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US iPhone won't work in Europe


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This incredible article talks about the fact that the iPhone FCC approval says the iPhone operates on the 1900 and 850 MHz band and thus is not operable on European networks! Not even when it's roaming, since those bands are not supported by European carriers.

Further more it has only support for EDGE, not even UMTS or HDSPA. EDGE is being dropped by more and more major carriers world-wide.

I find it very strange that you won't be able to take a $500 ++ telephone, on your vacation to Europe, and be able to talk to your friends or recieve a SMS.

Read the full article here: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=9401

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Well.. do you actually know there will just come a European version ?

Probably not.. so dont worry.

 

Last I heard, there had been mentions of a possible deal with Vodafone for the European market. However, that's not 100% reliable.

 

However, this is quite bad if it's not going to work in Europe. What's going to happen when someone takes a business trip out to the UK or something? Doesn't make sense why they would leave such an important feature out of such an expensive phone.

 

:)

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The iPhone is a quad band phone. This means that it operates at the 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz bands. However, in the US, the FCC is only concerned about 850 and 1900; thus the FCC only requires that you test the operating characteristics in those bands.

 

The European equivalents of the FCC will require testing in the bands of interest to them. But the phone will work fine.

 

I suspect that for the 2008 move into Europe, Apple may well unveil a more 3G'sh phone than the current EDGE implementation. But in the States, it doesn't make sense to start with anything higher as there's no deployed 3G support to speak of. And it didn't make sense to launch in Europe because the market is still more fragmented and the testing requirements are more cumbersome.

 

Many non-European countries automatically rubberstamp anything that the FCC has approved. So starting in the US is usually the fastest path to market.

 

Besides, once Apple ships a 3G-enabled phone, they can upsale the previous generation... ;-)

 

reinharden

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Yeah the EU tests a lot of appliances and then I think a UK board tests them some more.

 

I thought that since the UK was part of the EU, they all had the same safety regulations.

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I think that some things are different over here.

 

Definitely... afaik the plugs are still different in the most countries but what really

sucks is the different money. Everywhere they use Euro, but if you are jetting to

London for a weekend you'll have to pay with some weird stuff called Pound Sterling :censored2:

 

But I think mobiles work in UK, too.

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Why would Apple do that Anyway? They Know they're an International Corporation, they should of known to put Quad-Band in their phone anyway (The Reason My Name has Euro in it is because im going to Visit my Moms family in France on June 8th, First Time In Europe)

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Everywhere they use Euro, but if you are jetting to London for a weekend you'll have to pay with some weird stuff called Pound Sterling

 

 

Ah, you get used to the Pound... sort of.... you just have to remember 2:1...

 

Problem is all of the prices look like they do in the US... 6.50, 7.20, 8.90

 

Sitting in a resturaunt, your thinking, 9.50.... that's not bad... till you do the conversion and it's 19.00

 

Wife had to have a Starbucks... (really, you won't look like an American if you do that...) 4 pounds, 6 pence... 4.60 = 9.20!

 

Only did that once...

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* Fully functional touch screen iPod which syncs with iTunes

* Wireless service from AT&T and all the benefits of network reliability, Rollover® minutes, and more

* Visual Voicemail: a first on any mobile phone available in the United States

* 2MP camera

* Unique internet browsing capabilities

* Choose from 4GB ($499) or 8GB ($599) memory models

* EDGE, GPRS, GSM Quad-band, and WiFi capable

* Works with Windows PCs and Macs

 

 

straight off the ATT/cingular website as several others have mentioned, it's quad band. the EDGE does suck since 3G is starting to roll out in certain parts of the US, not in my area so I wouldn't get to enjoy it anyway...

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The only reason why the first generation will most likely not work for Europeans (officially) is the fact that US operators lock the phone to their SIM card. Somebody coming from the US with a AT&T iPhone (or whichever US contract) will of course be able to use it in Europe but officially speaking, you can't just put your European SIM in and you're good to go. Not saying there won't be a way to hack it...

Stay tuned on this site for more :(

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The only reason why the first generation will most likely not work for Europeans (officially) is the fact that US operators lock the phone to their SIM card. Somebody coming from the US with a AT&T iPhone (or whichever US contract) will of course be able to use it in Europe but officially speaking, you can't just put your European SIM in and you're good to go. Not saying there won't be a way to hack it...

Stay tuned on this site for more :D

 

Unless it's a vodaphone SIM...

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Unless it's a vodaphone SIM...

Are you saying the European Vodaphone SIM is compatible with US provider-locked mobiles out of the box? without any firmware hack? That sounds interesting...

 

I once tested a mate's T-mobile locked Razr from the US with a Swisscom and Orange SIM which was definitely a no go without hacking the firmware. The other way around was no problem though (his US SIM in my old V550).

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Hmmm... very interesting thread. Bouncing from a bit iPhone to phone companies, sim incompatibilty, firmware hacking wishes, money exchange courses and the prices at starbucks... funny ;)

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Hmmm... very interesting thread. Bouncing from a bit iPhone to phone companies, sim incompatibilty, firmware hacking wishes, money exchange courses and the prices at starbucks... funny :thumbsup_anim:

Hey, you should stay in England for a while. The only place where discussions about mobiles and how to hack them always lead to Man U and Eastenders in the end... ;)

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Hey, you should stay in England for a while. The only place where discussions about mobiles and how to hack them always lead to Man U and Eastenders in the end... :P

Man united GOOOOOOO, to bad they killed Ruud van Nistelroy, he's insanelyGOOD.

Btw. I think, like some others said, that it will work in Europe, but the FCC approval only looks at the bands applicable to the U.S.

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Welll Europe, i know the bills there are so high but I found an amazing website the other day. they sell phone cards to call anywhere from the USA. you can call India from Europe cents per minute. Also, you get a FREE $5 phone card with your 1st purchase. Not only that, you will also earn points for every dollar you spend and you will be able to exchange your points for great rewards.

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I can see some compatability issues with quad band in the uk ( and I think rest of Europe ) 3G services with 3 are provided via 2100Mhz which this is not listed in the specs

 

I wonder if they will produce a 5 band phone

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I can see some compatability issues with quad band in the uk ( and I think rest of Europe ) 3G services with 3 are provided via 2100Mhz which this is not listed in the specs

 

I wonder if they will produce a 5 band phone

 

Quad band GSM is a slightly different issue than 3G. A Quad band GSM phone will provide GSM service throughout most if not all of Europe.

 

One of the reasons that launching a phone with 3G didn't make so much sense was the fact that there's no global 3G whereas Quad band GSM could serve something like 80% of the world's cellular users.

 

Anyway, if I recall, the UMTS standard (assuming that we're going with UMTS (aka 3GSM) is 1885-2025 MHz for uplink and 2110-2200 MHz for downlink. But in the US, some operators use 1700 MHz instead of 1900 MHz for the uplink. UMTS is also run on 850 MHz and 1900 MHz elsewhere.

 

So a quad band GSM + global UMTS phone requires GSM's 850, 900, 1800, 1900 + UMTS's 1885-2025, 2110-2200, and possibly 1700...and, just for good measure, there's talk of bringing GSM down to 450 MHz for developing countries. That's a lot of extra RF cost if you're not going to cross borders!

 

reinharden

 

PS: And we still need a CDMA-derived phone for Japan and South Korea!

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