Child Item

Site Totals

61209 Questions Answered 267 Categories

when will s5 be global with verizon? it is on all other cellular providers

sonicrogue

need to upgrade, but travel abroad. when is s5 global ready with verizon

Comments

rcschnoor

Right now.

KBTron

I'm sitting here with a Samsung Galaxy S5 in Japan. It may as well be a brick. I bought it in part because it was advertised (and confirmed by the reps at a Verizon store) that:

a) Was a global phone

b) Was unlocked and could accept SIM cards from anywhere, so long as they fit (micro SIM) and were valid.

I went so far as to go the Verizon Wireless trip adviser and verified that this phone could operate in Japan.

So, my experience:

Once you're in Japan, if you haven't previously set up for international calling with Verizon, and you want to use their phone, you're screwed. If you have set it up with Verizon, you pay $2.00 a minute for phone calls next door as well as to the U.S., and $200/GB for data usage. ($20 gets you 100 MB, right.) If you haven't set it up with Verizon, you can't change things once you're there. You can make emergency calls... That's it.
The sales people and the script-reading chat people keep on saying that you can put another vendor's SIM in there. Ha. They're lying. The web forums on android central are full of people complaining that putting in another vendor's SIM simply doesn't work. I paid $160 for a couple weeks rental on a legit SIM card with unlimited data, $0.25/minute phone calls to anywhere, with 400 minutes thrown in. (See the Narita Airport vendors' list. The place is definitely legit.) Natch, it doesn't work: SIM Unknown. Tech support with the vendor (and there was a lot) came up dry.
And all Verizon could say was, "It's a Samsung S5. It uses a special super-duper micro SIM with NFC support - you have to use one exactly like that in order for the phone to work." The rep lied. There are no such SIM cards mentioned, anywhere on the web. Just advertising blurbs on how "Global-Ready" their S5 is.
Commentary on several forums seem to indicate that Verizon has sweetheart deals with partner firms (bend over) in a bunch of countries; the only meaning of "Global" is "You can use that phone of yours anywhere you want, so long as you pay Astronomical Prices! Isn't that Great! Yeah, Great, Great, Great Profits!!"
There's apparently a legal requirement that, since Verizon is using the 700 MHz band, that their phones have to be unlocked. There's rumors running around that if you don't say exactly the right word sequence to the correct Verizon rep on the third Thursday when a virgin's tear falls on a leaf, the correct unlocking sequence allowing any old SIM at all won't appear. I suspect that the FTC/FCC/3-letter agency might enforce the issue if they (a) were ever informed of the problem and (b) weren't taken over by right-wing wingnuts who Feel That A Business Can Do No Wrong.

Had had an old semi-smart phone that was semi functional and would not work overseas. Because of Verizon's false advertising in this regard, I'm out:

$400 for two new S5's, bought on the premise that at least one of them would work outside the U.S. borders.

$60 a month additional for the "More" plan that I wasn't originally using because, well, we had a grandfathered family plan.

$160 for a SIM card I can't use and have to return in two weeks, anyway.

I imagine that Verizon exec's are having fun clicking their heels and jumping around: More Money for U$$$! Damn cheats. They got us figured, correctly, for suckers, and they're laughing their way to their stock options.

Finally: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I feel like an idiot. A year and some ago I took my family, including my son with a Verizon GSM smart phone, to Bermuda. He had important phone calls regarding a permanent position that he had to receive. We triple-checked with Verizon to make sure that that phone would work in Bermuda, and paid the extra for the global voice plan at the time. If you guessed, you guessed right: It didn't work. We got charged for incoming phone calls that we didn't receive, outgoing phone calls that didn't connect, and exorbitant rates on a couple of the SMS messages that, somehow, did get through. Those were the ones with spam, not from my son't employer, which we did want. We got reimbursed. which was OK. But I would rather have had services rendered.

If you want a global phone, don't buy it from Verizon.

Ken Becker

rcschnoor

Yes, the phone is golbal. Yes IF you want to utilize Verizon's global plan, you must sign up for it. Yes the prices of their global plan are extremely high.

Why would you want to use Verizon's global plan, though. Simply purchase a local SIM while in Japan, switch that with the SIM that is in your phone and use the local service while in Japan. THAT is the upside of having a global phone. You don't have to use the overpriced Verizon service. You can get service locally where you are travelling at a fraction of the cost. Yes, you can use Verizon's service, but why would you want to spend 10 times the money to do so???

KBTron

That's what the whole complaint was about. I went searching in Narita airport's list of vendors who rented phones or SIMs, very carefully comparing prices, availability, coverage, and so on. Found a company, "Global Communications", that had unlimited data, cheap phone calls (well, $0.25/minute, cheap compared to the competition, especially Verizon) with a couple hundred free minutes thrown in, and a good rep on online reviews.

Ordered the phone, got emails confirming, one listed the new phone number, which I spread around at work (it's a work trip), everything was cool. Got to the airport, went to the pick-up (post office in NAR), got the SIM, swapped it with the one in the phone, followed the instructions - and, no operation. "Unknown SIM" from the phone. Before everybody chimes in with, "But first you have to select Other Networks and go for GSM/CMDA/LTE/ etc., etc., etc": I've done all that. I have discovered settings in this phone that not even the phone's mother (well, maybe the Verizon engineers who locked it down know) knows about, and traded multiple emails with the renting company (fun fact: One cannot buy SIMs in Japan unless one is a resident) attempting to get it all to work. They were stumped, as was I. They actually sent me a replacement rental smart phone halfway through all this at no extra charge (would have been more expensive had I gone that route).

