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Please explain "World Phone"

Italianblend

Italianblend

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
1,794
247
Fatima
Hi,

I'd like to know what exactly World Phone means?

Specifically, I might be travelling to Italy next summer, and if I have an iphone4S with me, will I be able to "roam" and receive signals over there? Or is it not as simple as that? I wouldn't think you could do that because of the carrier you subscribe to.

Thanks
 
Unlike the iPhone 4 which worked all over the world, the iPhone 4S works all over the world AND on the Verizon network in the US.

:D
 
Italianblend said:
Hi,

I'd like to know what exactly World Phone means?

Specifically, I might be travelling to Italy next summer, and if I have an iphone4S with me, will I be able to "roam" and receive signals over there? Or is it not as simple as that? I wouldn't think you could do that because of the carrier you subscribe to.

Thanks
Click to expand...

world phone means it can receive both gsm and cdma signals. Other than the US, Canada, China and maybe Korea, the rest of the world don't have any CDMA carriers. Therefore, people on Verizon couldn't use their phones when they traveled out of the country. The new verizon iphones will work on CDMA when you are in the US and then roam on gsm in foreign lands. Provided you either pay for an international plan from Verizon, or get them to unlock it for you and use another carrier's sim card when you are traveling.
 
Italianblend said:
Hi,

I'd like to know what exactly World Phone means?

Specifically, I might be travelling to Italy next summer, and if I have an iphone4S with me, will I be able to "roam" and receive signals over there? Or is it not as simple as that? I wouldn't think you could do that because of the carrier you subscribe to.

Thanks
Click to expand...


It simply means that no matter what the carrier uses (GSM or CDMA) you will be able to use that phone. That being said, if you are going to Italy with an AT&T locked phone, you will only be able to roam via AT&T Worldservice unless you get it unlocked. The cost of this is very high and I don't recommend it. Get a paygo phone or try to unlock your iPhone and get a chip for another carrier over there.
 
Before you go to Italy (with your iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S)... contact ATT and enable roaming. You have to do that first.

Then sure, you can roam. If you use email, web etc it will cost you. For me it's about 100 bucks a week.
 
wpotere said:
It simply means that no matter what the carrier uses (GSM or CDMA) you will be able to use that phone. That being said, if you are going to Italy with an AT&T locked phone, you will only be able to roam via AT&T Worldservice unless you get it unlocked. The cost of this is very high and I don't recommend it. Get a paygo phone or try to unlock your iPhone and get a chip for another carrier over there.
Click to expand...

Actually, I had read that the iPhone will NOT use its CDMA chip when overseas--that is only for domestic use. The iPhone 4s on AT&T won't use its CDMA chip under any circumstances. I may be wrong.

I think if one is a frequent international traveler its well worth it to just buy an unlocked iPhone 4s when they are available next month. Just pop in a local sim and you're good to go--and no worries about awful roaming charges and coming home to a $2,000 phone bill.
 
Your phone should work fine (mine did when I was in Germany last year), but be very careful - check AT&T's site about pricing for data when you're overseas, it's ridiculously expensive, and if you exceed the plan you select you could spend hundreds of dollars over what you expected.
 
barkomatic said:
Actually, I had read that the iPhone will NOT use its CDMA chip when overseas--that is only for domestic use. The iPhone 4s on AT&T won't use its CDMA chip under any circumstances. I may be wrong.

I think if one is a frequent international traveler its well worth it to just buy an unlocked iPhone 4s when they are available next month. Just pop in a local sim and you're good to go--and no worries about awful roaming charges and coming home to a $2,000 phone bill.
Click to expand...


Doesn't matter as there is no CDMA over there. GSM is the standard that Europe decided to use.

http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp

Looks like mostly Russia or eastern countries are using it. That being said, all of these places also have GSM.

You are also spot on about using an unlocked phone. The cost is not worth it. We thought about keeping our USA phones when we moved there but quickly dumped them and got D1 (Deustche Telecom) instead. The cost was a killer!
 
Last edited:
I'm from the UK, which obviously uses GSM, how would it work if I went to the US and wanted to use Verizon while over there? I know I could easily just use AT&T, which is what I do use while there but say I wanted to start using Verizon? How would they assign a number to my phone since they don't use SIM cards?
 
^^ Officially, it appears there is no way to get an iPhone activated on Verizon except to buy an official Verizon iPhone. How this pans out I guess is a wait-and-see, but according to what Apple has said, if you get an unlocked iPhone you could run it on an American GSM network (T-Mobile or AT&T), but you could not get Verizon service for it (or for any phone originally locked/activated to a UK carrier).

barkomatic said:
Actually, I had read that the iPhone will NOT use its CDMA chip when overseas--that is only for domestic use. The iPhone 4s on AT&T won't use its CDMA chip under any circumstances. I may be wrong.
Click to expand...

Verizon and Sprint iPhones (4 or 4S) can CDMA roam in countries where the respective service provider has a roaming agreement, and GSM roaming (4S only) when that is not available.

If you use AT&T, then, correct, your phone will only use GSM. If you buy a 4S that is locked to AT&T (and possibly to any other GSM carrier outside the US -- not sure about that), then the CDMA doesn't do anything, anywhere, for you.
 
ThetaSigma said:
I'm from the UK, which obviously uses GSM, how would it work if I went to the US and wanted to use Verizon while over there? I know I could easily just use AT&T, which is what I do use while there but say I wanted to start using Verizon? How would they assign a number to my phone since they don't use SIM cards?
Click to expand...

You can't as you don't have the antenna to pick up the network.
 
If you're a Verizon customer in the USA, can you just insert a local SIM card into the iPhone 4S "world phone" and use it overseas, or is it locked to Verizon. In the case that it was locked to Verizon, you would have to use a special Verizon overseas sim card while overseas and pay Verizon's overseas pricing which doesn't look too good....
 
kdarling said:
Plus Mexico, Guam, and most of the Caribbean, southeast Asia and South America, and sections of the mid-East, Russia, Ukraine, etc.
Click to expand...

Reports on Verizon/Sprint roaming said Verizon has CDMA roaming agreements in about 40 countries, so there are at least that many with CDMA service of some kind.
 
LapsangSouchong said:
Before you go to Italy (with your iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S)... contact ATT and enable roaming. You have to do that first.

Then sure, you can roam. If you use email, web etc it will cost you. For me it's about 100 bucks a week.
Click to expand...

Actually you can buy 50Mb of data roaming for $24.99/mo from AT&T. That is more than enough for a week. Plus the price is prorated fir partial use.
 
If the 4S is a "World Phone" that can work on multiple carriers then why does each carrier sell a different model number for the same phone? For example the 32GB Black is MD379LLA on Sprint, MD278LLA on Verizon and MC919LLA on ATT.

Im just wondering what would happen if they ran out of 32GB ATT but had a stack of Verizon ones. Couldn't they activate a Verizon one for ATT then?
 
KittyKatta said:
If the 4S is a "World Phone" that can work on multiple carriers then why does each carrier sell a different model number for the same phone? For example the 32GB Black is MD379LLA on Sprint, MD278LLA on Verizon and MC919LLA on ATT.

Im just wondering what would happen if they ran out of 32GB ATT but had a stack of Verizon ones. Couldn't they activate a Verizon one for ATT then?
Click to expand...


Different carriers, different locks. It is a world phone, but it is still locked in some way (unless you buy the unlocked model).
 
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