[texasag90]

Hey;

I am trying to figure out if the new 9700 from T-Mo will work in Korea and Japan. It is not clear to me after doing some "research" and calling T-Mo.

questions are

1. Is the 3G radio compatible with cell networks in S Korea?
2. Does T-Mo have roaming agreements there?
3. Same question for Japan.

I am pretty sure that the answer for Japan is "no" on both counts.

Note that I have made UMA calls from Korea on an 8700 and I do know that the ATT 1st gen Bold works in Korea and not Japan.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mark

[e1000]

UMA will work anywhere you can get a WiFi signal that meets speed and latency requirements and will let you connect to T-Mobile servers. This should absolutely work from both Korea and Japan.

The phone should work in both Korea and Japan, and you will probably get 3G coverage as well. Looks like Korean GSM providers use the 2100mhz spectrum and Japanese GSM carriers use both 2100 and 1700mhz. The T-Mobile version of the 9700 supports both of these bands.

I'm not sure T-Mobile has roaming agreements in these countries however. Looks like from the following link they do, but I'm sure it won't be cheap.

GSM Coverage Maps | United States | T-Mobile USA, Inc | Roaming Partners

[weath]

I use the Bold 1st Gen in both Korea and Japan on 3G with no issues. The freq bands are the same for the Bold 2 (2100Mhz), so that should not be an issue. I'm on AT&T, and the only issue I have in either place is getting connected to the right carrier in order to receive emails. You may need to manually select the carrier.

As for roaming agreements with T-Mob, a call to Support can sort that quickly enough. Concur that roaming won't be cheap. T-Mob USA does have an international BB data plan, which can lower your costs for that. Calling is generally very expensive.

[the-economist]

I can confirm the Bold works in Japan on 3G. It usually wants to camp with Docomo (which performs poorly for the data side in the areas im visiting and they're major metropolitan, not a little village up the mountains) Other than data access Docomo's coverage is exceptional throughout.

For the data side i usually have much less drama camping to Softbank.

[texasag90]

Thanks. This is a big help! Will let you know what happens on my next trip.

[texasag90]

By the way, on my last trip through asia with the 2G 8900 I was able to get UMA connections on only about half of the open WiFi spots that I encountered.