US Cellular telephone in Europe
Ari Wuolle
> Is it possible to use an American Cellular telephone in Europe,
> is it the same signal standard and frequencey. Does Germany and
Short answer is - no.
In Nordic countries there are three cellular systems in use: analog
NMT-450, analog NMT-900 and digital GSM. NMT-networks are
PTT-monopoly. GSM networks have competition.
In Germany there is some analog system (I don't know which, but not
NMT), digital GSM and digital PCN/DCS 1800.
> Scandinavia operate in the same way where you get the telephone
> free when you sign up for the service. I assume the dealer makes
Here in Finland network oparators are not allowed to subsidize
telephone set sales directly. Thus, here you have to pay the real price
for the phone. On other hand, calls and monthly fees are quite low.
I think that situation in other Nordic countries is the same.
In Germany network operators subsidize cellphone set sales, and phones
with contracts are much cheaper than phones without contracts. But
call and montly prices are quite high.
Ari Wuolle
Sam Spens Clason
>In article <3gbt8c$m...@uuneo.neosoft.com> Jannick Johnsson <wik...@neosoft.com> writes:
>> Is it possible to use an American Cellular telephone in Europe,
>> is it the same signal standard and frequencey. Does Germany and
>Short answer is - no.
>In Nordic countries there are three cellular systems in use: analog
>NMT-450, analog NMT-900 and digital GSM. NMT-networks are
>PTT-monopoly. GSM networks have competition.
Not 100% true. In Sweden there is a NMT-450 competititor --
Comvik. Comvik450i has a sister company called Comviq GSM...
The big difference between Comvik 450i and Telia 450i is that
Comvik has only one (?) roaming agreement. A private
Lithuanian operator allows roaming Comviks. The Nordic PTTs
refused such a deal...
>In Germany there is some analog system (I don't know which, but not
>NMT), digital GSM and digital PCN/DCS 1800.
>> Scandinavia operate in the same way where you get the telephone
>> free when you sign up for the service. I assume the dealer makes
Not true, a Motorola 7200 is a staggering £90 :-)
But you'll have to hurry up, at the moment they can be
subsidized by as much as 4000 SEK (~£400). After the fourth
of February (might be 3d) the three competing GSM operators
have agreed that 1000 SEK is the maximum.
>Here in Finland network oparators are not allowed to subsidize
>telephone set sales directly. Thus, here you have to pay the real price
>for the phone. On other hand, calls and monthly fees are quite low.
You can get pretty good deals in Sweden to. Competition gets
fiercer when there are three operators instead of just two.
However I do agre that subsidizing handsets is the wrong way
to go about it. Competing with airtime prizes instead will
force the phone manufacturers and retailers to cut their
prices.
Regards,
Sam
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<A HREF="http://www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam/">Sam Spens Clason</A>
Ross Richardson
>Help,
>Is it possible to use an American Cellular telephone in Europe,
>is it the same signal standard and frequencey.
No. The Europeans use a standard called GSM. At the radio level
(vs. switching) it is a very different beast than the North American
standard.
>Does Germany and
>Scandinavia operate in the same way where you get the telephone
>free when you sign up for the service.
In general, no. Schemes vary substantially between Germany and Scandinavia,
and within Scandinavia.
Ross Richardson
Rutgers Law School '95
mtg...@pegasus.rutgers.edu
Ari Wuolle
> Not 100% true. In Sweden there is a NMT-450 competititor --
> Comvik. Comvik450i has a sister company called Comviq GSM...
How is this done technically? Does Comvik450i use another country id
than S for their service? If you want to change from PTT to
Comvik450i, do you have to get your phone reprogrammed?
As the name is 450i, does it mean than you can't use your old phone
and must buy new 450i model?
Here in Finland telecommunications authorities have not given
permission for NMT competition. They say that NMT networks have not
enough channels for multiple operators and competition would cause
congestion.
> Not true, a Motorola 7200 is a staggering £90 :-)
Gosh! How long contracts you must make with Swedish operators to get
your phone at that price? Do they allow billing to foreign address or
credit card billing?
Here in Finland Radiolinja accepts foreign customers only if they have
Finnish billing address. Telecom Finland doesn't even allow
that. Neither can bill to credit card.
