USA Bands for New Phone

pl4ichjgy17zwd

Smashed my phone up tonight and need to get a new one, cheap. Was looking at the Samsung Galaxy A20e and I think it would do for my basic needs but the one thing I'm wondering is how much use it would be using Stateside?

I go to the US often enough and usually use AT&T (or an MVNO using their network) sims while I'm over there. The phone seems to have a lot less 4G bands than even the one I just smashed up (J6+). The other option is an A40 that seems more in line with the bands my old phone had (which I know worked) but I don't want to have to fork out the extra if I don't need to.

Appreciate any advice, thanks.

https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/US/samsung-galaxy-a20e

pl4ichjgy17zwd

Cheers, asked in 3 chat and carphone warehouse in the end and they both said it would work

will work but probably not on LTE / 4G which is the main network generation at the moment.

on slower / less-covered 3G should be ok

pl4ichjgy17zwd

glasso wrote:

will work but probably not on LTE / 4G which is the main network generation at the moment.

They told me 4G would work as long as it was a 4G enabled sim

Vance Long Pie

Vance Long Pie wrote: »

They told me 4G would work as long as it was a 4G enabled sim

not according to that link where it shows the phone only having 1 of the 9 AT&T LTE bands.

there is a model of the A20 geared twds the US mkt in terms of carrier support but not the one you're looking at.

pl4ichjgy17zwd

glasso wrote:

not according to that link where it shows the phone only having 1 of the 9 AT&T LTE bands.

there is a model of the A20 geared twds the US mkt in terms of carrier support but not the one you're looking at.

Appreciate your information. I've already bought and set up the device on their reassurances. I guess I'll just have to deal with the US issue as it happens.

Vance Long Pie

Vance Long Pie wrote: »

Appreciate your information. I've already bought and set up the device on their reassurances. I guess I'll just have to deal with the US issue as it happens.

the garden variety phone store or online help person is not very reliable really in quite specific matters re foreign networks that they don't have anything to do with. better off googling yourself.

Lackadaisical

I really wouldn't rely on advice from over-the-counter retailers anywhere. You need to look up the specific model and the specs of the network that you're trying to use it on.

In general the US is more problematic because their frequency allocations are a lot more chaotic than in Europe. There's less focus on the ability to move devices between networks, so you get some odd spectrum allocations that can be network-specific sometimes. The EU approach tends to be about open markets, so they will tend to prefer frequency allocations to be quite harmonised across the whole EU and a lot of other countries tend to follow ETSI / ITU recommendations whereas the US does its own thing and the FCC seems far less bothered about device portability.

Sites like https://www.gsmarena.com/ are excellent for getting the fine detail of the specs for each phone and you'll get the details of the specific networks on Wikipedia without much difficulty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks#United_States_and_US_Territories_(FCC_band_plan)

pl4ichjgy17zwd

glasso wrote:

the garden variety phone store or online help person is not very reliable really in quite specific matters re foreign networks that they don't have anything to do with. better off googling yourself.

I had, quite a bit, but because my old phone (which worked over there) only had 2 of the bands and this one had 1, I wasn't sure if it was a deal breaker or not. The specificities went beyond my knowledge base.

I needed a phone quickly so I just went with the resources I had.

Appreciate you help.

pl4ichjgy17zwd

Lackadaisical wrote:

In general the US is more problematic because their frequency allocations are a lot more chaotic than in Europe. There's less focus on the ability to move devices between networks, so you get some odd spectrum allocations that can be network-specific sometimes. The EU approach tends to be about open markets, so they will tend to prefer frequency allocations to be quite harmonised across the whole EU and a lot of other countries tend to follow ETSI / ITU recommendations whereas the US does its own thing and the FCC seems far less bothered about device portability.

Appreciate it, all information I'll save for next time.