Non 3 Phone on 3 Network

Bluefrog

Hey,

Just picked up a Nokia N80 in the U.S. (factory unlocked). I'm currently with O2 but thinking I'll move from them with their dedication to IMode.

Looking at the other providers, 3 seem to have the best data rates at the moment - not that there's a huge choice in this area anyway. I was thinking of switching to them and taking up their 'unlimited' broadband offering but obviously I don't want to downgrade my lovely new N80 to the N73.

I'm worndering if anyone here has any experience of using a non-3 phone on the 3 network. Will they let me? Can they stop me? I'm happy to buy one of their phones as long as I don't have to use it.

All comments welcome.

timmywex

well, afaik you can only buy a new phone from 3 and have the card included but i cant think of anything stopping you going off and putting this card in a different phone, seems ok to me

Bluefrog

Well, I had assumed that but I've seen some posts round with varying info on this - some saying that 3 can disable the sim if the IMEI doesn't match the phone you bought from them

Cyrus

maybe they can i dont know but i bought a 6280 on three, sold it within two weeks and have since used an n80 and a n73 with no probs.

i think its okay if you have a '3g' enabled phone like the n80, its where you use a 2.5g phone that you run into trouble

culabula

3 UK actually offer a setting within "My 3" called 'set my mobile' so that *you* can let *them* know if you've sim-swapped. This is for no more sinister purpose than to tailor web settings according to your screen size and clearly they have no problem at all with you using any other 3G phone.

I myself regularly use a Vodafone branded unlocked SE v800 and an unlocked 3UK 6630 with a 3Ireland SIM .

When I attempted to put one of my 3 SIMs into a 2.5G phone it was simple -it just didn't work.

quintron

I'm using my o2 branded XDA Exec quite happily with my 3 sim after swapping it out of my N73. Can't do texts but I never send texts anyway so it doesn't bother me. eMail/Net/Calls/Sync is all I need. I'm sure you can edit messaging center for texts quite easily in registry. Haven't bothered with that yet.

http://mobile.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Its_time_to_buy_SIM-free_phones.php

leahcim

I have an unlocked FS Loox 830. No problem using my 3 sim in it. I have no problems making calls, using broadband or using SMS.

I also note that unlike in the UK the Irish terms and conditions have no mention of any restriction on using 3 with non 3 handsets.

Solair

Bare in mind that US 3G phones may not work on European 3G networks due to FCC frequency assignments in the US being a little odd to say the least.

Standard European UMTS/3GSM (3G) works at 2100Mhz.

To connect to 3 your phone must be able to connect to that type of network.
It also needs to be able to fall back onto GSM (2G) 900/1800Mhz (Standard Euro GSM)
If the phone will only support 2G, it cannot connect to 3's network at all.

In the US 3G is a little weird to put it mildly!

It could be sharing the 1900Mhz slot with 2G GSM and CDMA services!!!
or, using 850Mhz (old analogue frequencies)
or, the FCC has just started to auction space at 1750Mhz and 2150Mhz for 3G services!


It's the usual FCC mess! They delayed, and delayed and played around and tied the mobile industry in red tape for years when the first cellular phones launched in the late 70s and early 80s. Then did the same when digital arrived in the 90s.

In general they've done nothing but damage the US mobile rollout!

So, check that your 3G phone is compatable with UMTS 2100Mhz before you bother connecting to 3!

Bluefrog

Well, that was part of the beauty of buying the N80 in the states - Nokia were going to do a deal with Cingular there and produce a model with the American frequency but the deal fell through so the U.S. model wasn't produced. Therefore you can pick up N80's relatively cheaply because they lack any 3G support there.

Great news about using my phone. Most of the time I'm on a wifi network which the N80 supports but when I'm out and about it will be nice to scoop up mail and not be charged through the nose for it.:D

Bluefrog

Spoke too soon - just read about the walled garden and incredibly - no gmail????

FFS!

Guess it's a vodafone future for me at twice the price.

Random

Bluefrog wrote:

Spoke too soon - just read about the walled garden and incredibly - no gmail????

FFS!

Guess it's a vodafone future for me at twice the price.

Walled garden is gone!

quintron

Bluefrog wrote:

Spoke too soon - just read about the walled garden and incredibly - no gmail????

FFS!

