3220 and 3G

[nick]

Question from one of the lads at work... is the Nokia 3220 3G compatible? As he has one and he wants to buy a 3G sim (dont know if its on 3 or Voda...).

I have had a look at various websites during the day (when I should have been working, but the boss was out.. heheh). Some say it is 100% compatible, and some say that like all 2G phones it is for a while before 3/whoever block your IMEI. The Nokia site said nothing.

So if anybody knows the definitive answer...I would be grateful.

[bunny]

ive seen the same claims as you...where is he getting a 3g sim from? the only place i know of is ebay, the stores are not meant to be splitting the sims and the phones as far as i know.

I cant understand why someone would want to do this because 3 pay as you go tariff isnt much better than say O2.

[nick]

Getting it off his brother who doesn't want the sim as he dropped his phone and broke it beyond recognition.

[bunny]

i have heard that they do work in the 3220 (prob the same place as you) wouldnt like to say for how long before 3 cotton onto it tho.

[nick]

Well the worst that can happen is that they will block the IMEI so I shall suggest he tries it....its not going to damage the phone is it, just block THAT phone from using THAT sim (I think thats right...)

[amoora]

Well I have the Nokia 3220. And I really dont know whats the different between G2 and G3 phones, all i know is something about veiwwing the other person ur talking to with the camera when talking, and I dont think you can do that.

[Daedalus]

amoora, its 2G and 3G. 2G (or 2.5G to be more precise) is the current standard that your phone uses and that most others do. Since March 2003 (in this country at least) there has been a wave of so called 3G phones (3rd generation - they use a totally new type of ariel/transmitter. WCDMA rather than GSM) and bascially they allow data transfer rates similar to broadband speeds.

In other words, you can download videos and music to them as fast as downloading via Broadband (ADSL) and you can have live video calling between two handsets using an intergrated camera that at some point faces you.

Your right, your 3220 does not support any of this, what nick's friend wants to do it put a 3G sim card in a non-3G phone because of the extremely cheap calls that '3' (the video calling company in the UK) offer to customers. The large majority of '3' users are'nt bothered by video calling, just cheaper calls, hence why many of them try to get away from the supposedly 'bulky' yet cheap handsets for something smaller but less powerfull.


And Nick, if it were me you can try it, but I really doubt it will work somehow. We tried it at work with a collegues D500 and a '3' sim from out demo LG U8110 and it did basically what you said, it just blocked its use on that phone. Same goes for when we put an Orange 3G simcard into an Orange D500, worked for a short while before cutting out.