european mobile phones in south africa and mozambique

Hi all,

i live in europe and i'm going on a trip in south africa and mozambique
next august. I'm wondering if it's worth taking my mobile phone with me
there for 'roaming', or if it definitely won't work.
sorry i have no clue about the technical terms. all i can say is that
during a trip in the US last year my phone couldn't get any signal from
the local networks; so obviously there are some major technical
incompatibilities between areas across the world. On the other hand,
the phone works everywhere i go in europe.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Julien

By the sounds of it, you phone is a European GSM phone. In that case
it will work in SA and Mozambique. The USA (in areas where there
actually is GSM coverage, it's on a different band from European GSM)

You cannot roam with pre-paid sim cards however. If you have a
contract account, and your service provider will allow you to roam,
then your phone and telephone number should work here.

If however, your service provider doesn't allow roaming here, you can
always use your phone with a locally bought pre-paid card. Cards are
readilly available for as little as R2-00, and airtime can be bought
in various increments.

I don't know the exact cost of cards in Mozambique, but I do know they
are readily available.

Marc



On 14 Jul 2006 05:09:51 -0700, "jullag" wrote:

Hi all,

i live in europe and i'm going on a trip in south africa and mozambique
next august. I'm wondering if it's worth taking my mobile phone with me
there for 'roaming', or if it definitely won't work.
sorry i have no clue about the technical terms. all i can say is that
during a trip in the US last year my phone couldn't get any signal from
the local networks; so obviously there are some major technical
incompatibilities between areas across the world. On the other hand,
the phone works everywhere i go in europe.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Julien

On 14 Jul 2006 05:09:51 -0700, jullag wrote:

i live in europe and i'm going on a trip in south africa and mozambique
next august. I'm wondering if it's worth taking my mobile phone with me
there for 'roaming', or if it definitely won't work.
sorry i have no clue about the technical terms. all i can say is that
during a trip in the US last year my phone couldn't get any signal from
the local networks; so obviously there are some major technical
incompatibilities between areas across the world. On the other hand,
the phone works everywhere i go in europe.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Julien,

first tell us which frequency bands your mobile phone can
handle. The four existing frequency bands are around 850 MHz
(mainly south America), 900 MHz (used in various places,
including Africa), 1,800 MHz (mainly Europe), and 1,900 MHz
(mainly north America).

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

Hello,

On this site you can book your SIM-card :
http://www.rentafone.net/prepaidsim.htm
You can pick it up at the airport
Normally my SA-cellnumber will be mailed to me 7 days before my departure

Regards

Herman


"jullag" schreef in bericht
ups.com...
Hi all,

i live in europe and i'm going on a trip in south africa and mozambique
next august. I'm wondering if it's worth taking my mobile phone with me
there for 'roaming', or if it definitely won't work.
sorry i have no clue about the technical terms. all i can say is that
during a trip in the US last year my phone couldn't get any signal from
the local networks; so obviously there are some major technical
incompatibilities between areas across the world. On the other hand,
the phone works everywhere i go in europe.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Julien

South Africa uses 900MHz and 1800MHz. AFAIK, all 1800MHz phones used
in Europe are dual band, and will do 900MHz and 1800MHz, most of them
without any setting adjustments.

Marc

On Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:42:10 +0200, Hans-Georg Michna
wrote:



first tell us which frequency bands your mobile phone can
handle. The four existing frequency bands are around 850 MHz
(mainly south America), 900 MHz (used in various places,
including Africa), 1,800 MHz (mainly Europe), and 1,900 MHz
(mainly north America).

Hans-Georg