Travel Technology - Where to get unlocked 3G phone

Does anyone have a recommendation on what a good 3G phone would be, as well as where to get one that's unlocked? I know that I'll have to pay more for it to buy it new and unlocked, but that's fine. From what I've been able to gather from other threads, most 3G worldwide is 2100Mhz, including Japan and South Korea which are the two countries that I intend to use this phone in (so, compatibility with other countries' 3G is not really important). My provider (T-Mobile) will not sell me a 3G handset but only rent one to me (although I suppose I could rent it then "lose" it and pay the $525 loss charge).

It's been very difficult for me to find an answer to this. Most of the 3G information I've been able to uncover from US-based sources is for phones that support GSM 1900 / UTMS 1900, which as far as I can tell will do me no good outside the US. That is, I don't need yet another phone that works only in North America that's cool just because it's "3G."

Actually, most of the US is on 850 MHZ / 1900 MHz, and the rest of the world is on 900 / 1800, and pretty much everywhere but Japan is on GSM. Japan (and I'm assuming South Korea, based on your post) is on a completely different standard. I'm not personally aware of any single handset that'll work anywhere in the world.

If it were anywhere other than Japan / South Korea, just get a quad-band GSM phone, and you'll be able to pick up some kind of signal around most of the world.

My best advice would be to talk to the cell-phone experts - head over to howardforums.com. They're to cellphones what FT is to flying.

Does anyone have a recommendation on what a good 3G phone would be, as well as where to get one that's unlocked?

The frequency issues have been covered by bdjohns1 so I won't cover that, but for purchase you may like to check out the 3 (http://www.three.com) networks.

3 are now in a few nations and sell handsets.

All the handsets they sell are locked to the network, but can be unlocked. I'm in Australia so will use 3 Australia (http://www.three.com.au) as my price base, but you can get a prepaid mobile that will work in the USA from $199AU (Motorola C975) which can then be unlocked for a cost of $595.00.

So an Unlocked Motorola C975 for $794.00AU ($619.75US). It's never giong to be cheap to buy a 3G handset outright, but I'm sure if you hit ebay you can pick a cheaper one up and then have it unlocked elsewhere. This same phone is currently on ebay for around the 50-100GBP mark, and unlocking is normally around 15-50USD.

Expansys carries a wide selection of SIM-free phones that have no contractual obligations. For example:

Nokia 6630 (Funny shape, but otherwise a solid phone) (http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=6630)
Nokia 6680 (Latest 3G handset from Nokia) (http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=119205)
Sony Ericsson K600i (http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=K600I) and Z800i (http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=119249) (not yet released, but both very good phones)

etc.

A lot of people find it hard to adjust to Motorola phones because of the quirky UI. I would personally stick with a Nokia or Sony Ericsson who seem to have a sensible and logical UI as well as great performance. Also, buying a SIM-free unlocked 3G phone directly from a US supplier saves you from the hassle of paying the fee for unlocking to a foreign network etc.

hello,

Your mentioned that you had Tmobile as your service provider. If you find that you have a 3G phone (quad mode or even trimode) already which is locked by Tmobile, try giving their tech support a call (I think I did mine with just 611). They gave me the code to unlock mine, and I have heard as long as you are say 6 months into your contract they let you do it. Just let them know you will be traveling outside the country and want to use a foreign providers sim. Hope it works for you.

Thanks,

Phachak

Your mentioned that you had Tmobile as your service provider. If you find that you have a 3G phone (quad mode or even trimode) already which is locked by Tmobile, try giving their tech support a call (I think I did mine with just 611). They gave me the code to unlock mine, and I have heard as long as you are say 6 months into your contract they let you do it. Just let them know you will be traveling outside the country and want to use a foreign providers sim. Hope it works for you.

Thanks for the advice. But what I'm looking for is the ability to use a non-TMobile phone with my T-Mobile SIM.

hello,

Your mentioned that you had Tmobile as your service provider. If you find that you have a 3G phone (quad mode or even trimode) already which is locked by Tmobile, try giving their tech support a call (I think I did mine with just 611). They gave me the code to unlock mine, and I have heard as long as you are say 6 months into your contract they let you do it. Just let them know you will be traveling outside the country and want to use a foreign providers sim. Hope it works for you.

Thanks,

Phachak

t-mobile has never sold a 3G phone so your advise won't work sadly...

I recently purchased an unlocked Motorola E1000, dual camera, Quadband and also does WCDMA2100. Very nice phone!

Just so you know, South Korea runs on CDMA and does not support GSM. If it does, it's done in very limited capacities because the major companies all use CDMA/PCS technologies. So I don't know if you've done a lot of research on it but I'd double check before pulling the trigger with GSM.

I know 99% of the time it's better to rent a mobile phone in Korea. From the airport they have kiosks set up for that specific reason. I'd double check.