Cellular Phones

As I write this I will tell you I have over seven years in the telecommunication industry and most of that is involved with cellular phones. In the Philippines, phone infrastructure is minimum in the Provinces. If you wish to bring a cell phone from the USA you have to consider buying ONLY what is called a quad or worldwide phone on the GSM network. The main reason is the bands that you will need to use it fully in the USA and also in rural areas in the Philippines. Officially the Philippines uses just the 900 and 1800 bands, while in the USA is 850, 1800 and 1900 that totals four

If used only in the US

If you intend to use your phone only in the US, then get a dual band phone that has both 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.

A single band phone with only 1900 MHz will give almost as good coverage.

If used only internationally

If you intend to use your phone only internationally, then decide if you'll be using the phone in countries that use the international frequencies, or in countries that use the US frequencies, or in both.

If you only need to use the phone in countries with international frequencies, get a dual band 900/1800 MHz phone.   A single band phone with only 900 MHz will give reasonably good coverage, but most international phones these days have both bands.

If you need to use the phone in countries that also have the US 1900 MHz frequency, get a tri-band phone with 900/1800/1900 MHz.

If used in both the US and internationally

Two frequencies are 'must have' frequencies - 900 and 1900 MHz.  The other two bands are nice to also have, with 1800 MHz typically opening up more of foreign countries than 850 MHz would open up in the US.

Ideally the best solution is to get a quad-band phone with all four bands.

So why not simply buy a quad band phone? well thats what I say way back there

WARNING :  T-mobile disabled the 850 MHz band in some quad band phones it sells/has sold.  As of Sep 05 it seems that most quad band phones they sell now have all four bands enabled, but if you're buying an older T-mobile quad band phone, check to ensure it supports all four bands.

Caution - Different definitions of 'Tri-band Phone'

All tri-band phones obviously (?) support three different frequency bands.  But they may differ in their choice of which three of the four bands they support.

The two common variations are :

900/1800/1900 - Excellent internationally and very good in the US

850/1800/1900 - Excellent in the US but not very good internationally

A look ahead - five and six band phones?

Phones that support new high speed data services - so called '3G' (as in 'third generation') phones will generally have the high speed data service on yet another band; typically 2100 MHz.

The market for high speed data services is currently still evolving, with several different technologies, each incompatible with each other, being offered by different service providers.

In October 2005, discussions became public for developing a fifth voice frequency, in the 450 MHz band.  This is being proposed for less developed countries - the main benefit of 450 MHz is can offer longer range and so, developing a low density coverage network would require fewer towers and could be done for less cost.

On the other hand, a 450 MHz handset probably would require a lengthier aerial, because the lower frequency has a longer wavelength - the aerial would need to be twice the length of a 900 MHz aerial and four times the length of an 1800 MHz aerial to provide similar effectiveness.

As of the time of writing, Nokia and Sony Ericsson have both indicated they'll make handsets to support this new frequency band, but there are not yet any known plans for service providers anywhere in the world to start developing 450 MHz networks.  When (if) they do appear, they are likely to be in third world countries..