Child Item

Site Totals

61277 Questions Answered 267 Categories

Ever going to see a Global Ready Android phone?

Like the subject says - should I just give up hope on seeing a global ready Android phone with VZW?

I've been holding out hope for about 6 months now... I can't imagine I'm the only one who wants this sort of phone. Blackberry has a corner on this part of the market and I'm sure it makes them a lot of money. Those of us who travel frequently just can't do the lame "loaner" program that VZW offers - if you're busy enough to need an international phone, you don't have time to deal with switching phones back and forth.

Any hints that the Droid X or Droid 2 might work everywhere? I'm guessing it's more likely that some sort of HTC offering will be global ready.

Comments

reallyniceguy

Im pretty sure there is. The phones can only get better. Now the droid 2, I dont think im jumping on that one.. not that much of a difference between them two.

MrHost

If a MOD could chime in on this one as a confirmation to what I am saying would be great. VZW uses a CDMA network, which a large portion of countries outside of North America do not use. You might be able to use the texting function of the phone but to make calls you will be out of luck unless the country you are going to has support for CDMA. Other countries use GSM which is the same type as AT&T, so a majority, but not all their phones will likely work out of the country. Verizon hasn't seemed to pick up the phones that utilize GSM/CDMA in one phone, which would resolve your problem. You might be better to research for a CDMA/GSM android phone and purchase it, but it won't be cheap as it wouldn't be able to be purchased through retail. It's not that Verizon is blocking or not want to support their customers that leave for travel, business or pleasure. Their network just isn't supported, just like many of the US and Canadian Carriers. Again, if a MOD could confirm or correct me on parts I am wrong it would be much appreciated.

PJNC284

Verizon has a few CDMA/quad-band GSM world phone like the Tour and Storm series and I believe they have a flip phone that is world capable. Some non-US countries use CDMA but it is nowhere near as widespread as GSM. As for Android, apparently there's a device called the Droid Pro that is rumored to be out late 2010 early 2011 that should be a world phone.

tim600sl

Verizon is gonna roll out 4G network soon, it will support GSM, but for now there are no android phones that support GSM on verizon.

elmariachi

Although GSM is in most countries is the same tech as the one AT&T uses, they do NOT use the same frequencies. You will have to get a quad-band phone in order to use it in GSM countries.

geovisualize

I'm aware of the difference in networks (GSM/CDMA) - I have been using a motorola Z6c for a couple years now. I also know that there are blackberry options as well as a couple windows mobile phones. In my opinion, the thing worth buying is something with an Android OS onboard, and all I can figure is that Blackberry has a nice tight hold on Verizon somehow when it comes to world-capable phones. I'm sure they make a pretty penny from the various corporate and federal folks who need global smartphones from Verizon.

This is not the first time I've seen stuff that says that 4G will eliminate the need for quad-band GSM/CDMA phones for global use. Can anyone else elaborate? I assume it will be quite some time before 4G exists in many spots around the world (for example, I have had to go to Egypt, China, Chile, etc... in recent months - not places where I would expect the latest tech to land quickly).

I would really prefer to stay on Verizon, but at this point it's frustrating to have to wait and wait for a nice phone considering the crazy premiums we pay to use global phone services.

fezzik

Wow. Ok. The reason there are no International roaming Android phones is because the Android phones are shooting for faster processors and higher end chipsets. Ok so that doesn't make any sense but they have been working on chipsets that would allow both radios to operate as they need to for international CDMA phones. As of the time the Droid was out they hadn't gotten there yet. You will see it. They had a processor that would work it just wasn't ready to develop a phone around yet. I don't know if it has changed the information is difficult to come by I had just been reading about that when the Droid was coming out and the Nexus 1 was being developed. Part of the hold out on the Universal Nexus 1 was they hadn't got a 1Ghz chipset that would run both network types. LTE is supposed to be a universal thing. To my knowledge there are no competive technologies out there. Sprint and T-Mobile have a sort of advanced versions of GSM and CDMA that they are calling 4G really it is more like 3.5G but that isn't marketable and since 4G is a concept and not an actual standard or term you can call anything you want 4G so long as it is not the same thing you were calling 3G. With in the next two to Three years the majority of the world will have rolled out an LTE system. The roaming will operate much the same way as it does here. The governing bodies license out frequency bands for the radio waves used to transport information. Verizon has the bulk of the open initiative requirement C Block of LTE Bands. AT&T will have a lot of B block but they are depending apparently on a lot of their ASW bands whatever that means. Basically though what you have is the carriers will have certain radio frequency licenses their devices will be able to operate on those band licenses. In order to change carriers and use your device (no surprise here AT&T has avoided any license that would require that) or do roaming of any kind your device has to be able to operate on the frequency levels of the other company/Carrier. For instance my understanding is that even though AT&T and Verizon will have different blocks of the 700MhZ band we will be able to buy AT&T phones or AT&T users will be able to bring their phones with them to Verizon because of Verizon's open initiative and Open requirements of some of their radio wave licenses because both companies will make use of the 700Mhz band. However, there could be some devices that make use of another band on AT&T. So AT&T by policy might not allow Verizon phones and depending on how the frequency bands shake out may not eventually may have devices that won't work or may have areas of the country where some devices won't have service. Europe should opperate at different bands than America not out of necessity but out of mostly tradition. If that happens in order for a phone to be world roaming capable the phone would have to have the capability of operating on the European bands. Much like GSM now. LTE phones will be dual band in US only networks most likely maybe triband I don't know if there are going to be three bands in the US or not of LTE. It will have to be Tri-band or Quad Band LTE to operate in Europe assuming Europe is adopting other frequency bands like usual. Europe is reserving the 800Mhz band I just found. World phones will then have to be at least 700Mhz and 800Mhz capable. I expect Europe and America to also have LTE broadcasts in a higher band as well. Lower bands have a broader range, higher bands have a shorter range but can handle more users. So I expect major metropolitan areas to broadcast around remaining 1700-2100 MhZ licenses or on some other high frequency level to cover the areas of higher population concentration New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta places like that where there are so many people in smaller areas. From what I can tell Sprint is actually planning on continuing in their path and possibly just moving to a higher end WiMax. That should be interesting and I don't know exactly what that will mean for calling. Whew.

Basically it will still depend but it will be easier. Instead of having to incorporate two different chipsets in a phone to have international roaming you just have to incorporate extra band capabilites or radios.

geovisualize

Thanks for supplying some details - I appreciate the context here since it helps explain why this problem is complicated and non-trivial to solve. It sounds like 4G (for what it's worth calling a melange of "standards" a single standard) nd backwards compatibility with 3G by default will make it likely that it will work a lot of places right off the bat.

I am hopeful that recent rumors about the Droid Pro bode well for what I need.

NC-DROIDER

Contrary to popular belief VZW new 4G LTE network still will not connect to GSM. LTE (long Term Evolution) will work on 700MHZ spectrum. US based GSM carriers work on 850/1900MHZ

Child Item