Mimmel

Will my Nokia 3120 cell phone work in France. I have the code to unlock it but I don't know what bands it uses & I'm wondering it it will work with a French SIM card. Does anyone know? I've read several threads on this general topic & am more confused than ever.
Thanks

Travelnut

According to google searches:

NOKIA 3120 Service: GSM/GPRS 850/<b>1800</b>/1900 MHz

Which frequencies are used internationally?
GSM was originally developed in Europe, and only came to the US recently. Initially, all countries with GSM service used the 900 MHz band. In the past few years, service providers have increasingly been adding <b>1800</b> MHz coverage, due to congestion in the 900 MHz band.

You need to buy from Orange or Bouygues, not SFR (only 900).
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_fr.shtml

So - yes.

JSLee

One problem is that every phone company orders the phone with features they want.

One company may have a GSM version and another will not.

Travelnut

The OP can look at the literature rec'd with the phone and determine if the unit has the correct bands, based on the info I provided.

Neil_Oz

I understand that the dominant cellphone technology used in North America is CDMA but that there's growing penetration of GSM. You'll find GSM just about everywhere else, Japan being a notable exception. I'd be surprised if Nokia would use the same model number for both a GSM and a CDMA phone.

American GSM uses the 850/1900 Mhz bands, and as Travelnut says, in Europe and most of the rest of the world it's 900/1800. SIM cards are a standard size and shape, so as long your phone is unlocked you should be fine.

I ran into the reverse problem in planning a trip from Australia to North America, so bought a Samsung triband phone, 900-1800-1900 Mhz. It's a pain, isn't it?

Mimmel

Wow! Thanks to everyone who answered. I'll try it &amp; let you know.

aeiger

Hi
It depends what wireless phone service you use. cingular and T-Mobil are supposed to work in Europe as they are GSM. Last summer my wifes Cingular was supposed to work in Germany but there was a glitch, not with her Motorola but Cingular did not activate it international calls though were were initially charged. It was deducted from the bill.

5alive

We also just dealt with this. Both my cousin and uncle had GSM phones through either Team Mobile or Cingular. They had them unlocked stateside, but had to get SIM cards and activation once we arrived in Italy. They actually had Italian phone numbers because of the Italian SIM card in their phones.

Travelnut

aieger, OP is not trying to use their homesite service, they want to use a local/France service. they have a GSM phone and can switch out the SIM to use a local/France service.

Mimmel

I do have cingular &amp; the Nokia box says GSM/GPRS 850/1800/1900. I guess I have 2 options: 1) pay $5.95 to cingular &amp; get international service at the rate of $.99 per min in France or 2) buy a SIM card from Orange or one of the other co. SFR says they have 3G. What does that mean?