards the East Coast (New Haven, to be exact). My wife is American, and she's with Cingular, so that may be the way to go as calls between us would be free, from what she tells me. I'll do some detailed research into it, although further comments would be appreciated. I'll check out those links too. Now, if I can just get O2 to stop being such asses I'll be a happy man!!

BrettS said:
I got mine from Expansys USA http://www.expansys-usa.com/
Brett
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Do they have warranty on it or does I-mate honor the warranty no matter where you bought the unit? I saw that the I-mate Phone store has it too for 1200 USD. Why did you not bought it from them and opted for expansysUSA?

cktlcmd,
I have a Jasjar as well and I also got it from expansys. I use expansys because I purchased the previous two devices (XDA, I-mate PocketPC Phone ) from them. During my purchase of the Pocket PC phone, I original got the Qtek 2020 and I was not happy. They took it back and sent me the I-mate version without any issues. Overall all accessories and devices purchased from them have been a good experience. In all cases they did honor their 15 days policies if the product did not perform as expected.
Teflon, I am using Cingular and they seems to have the best coverage for GSM in the US. I am located in the East Coast.

Thinking of getting HD2, Anyone has it for ATT? Help me make up my mind

Hello guys I have been a HTC guy since I got my very first TIlt, then my FUZE, and my PURE. All of these phone were ATT branded, and I used the 10/month medianet plan.
They are now catching on and have changed my plan to the 30/month one. I do not like this since I do not really use the web. So I did some research and need your help.
I know if I get a T-Mobile branded one I wont get 3G, butt what if I get a non branded HD2, would I get 3G then?
If I were to get a T-Mobile or a non branded HD2 would ATT still change my medianet plan to a PDA plan? I know they are doing this with non branded Nexus 1 phones but I am unsure about HD2.
If you have this with ATT tell me how you use it, do you have 3G, what web plan do you or if you do not.
Thanks, I hope on buying one of these soon.

well i'm a att guy... but.. i'm going over to t-mobile.. due to this phone... cheers

ProjektFuze said:
well i'm a att guy... but.. i'm going over to t-mobile.. due to this phone... cheers
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I know what you mean dawg but T-mobile has poor service in my area, they only offer edge.

I am switching to T-Mobile for the HD2, and the cheaper prices, Las Vegas has a big blanket of 3G from all carriers, at&t has been sucky lately due to the iPhone.
Even though they where my first carrier(Original at&t), they wont be my last. I cant wait to go Magenta.
As for your situation, you might have to settle for the retail price then just unlock it, since the service on edge for at&t rather than on T-Mobile.

i have it on AT&T i get 3G speeds in san diego just fine works great. my version is the australian version from telstra.

been using the european version with at&t and edge speeds are fine (have access to wifi at work and home). i have been paying for the $10 data plan since October/November with no problems. At&t website lists the phone i am using as other after i had selected an old motorola razor i was using previously. So i am not sure how they detected and switched you over to their smartphone plan.

You'll need the Australian Telstra version to get ATT 3g. It costs like $800 for imported versions though.

I have been using my Euro version HD2 since Dec with ATT. Have been paying $10/month for data. Just signed another 2 yr contract with the Nazi's (yea, I know) and got a free Blackberry. When I registered the Blackberry.....or activated it with the new sim ATT had in it, I got a text saying I needed to pay for the $30 data plan. Long story short......I told them I wont be using the new phone, I will be using my HD2 that I have been using. Gave them the IMEI and they said that it was not considered a smart phone. They are such geniuses! Even though it is EDGE, I am quite happy with it.
I also called the next day and explained how I travel international a lot, and asked to get the unlock code for the new Blackberry. Had the code the next day, unlocked it, so I guess I will sell it and try to recoup what I am going pay over the next 2 years!

Been using my European HD2 since they first came out, on AT&T.
Works just fine.
​

They found out because, chances are, your phone is not SIM unlock...or you somehow stupidly give them your IMEI number. If you want to get back on the old $10/$15 medianet plan, call them up and tell them that you're using some old phone (like a razr) and would like to get out of the PDA/smartphone data plan.
I'm on AT&T ($15 medianet) and I would never think about jumping to a worser carrier/service over a phone. That's retarded.

