(2013-05-30) Family Phone Upgrade Redux

Revisiting 2011-08-02-FamilyPhoneUpgradeTime because:

Number One Son irritated by 2013-05-01-AndroidGroupMessagingBroken, so he wants to switch to an IPhone.

• He also believes he has more dropped-signal issues than his friends, and thinks he should switch to Verizon. The Wife is inclined the same way, thinking that as each person gets a new phone over time, they should move over.

The Wife has various troubles with her Nexus One when doing International Roaming - maybe just in Japan? Have to clarify... and is that a phone issue, or service issue?

• T-Mobile [for](http://www.t-mobile.com/International/Roaming Overview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide) Japan - requires the use of a special Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) or 3GSM (frequency 2100 3G) handset.
  • South Korea - same phrase, though there the 3 partner carriers, all 3 says WCDMA, 2 also say CDMA
  • This says about the Nexus One: When traveling outside of North America, your phone must use the 900 M Hz/1800 M Hz GSM frequency band to get a signal from an international carrier. Band selection is automatic. If the phone fails to change its band selection, turn it off and then back on.
  • This Nexus One page says: GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 M Hz; UMTS 850/1900/2100 M Hz; UMTS 900/AWS/2100 M Hz
  • For comparison, main page about the HTC One S says 3G/4G Capable; GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900; Band I (UMTS2100), Band II (1900), Band IV(1700/2100), Band V (850) and also notes WCDMA battery life. Does that make it clear? Not to me.
    • This says high-speed data should work pretty widely (except for Vodafone and other 900 band networks). You should be able to call fine on any GSM network. Note it also says: The T-Mobile One S definitely has a different radio in it than the international version which makes it trickier to refer to non-T-Mobile docs...

If we switch to Verizon, is everything a World Phone these days? In addition to The Wife's regular global travels, Number One Son will be spending a couple weeks in Paris this summer with a family friend.

• Oct'2012: The carrier's version of the IPhone 5 comes ready to roam GSM networks both outside the U.S. and within. But it's possible this could get turned off?!? Or maybe not. As of March it was still unlocked.
• Oct'2012: their Galaxy S3 was hardware-capable of being unlocked, but the software update to turn on that feature hadn't been released yet.
  • that update happened in January.
• Verizon says they have 23 "global-ready" smartphones.

Outcome: bought IPhone-5 for Number One Son, on-contract for Verizon. Rep suggested living with WiFi/Face Time/IMessage while in Paris. If really need voice, buy local SIM.