Verizon Coverage in Germany

Can anyone help with which verizon phones and plans will work in Germany?

Someone told me that Verizon said if he wanted coverage in Germany he would
have to either cancel his plan and start a new business plan or have two
plans.

Can my existing personal plan work in Germany with the right phone?

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:06:43 -0500, "tigercat"
<markd3nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Can my existing personal plan work in Germany with the right phone?

I highly doubt your Verizon phone will work there.

Verizon uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology (same for
Sprint, Alltel & US Cellular). Europe almost exclusively uses GSM
(Global System for Mobile Communications).

US carriers such as Cingular and T-Mobile also use GSM. (However,
Europe uses a different set of frequencies than North America)

Verizon did (still does?) sell a hybrid phone that is CDMA in the
US/Canada and GSM in Europe.

You might want to call Verizon customer service or stop by a CORPORATE
(not reseller) store and ask them.

YMMV.

Dave

thank you for the information.


"Diamond Dave" <dmine45.NOSPAM@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:cia1o2p9h1ifme7kqeumc8a4e3u8c4klim@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:06:43 -0500, "tigercat"
> <markd3nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>Can my existing personal plan work in Germany with the right phone?
>
> I highly doubt your Verizon phone will work there.
>
> Verizon uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology (same for
> Sprint, Alltel & US Cellular). Europe almost exclusively uses GSM
> (Global System for Mobile Communications).
>
> US carriers such as Cingular and T-Mobile also use GSM. (However,
> Europe uses a different set of frequencies than North America)
>
> Verizon did (still does?) sell a hybrid phone that is CDMA in the
> US/Canada and GSM in Europe.
>
> You might want to call Verizon customer service or stop by a CORPORATE
> (not reseller) store and ask them.
>
> YMMV.
>
> Dave
>
>

Was just in Germany this past summer. VZW does in fact sell a hybrid
gsm/cdma phone but it is VERY VERY expensive, huge and bulky too. Also if
you go into the stores they just give you a blank stare like deer in
headlights and start babbling stupid ********. I used to have 5 vzw lines
and I am down to 4 as I cancelled one and got a Cingular one. FWIW VZW will
charge you a left nut for anything you do in Europe (or calling there from
here for that matter).
I think you will find as I did if you get a quad band phone from Cingular
and the European roaming plan as long as you don't go crazy it's quite
workable. ALso their LD rates to call EUrope are in many cases the same or
LOWER than using voip like Vonage.
Just make sure you get a quad band (world phone) Motorolas are the best bet
here but there are others. I used a Razr and I had also gotten my kid a
little Motorola V380 IIRC to use with a German T-Mobile card. Neither phone
had a glitch and also you will find the difference in service like night and
day. When you are on a cell call there you can not even tell it's not a land
line. Crisp clear and clean. Light years better than VZW service.
"tigercat" <markd3nospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:atSdnQlK99w0Ph3YnZ2dnUVZ_ue3nZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> Can anyone help with which verizon phones and plans will work in Germany?
>
> Someone told me that Verizon said if he wanted coverage in Germany he
> would have to either cancel his plan and start a new business plan or have
> two plans.
>
> Can my existing personal plan work in Germany with the right phone?
>

In article <mtadnX2di71JMR3YnZ2dnUVZ_uS3nZ2d@comcast.com>, tigercat wrote:
> thank you for the information.

On the contrary, there are a few phones that run on American CDMA
frequencies as well as European GSM frequencies. Those phones WILL
work. The Samsung 890 was the first such phone, and both Verizon and
Sprint sold it. I don't know what Verizon sells these days, but if you
talk to a store rep and tell them you need a phone that works in
Europe, they should be able to point you in the right direction.



--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> In article <mtadnX2di71JMR3YnZ2dnUVZ_uS3nZ2d@comcast.com>, tigercat wrote:
> > thank you for the information.
>
> On the contrary, there are a few phones that run on American CDMA
> frequencies as well as European GSM frequencies. Those phones WILL
> work. The Samsung 890 was the first such phone, and both Verizon and
> Sprint sold it. I don't know what Verizon sells these days, but if you
> talk to a store rep and tell them you need a phone that works in
> Europe, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Verizon Wireless sells three CDMA/GSM phones. Verizon calls them
"Global Phones".

The phones are the Motorola A840, the Samsung a795, and a PDA, the
Samsung i830.

Here's a link to the Verizon Wireless web page describing the service
(called Global Phone Service) and the CDMA/GSM phones. (The
descriptions of the phones are located near the bottom of the web
page.)

http://aboutus.vzw.com/international...one/index.html

- Peter

thank you all very much for your help; i really appreciate the insights.