> You can get pretty good deals in Sweden to. Competition gets
> fiercer when there are three operators instead of just two.
That is true. Private telcos with their Kaukoverkko Ysi long distance
service and Telecom Finland keep their daytime LD call rates
identical. Telivo (third LD operator in Finland) offers lowest daytime
rates.
Unfortunately it seems that Finland has too low population density to
get third GSM operator here.
Anyway, cellular competition is heating up now in Finland. Radiolinja
started offering 500 FIM worth of free calls for new customers (RL
operates only GSM network). Telecom Finland almost immediately
responsed and now offer 600 FIM free calls for new NMT/GSM customers.
Ari Wuolle
E-mail Ari.W...@hut.fi Mail Kolkekannaksentie 10 B 4
Telephone + 358 0 509 2073 02720 ESPOO
Cellphone + 358 49 431 140 FINLAND
Fax (temporary) + 358 0 428 429
Kimmo Ketolainen
> You can get pretty good deals in Sweden to. Competition gets
> fiercer when there are three operators instead of just two.
Can you fill in this type of table for all Telia, Comvik and Nordictel?
Thank you in advance.
Telecom Finland / Classic GSM (using the £ rate 0.13307:)
monthly fee .................. 21.81 FIM £2.90
minute fee workdays 07-17 ..... 2.09 FIM £0.28
minute fee all other times .... 1.08 FIM £0.14
I have received already similar tables of Radiolinja (GSM), Cellnet (GSM)
and Hutchinson (DCS1800) pricing.
Kimmo.
--
_ .-.
\`' | Kimmo Ketolainen University of Turku home +358 21 237 8227
| | Yo-kylä 84 A 10 Kimmo.Ke...@utu.fi shoe +358 40 500 2957
) \ FIN-20540 Turku http://www.utu.fi/finland.html work +358 21 262 1496
/ |
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*--~
Sam Spens Clason
>In article <3gjl43$f...@news.kth.se> d92...@black29.nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) writes:
>> Not 100% true. In Sweden there is a NMT-450 competititor --
>> Comvik. Comvik450i has a sister company called Comviq GSM...
>How is this done technically? Does Comvik450i use another country id
>than S for their service? If you want to change from PTT to
>Comvik450i, do you have to get your phone reprogrammed?
I think so.
>As the name is 450i, does it mean than you can't use your old phone
>and must buy new 450i model?
I think they are compatible.
>Here in Finland telecommunications authorities have not given
>permission for NMT competition. They say that NMT networks have not
>enough channels for multiple operators and competition would cause
>congestion.
Probably so since GSM and NMT900 are designed for the same
frequencies. In the case of Swedish 450 Comvik has less
channels than Telia. At the moment they have none :-). Their
radio license expired last new years and could not be renewed
until after it had expired.
Comvik originally had intended to shut their analog system
down at new years but, no. It was still making profit in
spite of it only having some 20000 or less customers. I don't
know how many customers there were say five years ago. But I
think most have changed over to GSM by now. Telia have at
least 1/4 million customers in their 450 network.
>> Not true, a Motorola 7200 is a staggering £90 :-)
>Gosh! How long contracts you must make with Swedish operators to get
>your phone at that price? Do they allow billing to foreign address or
>credit card billing?
12 months. Don't know. However if you want it bad you'd have
to hurry like hell. Tomorrow or Saturday is the last day of
such offers. From then on there is an unofficial subsidy
limit of 1000kr (£90) per handset. Until then the subsidy can
be as big as 4000kr per phone!!!
According to what I've heard this unofficial limit is very
much *the* limit since Swedish legislators have been looking
into the matter.
>Here in Finland Radiolinja accepts foreign customers only if they have
>Finnish billing address. Telecom Finland doesn't even allow
>that. Neither can bill to credit card.
Don't know anything about this. But with the kind of
subsidies we've been having I can't imagine the operators
giving phones away to people that aren't going to use'em.
>Unfortunately it seems that Finland has too low population density to
>get third GSM operator here.
Sweden and Finland are about the same I'd say. There is to my
knowledge only one more country in the world with three
operators -- Australia. According to what I've heard calling
is pretty cheap there. I suppose somone could confirm this...