Political Crossfire Forums

[mathurin]

the other day i was wearing my cell phone in my pants pocket, and i guess i ran it into something cause i put a hell of a dent in the front and broke the LCD
i have insurance, but its a $50 deductible on a crappy phone

i have been looking around, but dont know crap about cell phones, so here goes
its a cingular phone with a SIM card


i found 2 other cell phones which id rather have, mostly im looking for a world phone capability so i can get a local SIM card in kazakhstan, where i might be going this summer, anybody know of anyway to find out if a cingular 64K smart chip will work in either of these phones

i found a site which lists kazakhstan frequency at 900, so the phone will work i guess

http://www.shop.com/op/~Ericsson_Flip_T39_Bluetooth_GSM_Triband_Unlocked_Cell_Phone-prod-17904473
http://www.shop.com/op/~Motorola_V60GSM_Triband_Unlocked_World_Phone-prod-19458149

i am not stuck on any phone, i just dont want to spend more than $200
so if someone has a suggestion

oh, and do i have to tell cingular if i switch the card?

[Sid]

I switched out cards with my brothers phone a long time ago, and t-mobile hasn't whined at me. I don't know about that universal compatibility thing, but Nokia 6010's are almost indisctructible. I've had one for a little over a year, I've droped it (once off a two story building, of course it landed on relativly soft grass), smashed it, and all that's damaged is the scratched screen, and the rubber grip on the back fell off. It has great reception (internal antannae), holds a good charge. It doesn't have any special features, but it's still a great phone if you want something you can call and text with.

Here's a link to it's features.

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/6010/0,2803,feat:1,00.html

[mathurin]

nope wont work, frequency of 850

kazakhstan is 900, thanks for the suggestion though

[TheCreepyApostate]

I'm sure they are not that dumb.

Your sim card is programmed for your region regardless of what phone you put it in. If you use it Kazakhstan that's going to be one hell of a roaming charge. Odds are Cingular doesn't have cells there, your phone will be a paper weight.

[mathurin]

ok you misunderstood, but you are half right

last time i went to kazakhstan my phone was a paperweight, because there are no towers on its frequency and because there is no singular coverage, however there are phones there, by removing the SIM card and replacing it with a LOCAL sim card i can get a local phone, they work like the pay as you go phones here in america, it wont call home but i dont want it to, it will work for a local cell phone, im going on business (sort of) and it would be good to have a phone

[TheCreepyApostate]

mathurin wrote: ok you misunderstood, but you are half right

last time i went to kazakhstan my phone was a paperweight, because there are no towers on its frequency and because there is no singular coverage, however there are phones there, by removing the SIM card and replacing it with a LOCAL sim card i can get a local phone, they work like the pay as you go phones here in america, it wont call home but i dont want it to, it will work for a local cell phone, im going on business (sort of) and it would be good to have a phone

Are you talking about placing a Kazakhstan SIM in your phone to work on their network??

The chip in your phone is programmed to the Cingular network, changing the SIM will not change your service. You need to get a phone in Kazakhstan.

Just like in the states, you cannot use a Verizon phone on the Cingular service, you have to have their phone.

[mathurin]

i have just been reading on this, if the phone is unlocked you can put any SIM chip in it and it will be that phone, so a unlocked phone can be a cingular or verizon or whatever

im talking about buying a phone here in that states that runs on a 900 frequency (among others) using it here, then buying a SIM card in kazakhstan and placing it in my 900 freq phone, it becomes a local phone, a man who has gone to kazakhstan each summer for several years told me this, ill have to make sure he has done it but from what i have read lately thats how it works

[TheCreepyApostate]

mathurin wrote: i have just been reading on this, if the phone is unlocked you can put any SIM chip in it and it will be that phone, so a unlocked phone can be a cingular or verizon or whatever

im talking about buying a phone here in that states that runs on a 900 frequency (among others) using it here, then buying a SIM card in kazakhstan and placing it in my 900 freq phone, it becomes a local phone, a man who has gone to kazakhstan each summer for several years told me this, ill have to make sure he has done it but from what i have read lately thats how it works

Why not just get a phone in Kazakhstan??

[thorn]

Hey mathurin.
I'm using a Nokia 5140 (a triband) at the moment (well it cost me 1€ on the contract I have, so I don't really care that it looks strange. however, it's robust as hell and waterproof to some extent), and I used it on the networks in AUS and NZ with local prepaid cards, and it worked great. I still got my German provider's background pic on starting up (it's saved on the phone) and it took some time to get working, but it did.

[quoe="FCTE"]Why not just get a phone in Kazakhstan??[/quote]
Because it's a stupid idea if he's there for only a short trip?