Verizon iPhone 4 problem: International Travel [complete country list included]
January 11, 2011 Leave a comment
Now to a good portion of people considering buying a iPhone 4 on Verizon, this information probably won’t matter. But for many of these folks, international travel will be affected. Although Verizon claims that they have agreements with international carriers:
…customers can use iPhone for voice and text in over 40 countries with data service in over 20 countries. For service availability and rate information, visit International Roaming Rates and Coverage. When travelling outside of these 40 destinations, the Global Travel program is the perfect short-term solution for the occasional or infrequent global traveler who needs to stay in touch when travelling internationally.
The problem is in the CDMA technology that is used by Verizon. Although there are carriers outside of the U.S. that us CDMA, the vast majority of international networks, specifically in Europe, rely on GSM technology the kind of phone that uses a SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module). In this, both Apple and Verizon have made a big mistake, but I understand why. For Verizon to get an iPhone 4, it had to get agreements with CDMA international carriers [Verizon iPhone 4 FAQ]. If it had both technologies, CDMA and GSM, it would allow some new Verizon customers to purchase their iPhone 4 and unlock it to use the phone within the U.S. on let’s say T-Mobile or other regional carriers that use a SIM card for example, since T-Mobile GSM bands are the same pretty much around the world. Now both Apple (at least for now) and Verizon wouldn’t want that to happen quite yet.
And if you are hoping the Verizon iPhone will work on a 4G network, forget it. This is not a 4G iPhone at all. This is a standard 3G iPhone but version numero 4. Which in a way is sad. If it were the 4G iPhone, running on Verizon’s LTE network, a traveler would be able to go to say Russia and feel the need-for-speed on Russia’s very fast 4G network. But today Verizon admitted that their LTE network is not quite ready-for-prime-time for simultaneous voice and data.
According CDG.org, CDMA networks support over 270 million subscribers worldwide, while GSM.org tallies up their score at over 1 billion. As CDMA phones become R-UIM enabled and roaming contracts between networks improve, integration of the standards might eventually make differences all but transparent to the consumer. Please keep in mind that this by no way indicates that you will actually be able to Roam on any of these networks, you would have to check with Verizon to make sure they have agreements with these carriers [Verizon iPhone 4 FAQ] and we have provided you with a list after the break. Read more of this post
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