On The Verge

Nov 5 2004 7:13AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |
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Day to day, I use a Sprint mobile phone on a CDMA network. I chose Sprint both because it was our preferred corporate vendor and because it was first in North America with a 2.5G data network. But the GSM network is far more pervasive from a global perspective, and the SIM-card based phones can make switching networks a snap—with a few tricks. In fact, owners of GSM-based world phones can easily take them and use them overseas.

I write this in Venice, Italy, en route to Electronica in Munich, Germany. The nearest CDMA network is a continent away. Last trip to Europe, I simply went without a mobile phone, instead relying on an AT&T calling card for calls back to the US. The calls were expensive and the charges piled up. I had planned on renting a cell phone, but upon arrival two years ago in Zurich I found no one that would make a one-way rental and I wasn't returning to Zurich. I missed the convenience, so this trip I planned in advance for mobile connectivity.

My wife uses Cingular in the US—not really a choice based on preference but one based on the fact that Cingular's legacy in my home state of California is that of the first PCS carrier. Cingular operates multiple network types in North America, but in California it was GSM—and SIM-based phones—from the day Pacific Bell started the network. When last the contract expired and we were eligible for a new handset subsidy, I made sure we got a world phone that operated on the frequencies used in both US and worldwide GSM networks.

In preparation for this trip, I went searching for SIM cards for Europe. Google landed me on www.telestial.com. It turns out that company is based in San Diego, where I live, but I did business with them via the Internet. I bought a prepaid mobile SIM card from a service provider called United Mobile (www.united-mobile.com) that's designed for roaming travelers. The tolls are based on countries allocated to zones, but all of Western Europe is in "zone 1" where charges are €0.49 per minute for incoming calls and €0.69 per minute for outgoing calls. The card cost me $70, and that included €35 of talk time. Note that North America is a zone 1 country, but an asterisk notes that calls placed to or from North America incur a 1 Euro per minute surcharge.

Of course phones sold/subsidized by US mobile carries are generally locked to that carrier. You could change SIM cards to no avail with a locked phone. The US carriers are no help in unlocking a phone because they don't want to chance you changing service providers. I really don't understand the thinking, because most users get a new phone every time their contract is up anyhow. In any case, there's most likely a phone shop in your area that can unlock a GSM phone. Look for a shop that's certified for warranty repairs rather than just a sales outlet. It cost me $15 to get my wife's phone unlocked.

I was a bit skeptical. I got a number that's presumably based in Lichtenstein. And you must dig underneath the phone battery to change the SIM card. I've seen other phones that had a pretty decent electro-mechanical design that constrains the SIM card. Our Sony-Ericsson model requires you to slide the card over a plastic lip and under two tiny metal rails. I wouldn't want to change cards often. But the scheme worked. Every time I power the phone up I must enter an assigned PIN code. And it connects to different networks at random. But making calls has been flawless—although you dial the call, get disconnected briefly, and then answer a ring to hear the actual dialing of the call.

Living in san Diego, I'm a bit of a Qualcomm fan. I have numerous friends that work at the company. But GSM service is universal. Qualcomm may have had a slightly better modulation scheme in CDMA, but I sure prefer GSM service. Moreover, the SIM-card scheme can have other advantages. You can store data such as contact files on SIM cards and move that data among devices.

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