Had to decline, though: This S5 has company specific apps on it with secure data, so I'm loathe to go and try putting that on a random smart phone.

So, I'm still irritated: I was depending upon Verizon's reps at the stores and elsewhere stating that any old microSIM at a foreign country would work, given that the phone (apparently by law and regulation) is unlocked for that purpose. But the phone didn't work with another vendor's SIM in there. And forums far and wide have reports that the S5 doesn't work with other vendor's micro SIMs, and it seems to be concentrated with Verizon phones.

If there's some special SIM type that the Galaxy S5 from Verizon requires, then Verizon should darn well cough up with the information and save us, their customers, the expense, trouble, frustration, and time.

I got the phone working now. With Verizon's $2.00 per minute plan. Which means I don't make phone calls, I only use the data when there's a wi-fi link nearby, and the rest is strictly for emergencies. Which means that for playing tourist purposes (as I planned to do this coming weekend) the phone is practically useless. Maybe Google Maps in an emergency, but I bet I can blow through 100 MB using Google Translate with no trouble. I imagine that their executives are wildly happy about the situation: They get $$$, big bonus from milking their subscribers, and a wink and a nod and a "who, us?" from them towards the regulations which state that they >should< be delivering unlocked phones to their customers for global purposes.

Verizon's rep did tell me that the SIM was a special, security enhanced near-field SIM card. But I went looking for that information on the web and didn't find a blame thing. So, either the rep was lying in an attempt to get me off her back, or there's some secret little game being played here, and I don't like being part of it.

c_flips

Sorry I didn't read the whole question because it'd way to long, but a coworker told me that you could make free phone calls through Facebook. Click on the message icon and then chose who you want to call. In the message window you should see a phone icon. Click on it and the call goes through. I've only tried it once but the other person was driving so she didn't answer.

evilincarnate

I think part of the problem is that Japan, like other Asian countries (I had this problem in South Korea) provides voice service over wcdma rather than gsm. I could be wrong, but I tried to get a sim working in my droid 2 global (I suppose I could've tried my droid razr maxx at the time, but I didn't want to somehow screw up my newer phone) which I successfully used in the past in Italy with an Italian sim card, and couldn't get it working. I don't think the fact that the sim that comes with the phone is a nfc sim is the reason. I have the impression you aren't required to have a nfc sim in order for the phone to function, you just need it if you want to utilize nfc.

klewis0528

OK, I love this stuff because I am about to head to Latin America and then Africa for a lengthy period. I have been told that the only way to use a local sim card in the S5 with verizon is to actually suspend your verizon service while abroad. Apparently then the local sim will read your phone. It's a big if and if you suspend service anyone calling you while you are away will get a "no longer in service" message, which is a problem.

I think my solution is just to buy a phone while abroad that does what it is suppose to do and leave the S5 at home while gone.

benknapp

My S5 data and phone is working with a Lebara sim in the Netherlands. My suggestion is that you try another sim card, apparently a lot of them are duds. Also, for everyone who is having trouble accessing data, you most likely have to set up the APN manually. Verizon generally isn't going to be helpful and import the APN, so go the network providers website and they will have information on how to set up the APN.

greengrass95

Was the + sign grayed out or accessible when you inserted the new sim? It is grayed out now before changing my sim.

nickcage49

This is the second time Verizon screwed me up.

I live in Bangkok and have a Verizon account.

One of their lovely salespeople sold me the LG G3 telling me it would work anywhere.

Sure enough it worked, but no 4G on True Move in Bangkok.

So I returned it and payed a restocking fee when I came back to the states a month later.

Picked up the Galaxy S5. Again, the sales rep said it would work.

This one worked for exactly one day and then stopped working.

According to the Samsung Service Center where I took it, they said the Verizon model of the phone WILL NOT WORK HERE.

Verizon isn't it about time you stopped lying about your phones?

Unfortunately the only phone from Verizon that has worked for me out here is my iPhone 5.

Now I need to see if Verizon will take this back and swap it for an iPhone 6. Glad I didn't sell me iPhone 5. Of course the wait is going to cost me a whole lot of resale value on that.

I HATE VERIZON! THEY SCREW YOU OVER AT EVERY TURN AND THEIR SERVICE IN THE US HAS GONE TO CRAP.

Morganw215

So I'm going to the dominican republic in 2 weeks and I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to get my phone to work? I have a sim card for there.

telveer

1) Yes. It is a global phone, and it should work overseas. I used the phone in India for about a month this summer using a GSM provider in India

2) The provider overseas should support at least one of the bands on the phone. Majority of them do.

3) Once you insert the overseas SIM and restart the phone, it will pick up the other network settings. You may be prompted to accept some settings from the overseas provider

4) Once you return home and insert your Verizon SIM, it MAY NOT work. This is because the APNs and other settings for Verizon may have been deleted or modified. If this happens to you, Verizon does not have any tools to allow you to restore the APNs. The only option is a factory reset, at which point it will re-register itself with Verizon and continue working

Child Item