please help! unlocked triband phone, vodafone SIM not working in Australia

Greetings group- any help will be greatly appreciated. sorry for the
long note but i think the background may be of use. I am on cingular
in the US and am in oz for 2 months. the plan was to pick up the
vodafone sim when I arrived, but to keep the cingular number for my
elderly mom to reach me in an emergency. Cingular refused to unlock my
phone (yes, it is mine. haven't been on contract in years.) I've been
a customer since 1989 (!) but I plan to change that as soon as I get
home. I unlocked it myself, tested it with other carriers's sims
before leaving, and asked cingular to be sure I had all the
international stuff i needed. (I also asked them to allow call
forwarding to an international #, refused again.) I did pick up their
"special" rate deal of 1.29/minute vs 1.69 and I'm wondering if this
may have something to do with the problem. we arrived in melbourne,
picked up two sims, put one in my son's ebay phone and it cranked
right up. mine- nothing. put in the cingular sim and it immediately
recognized yes optus. (could not call tho.) swapped sims with son,
worked in his phone, but his did not work in mine. tried a few
strangers' sims in my phone (other carriers) and they worked fine. I
want to stick with vodafone because my husbabd and son are both on it
and the rates are better. Question- has cingular somehow managed to
sabatoge my phone? could the "deal" be somehow blocking vodafone? and
if I tell cingular to just remove the global roaming would I still be
able to use the phone, and would that help? (I've decided i can live
without it and just get someone else to call me on the aussie # for
mom) or could this be a settings issue? when my son pulls up carrier
options on his phone he gets several- I only get yes optus. please
help! I'm considering just buying another phone but I hate to have
another one for the boneyard when i get home. (and I'm attached to my
little nokia 6230! thanks for any help! Jo Ann

In article <1180658494.984789.207000@k79g2000hse.googlegroups .com>,
JJ <jojhenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>Greetings group- any help will be greatly appreciated. sorry for the
>long note but i think the background may be of use. I am on cingular
>in the US and am in oz for 2 months. the plan was to pick up the
>vodafone sim when I arrived, but to keep the cingular number for my
>elderly mom to reach me in an emergency. Cingular refused to unlock my
>phone (yes, it is mine. haven't been on contract in years.) I've been
>a customer since 1989 (!) but I plan to change that as soon as I get
>home. I unlocked it myself, tested it with other carriers's sims
>before leaving, and asked cingular to be sure I had all the
>international stuff i needed. (I also asked them to allow call
>forwarding to an international #, refused again.) I did pick up their
>"special" rate deal of 1.29/minute vs 1.69 and I'm wondering if this
>may have something to do with the problem. we arrived in melbourne,
>picked up two sims, put one in my son's ebay phone and it cranked
>right up. mine- nothing. put in the cingular sim and it immediately
>recognized yes optus. (could not call tho.) swapped sims with son,
>worked in his phone, but his did not work in mine. tried a few
>strangers' sims in my phone (other carriers) and they worked fine. I
>want to stick with vodafone because my husbabd and son are both on it
>and the rates are better. Question- has cingular somehow managed to
>sabatoge my phone? could the "deal" be somehow blocking vodafone? and
>if I tell cingular to just remove the global roaming would I still be
>able to use the phone, and would that help? (I've decided i can live
>without it and just get someone else to call me on the aussie # for
>mom) or could this be a settings issue? when my son pulls up carrier
>options on his phone he gets several- I only get yes optus. please
>help! I'm considering just buying another phone but I hate to have
>another one for the boneyard when i get home. (and I'm attached to my
>little nokia 6230! thanks for any help! Jo Ann

The 6230 does not have the 900 MHz band. If the carriers your SIM is
looking for do not have 1800 MHz towers nearby, you will not get service.

JJ wrote:

>(and I'm attached to my
> little nokia 6230! thanks for any help! Jo Ann
>

Your problem is that the 6230 isn't a world phone. It lacks the most
common non-North America GSM band, 900 MHz.

There are a lot of these pseudo-world phones around, the Motorola V3xx
is another.

What happened is that chip sets that support 1800 and 1900 MHz, plus a
choice of 850 MHz or 900 MHz are cheaper than quad band chip sets.

You end up with the worst of both worlds. A European/Asian/Australian
6230 is 900/1800/1900 and lacks 850Mhz, the most widely used North
American frequency, while the North American 6230 is 850/1800/1900 lacks
900 MHz, the most widely used European and Asian frequency.

These tri-band chip sets became popular when the only GSM band in North
America was 1900 MHz, since back then a 900/1800/1900 covered all bases.

If you want one phone to use worldwide, you need a quad band phone, it's
as simple as that. You might get lucky in Europe/Asia/Australia and find
some 1800 MHz coverage, but invariably it is the newer carriers that
have poorer coverage.

Steve

Be Nice to America or We'll Bring Democracy to Your Country Too.







[Copied to alt.cellular.attws. Please post all alt.cellular.cingular
non-spam posts to alt.cellular.attws as well. The Cingular name has gone
away, and alt.cellular.attws is the proper venue for posts regarding
AT&T's wireless service.]

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:10:34 -0700, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <46608b3e$0$27221$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>If you want one phone to use worldwide, you need a quad band phone, it's
>as simple as that. You might get lucky in Europe/Asia/Australia and find
>some 1800 MHz coverage, but invariably it is the newer carriers that
>have poorer coverage.

Tri-band phones actually work well in most areas.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>