GIS Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 My soon to be wife brought her cell phone to the States because she really likes it and wanted to use it here.I have Verizon and wanted to add her to my plan. I wanted to buy her a Verizon SIM card for her phone, but was told that Verizon SIM cards only fit Verizon phones. So, I'm not sure where to go next. She likes her phone and doesn't want a new phone, so I'd like to do everything I can to make hers work in the US. Should I consider jumping to another company that can support her phone with an US SIM card?suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilton747 Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 Wouldn't using another plan for her phone cost more than the $10 a month that Verizon will charge you to add her to your plan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpedbored Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 I don't think Verizon uses SIM cards. If she wants to use her Chinese cell phone here you will need to switch to ATT or T-Mobile. If her phone is locked you will need to unlock it first before it will accept a new SIM card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 (edited) Verizon uses a CDMA technology. If your wife's phone is GSM based, it's not going to work. AT&T uses GSM, for example - so she would be able to use it with them. China actually uses both GSM and CDMA enabled phones, all of which (that I've seen) are unlocked - so you should easily be able to use any phone bought in China in the US. GSM phones are more popular in China - so I'm guessing that her phone is GSM, and would likely work with AT&T/Cingular. Edited December 27, 2009 by Kyle (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmpv Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 My soon to be wife brought her cell phone to the States because she really likes it and wanted to use it here.I have Verizon and wanted to add her to my plan. I wanted to buy her a Verizon SIM card for her phone, but was told that Verizon SIM cards only fit Verizon phones. So, I'm not sure where to go next. She likes her phone and doesn't want a new phone, so I'd like to do everything I can to make hers work in the US. Should I consider jumping to another company that can support her phone with an US SIM card? suggestions? What technology is your wife's phone running? If it's not cdma, then you can't use Verizon. If it's not GSM and one of the chinese home brewed technologies, then you can't use it with other major carriers either. You would also want to check the frequency bands supported by the phone. I am not familiar with CDMA but for GSM cell phones, there are four different frequency bands used throughout the world: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz US uses 850 and 1900 primarily. If her GSM phone doesn't support any of these bands, she will need to get a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy W Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 I'm seeing several stands here in Yulin that are selling CDMA-only phones - mine is CDMA from China Telecom (a free mobile service with our DSL connection) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george lee Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 the phone that your wife is using now is most likey a gsm phone, so t-mobile or att can be use on your wife's phone. my wife is using t-mobile and the phone from china. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertH Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 Do any of the USA models have the chinese translator in them? Hui has one in her little phone it works good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george lee Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 Do any of the USA models have the chinese translator in them? Hui has one in her little phone it works good. sony and nokia have chinese language installed. i believe chinese translator is a program you add to the cell phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaofeizhu Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 We used China Mobile when in China and the three phones we brought back to the US all worked with my ATT/Cingular SIM card. I think you will most likely be facing the choice of switiching to ATT or TMobile or getting her a new phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIS Posted December 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 Thanks everyone. That's pretty much what I thought we were going to have to do (change networks or get another cell phone). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daviation Posted December 29, 2009 Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 Another option, depending on how much the phone needs to be used, is to purchase a pre-paid GSM card. As others have noted, your wife's phone is likely GSM and unlocked. If so, then Tmobile GSM pre-paid card will work in it directly. We've been using a GSM phone from HK with Tmobile prepaid cards for several years. If you buy the right card, it's about 9 cents/minute... lasts 1 year... and rolls over unused minutes if you reload it before expiry at end of year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokiwen Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Do any of the USA models have the chinese translator in them? Hui has one in her little phone it works good. There are some apps for translation available on the iPhone. I gave an (USA) unlocked iPhone 3G to my father in law, and my wife had downloaded a couple translation apps before taking it to China. I currently have a blackberry, and do know that the Chinese character IME is available (with the multilanguage pack), but don't know of a Chinese translator software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertH Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 I'm seeing several stands here in Yulin that are selling CDMA-only phones - mine is CDMA from China Telecom (a free mobile service with our DSL connection) You in China now Randy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmpv Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Another option, depending on how much the phone needs to be used, is to purchase a pre-paid GSM card. As others have noted, your wife's phone is likely GSM and unlocked. If so, then Tmobile GSM pre-paid card will work in it directly. We've been using a GSM phone from HK with Tmobile prepaid cards for several years. If you buy the right card, it's about 9 cents/minute... lasts 1 year... and rolls over unused minutes if you reload it before expiry at end of year. On TMobile prepaid, it's 10 cents/minute when you refill in $100 increments. Anything less and the price/min goes up.Also, you need to fill at least $100 at least once per sim card to get the expiration to be 1 year. After the inital $100 fillup, all other top offs (can be as little as $10) will extend the expiration for another year. This is a good plan for people who uses fewer minutes than the monthly plans.Note, there is no data included with this prepaid plan. They have a daily prepaid plans which gives you free night and weekend talk time as well but prices are different. You can check out their website for more details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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