T-Mobile Phone in Korea? Prepaid SIM?

[Gunbuster]

My little sister is taking a trip to South Korea soon and she will want to have phone service. I'm trying to figure out the best option for her. From what I can tell she should do the following:

1: Call T-Mobile and make sure her phone is unlocked. Mytouch Q (GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 Band I (UMTS2100),Band IV(1700/2100)

2: Buy a prepaid SIM at the airport in Korea

3: Use prepaid sim and number.

Is it really that easy?

Thanks!

 

[SheHateMe]

It should be if you explain that you are going to another country. ATT used to grill the hell out of you before they let you get the unlock code.


idk about the SIM though. I only unlocked because I wanted to keep the phone on a different carrier..but I WAS going out of the country first before I came back and switched to T-Mobile...hehe

 

[Binky]

South Korea uses CDMA. I'm not sure about the GSM bands but my Verizon phones worked great there about a month ago.

If she's visiting friends, they may be able to hook her up with a login and password for the public wifi hotspots that may or may not be included with their home internet.

You could also look into this:
http://kotaku.com/5889204/every-korean-gets-wi+fi-for-free

 

[AkumaX]

South Korea uses CDMA. I'm not sure about the GSM bands but my Verizon phones worked great there about a month ago.

If she's visiting friends, they may be able to hook her up with a login and password for the public wifi hotspots that may or may not be included with their home internet.

You could also look into this:
http://kotaku.com/5889204/every-korean-gets-wi+fi-for-free

Eh? I thought S. Korea was GSM.. ??

My friend bought the unlocked Galaxy Nexus from Google (pentaband UTMS 3G phone) and uses it over there. I believe she uses Olleh or SK Telecom.

 

[bearxor]

There's good chunks of SKorea that have CDMA coverage. But they also have UMTS 2100mhz coverage. As long as your TMo phone does 2100mhz, you should be fine to swap a SIM in from a local provider.

 

[ponyo]

Mytouch Q should work fine as long as you get Tmobile to unlock it. As long as the phone supports WCDMA 2100, it will work in Korea. Q supports it so she should have no problem. http://expatblog.kt.com/201
That site explains what you need and where you can buy the sim and service.

 

[dagamer34]

I remember listening to one of the podcasts that phones in Korea need to be whitelisted before they will be allowed on the network and you need to be a citizen or something to get a SIM. It's not as simple as just finding a phone with compatible frequencies.

 

[Barpanda]

Your best bet is to have her either purchase, or rent a phone once she is in country for local calls. I've found that utilizing Skype and one of their plans is the best bet for international calling while in S. Korea. It's true that CDMA 2100 for 3g is used more extensively in S. Korea, and if she uses something else she is going to get nailed with roaming charges.

 

[vertika]

Yes right For local call get a mobile and for other she can use ISD it will be simple for a trip because your sister will be going for max to max 1 month only.