Around the World
Japan/Europe/USA
A quad band handset will certainly cover you for both America and Europe, however, Japan does not use GSM. You could buy a GSM/WCDMA handset such as the SE V800, which will work on GSM European triband and Vodafone's WCDMA network in Japan.
NTT DoCoMo use a verison of WCDMA called FOMA, which is incompatible with European WCDMA handsets although I hear that they are looking to chnage this.
As far as I am aware there are no quad band/WCDMA handsets available at the moment, but I could be wrong in that regard.
If you do need one handset for us ein all three regions then I would recommend a European triband/WCDMA handset. If you use such a ahndset with T-Mobile in the U.S. you shouldn't have too many problems as T-M...
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scotsboyuk said:
@mitchmu
If you use such a ahndset with T-Mobile in the U.S. you shouldn't have too many problems as T-Mobile USA primarily uses the 1800 MHz band.
http://www.wirelessconsultant.net »
2. Two of the carriers in Japan have implemented 3G on the UMTS (wCDMA) specification.
3. UMTS out of the US (Japan/Europe) runs on 2100Mhz.
4. UMTS in the US runs on 1900Mhz.
What does this mean for you?
In order to roam successfully in all three parts of the world, you would need a phone that operates on 850/900/1800/1900Mhz GSM/GPRS and 1900Mhz/2100Mhz UMTS. Such a phone unfortunately does not exist. You could however purchase a European 3G handset that would roam in japan on UMTS, and settle for only GSM/GPRS in the US.
Forget CDMA its not worth the trouble, roaming outside the US is practica...
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So what you really need is to Move to Japan (super expensive unless you get a Japanese company to move you or your a tall leggy blond female (don't ask)) get a KDDI C...
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DoCoMo is not the only carrier in Japan with a WCDMA network. Vodafone has it also, and it is standard WCDMA/UMTS 2100 just like Europe.