^^ how about for a free phone bill??
as i said i'm att right now.. but i spend about 130 a month which is frickin insane... as a student.. my father offered me one of his lines that he has open anyways (kept open in case one of his clients needed a temp phone or service) and because he's already paying for it regardless.. i get it free of charge.. which in my opinion totally rocks... PLUS i get the HD2 which makes the situation even better....
but no, personally i rather keep att... the call quality and reception is just so good everywhere... i never drop calls.. nor does my antenna recieve less then full bars... and i have done my fair share of research.. and t-mobile's reception is kinda bad... and in my apartment complex.. (my sis has tmobile) i'll probably manage about 2-3 bars... yea.. totally sucks.... but as i said before.. free phone bill...cheers

lude219 said:
They found out because, chances are, your phone is not SIM unlock...or you somehow stupidly give them your IMEI number. If you want to get back on the old $10/$15 medianet plan, call them up and tell them that you're using some old phone (like a razr) and would like to get out of the PDA/smartphone data plan.
I'm on AT&T ($15 medianet) and I would never think about jumping to a worser carrier/service over a phone. That's retarded.
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I called them up and gave them a IMEI from a LG shine I had. I never told them I had a pda. The reason they knew I was on a pure was because the pure I had was branded by ATT.

TheChemist187 said:
I called them up and gave them a IMEI from a LG shine I had. I never told them I had a pda. The reason they knew I was on a pure was because the pure I had was branded by ATT.
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Like i said, it's probably because the pure wasn't sim unlocked since it's AT&T branded (meaning that they already have the IMEI for that particular phone). I always keep a few unlocked dumbphones around (samsung x820 and samsung u600) just in case I run into situation like this...

AT&T service in Northern Chicagoland area simply sucks. I have AT&T phone from work and use T-Mobile as my personal phone service carrier - cannot compare at all. AT&T 3G appears to be somehwat faster (in miliseconds) but no drastic speed difference between the two.

Where do people recommend buying a Telstra HD2 and having it shipped to the U.S.?
Thx
I tried the TMO HD2 today and Tmo's signal sucks in my area.

I have a telsa hd2 and i use it on att and i get 3g coverage. it works fine. the only i dont like is i cant access the media mall that att users use to download games and apps.

Spanish people: Do you have prepaid flatfee internet?

I'm going to spain on holiday for a couple weeks. (I know luxery )
But I do want internet when I'm there.
I want to buy a Huawei E160 USB-UMTS dongle.
And then I need a (UMTS) SIM card and an internet subscription.
Do you know company's who have prepaid cards?
I've searched, but only found old threads.
One thread of 2 years ago speeks about Movistar.es
That costed 21 euro for 4 weeks unlimited internet.
I'm also looking for that.
Is that still possible, or are there better alternatives?
Hope you can help me.
Thanx in advance!

hey! I'm from Barcelona (Spain) and have done some searching. It looks like the best option is buying a yoigo prepaid card. costs 3 euros every day you connect to the internet and you're allowed to download 100mb, then your speed is reduced to 64 kbps.
I was just looking for the same thing in the US, I'm going to cali in vacation and will be taking a nexus one to use it as gps, find hotels etc. do you know what options I have?
Just out of curiosity, where in spain are you going?
PS: here's a link http://www.yoigo.com/tarifas/internet_para_llevar.php

At&t used to for $20.00 a month.. untill the iphone came along and screwed everything up.
But i see that in europe you have to make a contract no matter if you want a phone from them or not.
In america, a plan and a contract are different things,
If you go to a cell phone company provider with your own phone, you do not need to sign a contract for 2 years to use thier service plans.
I am also going to spain (galicia) this summer, and i was going to call about that.
(And im sure you know, that At&t and T-mobile are the only GSM provider in the US)

