Buying from the USA

[squeezy]

Does anybody know if I buy a Nokia 8910i from the USA. Will my UK Vodafone SIM card work in it in the UK?

Has anybody ever bought a phone from the US?

[ontarioguy]

Squeezy,

I have done the opposite and it works!!

I will explain - I had a Nokia 6310i that I got from the UK before I moved to Canada (Close to the USA:D ) I signed up to Rogers AT&T over here, removed my old Vodafone Sim inserted my new Rogers AT&T sim and bingo it worked!! But then again the Nokia 6310i is a Tri-Band phone.

The Nokia 8910i is only a dual-band phone and if you buy the phone in North America I very much doubt that the phone will work in the UK due to the band restrictions.

[Daedalus]

ontarioguy, the reason your's worked is because Vodafone contract phones are unlocked, so any sim will fit in.
If the 8910i is only dual-band, then it would'nt be sold in America. Only tri-band phones or GSM 1900 phones are sold over there. Dual band phones are only sold in europe and asia to my knowledge, so if someone is trying to sell you a dual-band phone from the US, be extremely cautious.

[ontarioguy]

Thanks for that Daedalus.

The phone markets in North America are well behind anything going on in europe. I didn't realise Vodafone contract phones are all unlocked. Does that also apply for the other UK operators aswell?

[Daedalus]

no
as far as i know, just Vodafone (all except the Vodafone live dedicated ones [Sharp gx10 etc.]) and O2 are unlocked.
But i only known this applied to our store, but i assume this is true for other stores too, seeing as the Orange and T-Mobile contract phones we have are packaged by the two companies, where as the O2 and Vodafone ones are whats called GSM stock, which are standard phones direct from the manufacturer.

[ontarioguy]

rogers website (http://www.shoprogers.com/store/wireless/products/phones/overview.asp?shopperID=XRHQT4JE3SRV8P8EB0WVFXCFH82U1586)


Daedalus

For your info check out the above link, this is pretty much the type of phones pushed to the North American market, plenty of Tri-Band, Dual-Band and Single mode GSM phones.