Asian fones - or a noob and his toy. . .

H

hechicera_de_la_alma

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The Toshiba W52T Softpedia Link

Its a KDDI offering. It appears to sell only in Asia. But i 'need' one.
Its uber-geeky-cool with major style points.

BUT ---> can i work the gizmo in NYC, europe, or wherever ? and how ?
I assume the unit must be sold unlocked but can it still work internationally
if it only has the needed frequency bands ? Are they in any way 'crippled'
outside of their native Asian markets ? Thank you for any help.
 
no it will not work here, get a softbank phone instead, or the old vodafone japan models

and kddis bands is only similar to south korea thats it
 
My guess is that KDDI phones use WCDMA since they are made for NTT DoCoMo.

You need to have an unlocked GSM phone to work here in the US - on Cingular or T-Mobile. Others are not compatible with the US networks (Verizon and Sprint use CDMA and Cingular and T-Mobile ise GSM).

Also, Verizon and Sprint will not allow non-branded phones on their networks meaning you can only have a Verizon phone on Verizon's network and a Sprint phone on Sprint's networks.
 
kddi uses cdma, which is different that the US CDMA freq

ntt docomo phones are locked

the softbank phones and vodafone japan models can work here in the US, just make sure they are unlocked
 
thanks.

i plan on using a my current pre-paid sim/'plan' via tmobile. i will simply transfer that sim into whatever new compatible fone i purchase.

i read that japanese fones also use a different ESN (electronic serial number) which makes ID'ing their fones on our carrier networks problematic. ESNs are built into the fones by the manufacturers and i suppose need to be pre-registered wth the FCC during the licensing process. Fones that do manage to work could be crippled or plagued by poor firmware fixes.

ESN - Wikipedia


detailed experiences of one stateside importer
 
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