TurboX2 said:
At&t used to for $20.00 a month.. untill the iphone came along and screwed everything up.
But i see that in europe you have to make a contract no matter if you want a phone from them or not.
In america, a plan and a contract are different things,
If you go to a cell phone company provider with your own phone, you do not need to sign a contract for 2 years to use thier service plans.
I am also going to spain (galicia) this summer, and i was going to call about that.
(And im sure you know, that At&t and T-mobile are the only GSM provider in the US)
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You don't need to make a contract in spain to get a prepaid card. Only thing you need to do is give them your ID for security purposes

josealb said:
You don't need to make a contract in spain to get a prepaid card. Only thing you need to do is give them your ID for security purposes
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that is right, it is not worth paying an 18 month contract if you are only staying here a couple of weeks, Personally I would recommend Vodafone cause they have better internet quelaity connection (at least in southern spain), and they offer prepaid sim cards and usb modems without a contract (although movistar, yoigo and orange offer them as well). The question would be, what part of spain are you traveling to and wich company has the better internet reception on that area... if you are traveling to rural areas, I would stick to the 2 major companies (Vodafone and Movistar). Hope it helps.

I'm going to Salou, about 150km south of Barcelona.
Thanx for your answers.
I hope yoigo has coverage over there.
And are there any other alternatives?

Hi,
I'm from Reus, a city near Salou (about 8km). The UMTS coverage in salou is good for all the service providers in spain.
My mobile ISP is Simyo with good prices, the only inconvenience is that don't have physical shops to buy prepaid modems/sim. My voice provider is Yoigo and they have good prices too.
My advice is that you go to a ThePhoneHouse shop, there are Vodafone, Orange and Yoigo, and they will tell you which solution was better.
You can find thephonehouse in tarragona (10km from salou) and Reus in
http://www.phonehouse.es/app/searchStore.do

Ok, I hope so that the coverage will be good.
And how are Vodafone and Orange? Are they more expensive and/or better?

ronh said:
Ok, I hope so that the coverage will be good.
And how are Vodafone and Orange? Are they more expensive and/or better?
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Vodafone will almost always give you the best coverage, at a higher price. Orange is cheaper and with a little les coverage, Simyo borrows the network from Orange so its coverage will be the same at best.
I didn't know Vodafone offered prepaid cards, if they do I'd recommend you vodafone
PS: Offtopic, Salou is cool, I've been there in vacation often but it's full of tourists, I would recommend you to move a little bit if you wanna see more of Spain than beaches, maybe driving up to Barcelona

1 month trip to USA - prepaid internet?

Hello,
I live in Germany and I'm going on holidays to the USA (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona) for one month (august to september).
As I can't live without internet I thought of getting some kind of prepaid SIM-card over there with a data plan.
Now I don't have any clue which provider I should chose, where and how to get a prepaid SIM, which offer etc.
What would you recommend me?
I heard that the coverage isn't that good in the US and as I'm planning to go to some outlying places too, I'm aware that I won't have reception all the time. But that's okay.
I just need a SIM to do some calls and to write a few mails or check Facebook from time to time – I guess it'll be around 200mbyte and 1 hour calls for this month.
As I have a European phone (NexusOne) I need a GSM network of course.
Best regards and thanks for your help in advance,
lauslein

If u go to Indonesia, a lot of prepaid GSM & CDMA cards could be chosen here

Interested too, will be going to Arizona next summer.
Basically, I only need data and maybe a bit of texting.

seeing that u have a nexus one,,,which bands does it support? the tmobile or just europe? i suggest tmobile if u want 3g but they dont have data plans
at&t does but no 3g i'm sure
its 20$ on at&t for 100mb of data and 20$ for unlimited texting(sms) even to germany i think

Thanks for your reply!
Diamond_dawg said:
seeing that u have a nexus one,,,which bands does it support? the tmobile or just europe?
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Good question, I'll have to look this up. But I got it directly from Google (Device Seeding), so I guess it's some kind of an international version
20$ for 100MB sounds fair (even though I pay less for 1GB HSDPA at home) . The trip's going to be expensive anyway, so I'm willing to spend some money on that part, too

