Will my mobile work in NZ?

will'o'wisp

Hi all,
I am in south America at the mo and had my Irish mobile stolen so i have bought a new one in chile. It is a nokia 1600 which i thought was a pretty much universal phone however someone over here has told me it won't work in New Zealand, something about different netcoverage,Chile-1900,NZ-900 i think he said!? I am a complete dunce when it comes to anything tech so i haven't a clue what that means. Can anyone tell me for sure whether i've bought a dud or not.

One other thing, i know it's the wrong place to ask but it's just a quick question, it is locked to Claro chile network and none of the unlocking sites i've checked support this network, what's my best bet for getting it unlocked..I have entered the wrong code 4 times so i only have one last shot at it

legs11

http://www.gsmliberty.net/shop/nokia_unlock.php

get the fone unlocked here dude,
as for chile and nz, just google the operating frequencies in nz.
i dont know if that fone is tri band, its a basic model so maybe not.

legs11

actually, it wont work in nz, so bad luck.
u need a tri band fone down there boy.

900/1800 is all the nokia 1600 got.
no good

will'o'wisp

Cheers for quick response, unfortunately that link you sent me doesn't support the Claro Chile network, I've checked about 15 sites today and only 1 did but the code they sent me didn't work! Am thinking i'm going to have to sell a sob story to the claro folk and hope they take pity and give me an unlock code (probably unlikely since i only bought it yesterday)

About the frequencies, if New Zealand and Chile run on different ones does that mean my phone won't work over there? Sorry for my ignorance, like i said i'm an utter pleb when it comes to phones

legs11

i could write a novel on gsm bands but suffice to say, from my knowledge and i am an engineer, nz cell fones are tri band. yours in dual band.
so u shud swap if for a tri band fone, get it unlocked and continue your merry way to nz......;)

jabberwock

Thanks for your help, at least the phone only cost me twenty quid

will'o'wisp

Oops that last post from Jabberwock was actually from me :rolleyes: didn't realise someone else had logged in on this computer!

telecomsman

To put it simply the advice given to this poor chap is mis-leading.

Check out the site below...from the GSM association and will give a list of its members and the freqs they run.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml

From the Nokia site, see below, it tells me that the phone can be configured to work for GSM E850/1900 or E900/1800....

http://europe.nokia.com/A4142068

As Chiles GSM operators are running on 1900Mhz this would suggest that the phone will not work on Vodafone NZ, there are other operators in NZ but they are CDMA and not GSM....to the best of my knowledge.

legs11

yes, so in plain english, a nokia 1600 WONT work in NZ........:rolleyes:

yapyap

legs11 wrote:

yes, so in plain english, a nokia 1600 WONT work in NZ........:rolleyes:

in even plainer english

a nokia 1600 with firmware version RH-64 will work in NZ
a nokia 1600b with firmware version RH-65 will not work in NZ

will'o'wisp

It's all ok, while i've been banging on about my problems on boards the bf has been doing something about it and has managed to find a guy who has just arrived here from New Zealand and is willing to swop phones He is even throwing in his sim card with a bit of leftover credit
I knew boys were useful for something!!:p

Thanks again for your help.