"Peter Lawrence" <hummbaby@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1166092323.148212.138850@80g2000cwy.googlegro ups.com...
> Steven J. Sobol wrote:
>> In article <mtadnX2di71JMR3YnZ2dnUVZ_uS3nZ2d@comcast.com>, tigercat
>> wrote:
>> > thank you for the information.
>>
>> On the contrary, there are a few phones that run on American CDMA
>> frequencies as well as European GSM frequencies. Those phones WILL
>> work. The Samsung 890 was the first such phone, and both Verizon and
>> Sprint sold it. I don't know what Verizon sells these days, but if you
>> talk to a store rep and tell them you need a phone that works in
>> Europe, they should be able to point you in the right direction.
>
> Verizon Wireless sells three CDMA/GSM phones. Verizon calls them
> "Global Phones".
>
> The phones are the Motorola A840, the Samsung a795, and a PDA, the
> Samsung i830.
>
> Here's a link to the Verizon Wireless web page describing the service
> (called Global Phone Service) and the CDMA/GSM phones. (The
> descriptions of the phones are located near the bottom of the web
> page.)
>
> http://aboutus.vzw.com/international...one/index.html
>
> - Peter
>

On 2006-12-14, tigercat <markd3nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Can anyone help with which verizon phones and plans will work in Germany?
>
> Someone told me that Verizon said if he wanted coverage in Germany he would
> have to either cancel his plan and start a new business plan or have two
> plans.
>
> Can my existing personal plan work in Germany with the right phone?

Verizon GSM roaming is described here:

http://aboutus.vzw.com/international...one/index.html

I assume this can be done with personal accounts since this page
can be reached via a click on "International Services" from the
Verizon Wireless personal service web page. Note that the roaming
rates they list aren't terrible for International roaming (which
is always stupidly expensive), they're about the same as Cingular's
without the $6/month Cingular wants to give you cheaper rates.
T-Mobile's rates in Europe are better than anyone's (without an
add-on charge, at that), but if you don't travel often the
difference probably won't matter much.

What you probably don't want to do, however, is buy a Verizon
phone for this. Normal Verizon CDMA phones won't work in Europe,
and the GSM/CDMA phones Verizon sells are expensive and not very
attractive. Instead ask Verizon for a GSM SIM card alone, if this
is still an option (you may need to phone customer service
for this as the stores don't seem to always know anything about it),
and buy a cheap unlocked 900/1800 MHz GSM phone to put it in.

Note that if you are going to be using your phone more than
a little bit (two hours talking is $160 at Verizon's roaming
rates, for example) it is often quite a bit cheaper, in Europe at least,
to instead buy a prepaid GSM SIM account from a phone company in the
country you are visiting. If you need to keep your Verizon cell
phone number working I've had good luck using Skype, forwarding
the cell phone to a US SkypeIn number and then forwarding the
Skype account to the foreign phone. If you don't want the complexity
of this, however, roaming on a Verizon GSM SIM is easy.

Dennis Ferguson

"Dennis Ferguson" <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:slrneo3dpb.8j.dcferguson@dhcp-floor2-sw-127.juniper.net...
> On 2006-12-14, tigercat <markd3nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Can anyone help with which verizon phones and plans will work in Germany?
>>
>> Someone told me that Verizon said if he wanted coverage in Germany he
>> would
>> have to either cancel his plan and start a new business plan or have two
>> plans.
>>
>> Can my existing personal plan work in Germany with the right phone?
>
> Verizon GSM roaming is described here:
>
> http://aboutus.vzw.com/international...one/index.html
>
> I assume this can be done with personal accounts since this page
> can be reached via a click on "International Services" from the
> Verizon Wireless personal service web page. Note that the roaming
> rates they list aren't terrible for International roaming (which
> is always stupidly expensive), they're about the same as Cingular's
> without the $6/month Cingular wants to give you cheaper rates.
> T-Mobile's rates in Europe are better than anyone's (without an
> add-on charge, at that), but if you don't travel often the
> difference probably won't matter much.
>
> What you probably don't want to do, however, is buy a Verizon
> phone for this. Normal Verizon CDMA phones won't work in Europe,
> and the GSM/CDMA phones Verizon sells are expensive and not very
> attractive. Instead ask Verizon for a GSM SIM card alone, if this
> is still an option (you may need to phone customer service
> for this as the stores don't seem to always know anything about it),
> and buy a cheap unlocked 900/1800 MHz GSM phone to put it in.
>
> Note that if you are going to be using your phone more than
> a little bit (two hours talking is $160 at Verizon's roaming
> rates, for example) it is often quite a bit cheaper, in Europe at least,
> to instead buy a prepaid GSM SIM account from a phone company in the
> country you are visiting. If you need to keep your Verizon cell
> phone number working I've had good luck using Skype, forwarding
> the cell phone to a US SkypeIn number and then forwarding the
> Skype account to the foreign phone. If you don't want the complexity
> of this, however, roaming on a Verizon GSM SIM is easy.
>
> Dennis Ferguson
===============================

Thanks for the info!