[Q] Usage of G2 overseas

I know this issue is partly addressed in a thread on not being able to connect to a network after unlock but I just want to share my own experience and disappointment with the G2 after going to Guatemala.
I have rooted my G2 using Visionary and am running Enomther's ROM pre-the Dec 24 update. Not using any other kernels or anything, but the phone is unlocked for use overseas with other SIMs.
Before I went to Guate I realized that I would be unable to get 3G given the bands used in Guatemala are different from what the G2 is capable of (I think Band I and IV). Fine.
However, I went down there and wanted to do some data roaming before I had a chance to get a local SIM card and I kept getting the message "SIM card not registered to this network". I tried all three carriers in Guatemala to no avail.
When I went to get a SIM card from a local carrier it took a lot of effort on their part to get my phone connected to the internet but eventually I was able to score Edge service with one of the carriers down there. Being Guatemala I don't know if this process was difficult due to the way data plans work down there (prepaid) or if there was something specific with the G2 that prevented it from connecting to the network.
But my overall question is why I was not able to roam with the G2 overseas. Clearly the phone worked fine once I put a local SIM card in but the fact that I was totally unable to roam with the G2 using my US T-Mobile SIM card was very disappointing and has me thinking of reactivating my iPhone, which has never had any issue using it overseas, including Guatemala.
Is this a G2 issue or T-Mobile?

You have to enable international roaming with T-Mobile, I discovered that during a trip to Ukraine. Once I did that my subsequent trips I was able to roam but not very well. The easiest and cheapest thing to do was to use a foreign sim for my purposes.

You have to call tmobile and they will give you the unlock code most of the time. Tell then you are going for business or something like that.
Most likely your data and calling bands will work on edge. But your 3g and wannabe 4g will not work.
Circledog said:
You have to enable international roaming with T-Mobile, I discovered that during a trip to Ukraine. Once I did that my subsequent trips I was able to roam but not very well. The easiest and cheapest thing to do was to use a foreign sim for my purposes.
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Woah, weird. I lived in ukraine for 3 years. And yes buying a ukrainian sim card will cost you about 5-10 dollars a month for a crap load of text messages. UMC is best for ukraine imo.

Completely off topic but how did you like living in Ukraine? I would love to live there for awhile. We adopted a little girl from there and then later another from Moscow, I loved Moscow but Russia was so much more expensive than Ukraine was.
Back on topic sort of. I didn't have a smart phone in Ukraine so I didnt use data, but in Moscow I was able to get 3G coverage with my G2. I had Tmobile international roaming enabled on my phone, but my sim would not register on any networks there, I had to pick up a Russian Beeline sim and then was good to go!

From what I understood about mhz bands and services. There are four total most used bands in the entire world 850 900 1800 and 1900. Us in america use two (one under a thousand and one over) and europe uses the opposite ones. So only up until tri and quad band phones started getting much cheaper (probably about 5 years ago) did phone start working in different countrys. Its only smarter honestly, then a company would only need to make on phone for the world. Then they would be losing out on multiple purchases ofc haha.
Google mobile mhz bands. I don't know everything, but I read quite a bit about this maybe 3 years ago when I bought a tri band nokia.
Ukraine, I was there for 2 years for my church. Became fluent in russian. Then went back to date a girl I met while I was there. After that she came twice for 6 month increments on a visitor visa and we got married at the end of the second. Been happily married for almost 2.5 years now.
Bring on the mail order bride jokes, I've heard them all. We r both young, planning on buying a house this year since the economy has really brought those prices down haha. Sorry for the spam! But hopefully your questions are answered.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Thanks for the responses. I will give T-Mobile a call ahead of my next trip overseas. Just odd that a company with such wide global coverage has no international data roaming plans and makes it a pain the keester to get roaming.

They actually do have international data roaming ($15/MB). The key is that you have to have already added international roaming to your account (it's free to add). Then if you have a data plan in the US, they will allow you to have data while roaming. I think US carriers require you to actively enable international roaming instead of enabling it by default due to the potentially high number of complaints about billing charges (e.g., people using their phones internationally without being aware there will be a higher rate). This way, they can state you were properly warned since you have to contact them first.