Guess it's a vodafone future for me at twice the price.

get a bb add on from 3. gmail app works fine. web is fine. I'd advise using opera mobile browser though as you may have difficulty using the built in web browser on N80.

Bluefrog

Excellent - will sort that out this week and post how I get on.

rogue-entity

Just to clarify the US 3G thing.
UMTS (what we use here) is based on W-CDMA and uses both the 2100 and 1900 bands. 2100 for the downlink, and 1900 for the uplink.

In the US, Verizon uses the 800 band for its analogue services, I dont know what other frequencies were used for this as most of the analogue networks have been discontinued in favour of digital.
1900 and 850 are used for GSM in the US since 1800 and 900 are allocated to other services. 1900 is currently used for cellular services in the US, but is otherwise available for 3G. 2100 was used for sattelite communication, but parts of the 2100 spectrum have been freed up for 3G use. The FCC also freed up part of the 1700 band as well. This leads to 3 choices for operators.

1. They can continue to use the 1900 varient that Cingular are using.
2. They can use UMTS on the 2100/1900 bands as we do here, bearing in mind that congestion on 1900 may cause problems for the uplink, but with only 4 operators currently using it (Verizon, Sprint, ATT and TMobile) on a nationwide basis, this may not be as much of a problem.
3. They can use 2100/1700 which I believe T-Mobile have stated they are going to do. This if standardised will mean that newer handsets sold by Nokia will be dual-band 3G and Quad-band GSM and phones of that sort will work anywhere.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but this is my understanding of it all.

Bluefrog

That's correct as far as I know. I've also heard that coverage from T-Mobile is pretty terrible - even by U.S. carrier standards It's a shame cause they seem to be making some of the more interesting offerings in the data area.

Bluefrog

Well I finally got round to signing up with 3, configured the settings as detailed in other threads here on the N80 and have all 3 services up and running. However, seem to be having problems accessing content outside 3's walled garden at present despite having an unlimited BB addon. Also no 3rd party apps seem to be able to access the web, i.e. Fring, J2me apps etc. Will look into this more tomorrow using the Nokia 6280 I got from 3 and see what I can learn from that and post back if I find anything radical

Sam Vimes

I assume you bought it on prepay. No third party apps will work. When you try to access a web page you should be redirected to a page with a link saying click here and when you click it it brings you to the page you wanted. What was the problem you were having?

jimmycrackcorm

I've written numerous posts about 3 and the problems with their mobile broadband. Perhaps it's time for s 3 BB sticky?

3Pay mobile broadband is crap - not only will no applications (gmail client etc) work with it but because the normal web browsing is proxied then it slows down, sometimes breaks pages and often breaks down. Hence, it is severely crippled.

Billpay BB doesn't see to have the same effect but new billpay sims aren't transferrable to non-three phones. This might only be the case for the more heavily subsidised phones though or it might be across the board.

Bluefrog

Well I'm having the same issues on the three handset as on the n80, say I do a search on Google then I get the results fine but if I try to visit the sites I get bounced back to the services page.

I won't be letting this go - I'm paying for 'unlimited broadband' and that's what I expect to get.

Incidentally, I'm on post-pay.

jimmycrackcorm

Bluefrog wrote:

Well I'm having the same issues on the three handset as on the n80, say I do a search on Google then I get the results fine but if I try to visit the sites I get bounced back to the services page.

I won't be letting this go - I'm paying for 'unlimited broadband' and that's what I expect to get.

Incidentally, I'm on post-pay.

That's a different issue then. Ring threindia again and get them to remove the add-on and add it again.

smcelhinney

Did you age-verify?

Bluefrog

Well, called back 3, got a very friendly Indian guy who removed and readded my broadband bundle and sure enough, I now have pretty unlimited broadband with my phone. All sites I've tried have been accessible, Fring works (even Fring calls except for SIP) and I am one very happy 3 customer. Haven't tried making a sip profile to use with 3 - think that's probably pushing my luck

Next I'm going to try their data card for my home internet access.....

Bluefrog

Had nothing to do with the age verification I had read about here before - maybe because I signed up in-store that spared me that particular hassle.

foggy_lad

blue frog have you verified your age with three as you must to access external sites and this can only be done in a "3" store not over phone or in any other store!

Bluefrog

I bought my phone in store and did the age verfication there.