Someone I know asked about using his GSM phone (US TMobile) in Buenos Aires. I did some searches here and at howardforums but most of the info was a bit dated and it appeared that it was a pretty rapidly changing situation with carriers converting to GSM from CDMA or TDMA.

What is the current situation with GSM coverage in Buenos Aires using TMobile roaming partners (they appear to have 2 of them)? Also, are prepaid SIMs available for Argentina yet? Thanks for any input.

Roaming is certainly possible in Argentina for $1.99/minute. It works okay in Buenos Aires, but I had almost no coverage in rural areas. T-Mobile's Roaming Partners

T-Mobile worked fine for me in B.A., I had coverage all around the city, including the highway between B.A. and the airport.

We'll be heading to Argentina (as well as Uruguay & Chile) in 3 weeks. Does anyone have any information on AT&T GSM coverage in those countries? We'll be sticking to urban areas almost the whole time.

Thanks!

In December/January, I got coverage with T-mobile in Argentina in Buenos Aires Capital Federal, but do not believe the countryside is covered at all. In Uruguay (Colonia , Montevideo and Punta del Este) my GSM cell phone roaming did not work in January but allegedly it was supposed to be rolled out by March of this year. Chile should be fine in Santiago and intermittently through much of the country.

Here is a website to check out GSM coverage and network info.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I'm quite ticked that I have absolutely no cell phone coverage (T-Mobile) in BA this week.

I don't think it's my phone...

GSMWorld (http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/index.html) says there is GSM850/1900 coverage all over the place there. What frequencies does your phone work on?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9650/5.0.0.732 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Maybe one on their special 3G frequencies?

I don't know. I am using a jailbroken iPhone 3G.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B405 Safari/531.21.10)

That should work I think.

My view of the difference between Nokia and Apple phones is that Nokia phones are computers that have been built by a phone company and Apple phones are phones that have been built by a computer company. I frequently have trouble with many phone and messaging functions of the iphone, which I never have with any Nokia model. Amongst these problems are having the phone sometimes refuse to register on ANY network. Restarting the phone usually fixes this.

Phone coverage on Claro and Telefonica was great in B.A., fine in populated parts of Mendoza (but not outside of town), and spotty in between. I was roaming with T-Mobile USA.

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy prepaid data SIM in Argentina from any of the local GSM providers? I have an unlocked GSM data card that I'd like to use when I am out and about in BA. Is there something that I could pick up at the airport? Thanks.

griffinj

I now have a Claro SIM card and was told that each text costs about AR$0.12 vs each call of about AR$1-2/minute. Today I topped it up with AR$50 and received a bonus of AR$40 which will expire in the next 45 days.

My PDA phone is an iPhone with ATT's international data plan. It is great for VOIP over 3g, triggering call backs, etc. My prepaid SIM goes into a Nokia E66 (2100mhz). It is a great phone for prepaids and works well with most networks. It also tethers easily.

have two apps on the Nokia that thought deserve a plug. The first is Roam2call which is a Swiss Army knife of tools. It can be programmed as a call through utility (dial a number, enter a pin, and continue to dial), a call back utility where the phone calls you back with a dial tone, and an SMS callback utility . I haven't used it, but a friend has gotten it working with one of the Betamax services.

If Argentina still has all that TDMA, I'm wondering about that old Cingular hybrid TDMA/GSM phone. I wonder if ATT (which absorbed Bell South which installed many of the South American networks) could get it roaming on those networks. It wouldn't be cheap, but might work.