Is the phone u use in the philippines will work in US with roaming sim card?

[shure 8]

Hi once again VJ's Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...Just wanna get some of your ideas .If I bring my cell phone to US u think will work?Is anyone here already brought their phones?Bcuz I would like it bring it with me but if its not working there I will just give it to my brother. Thank u in advance

[TimeTravel 78]

If it has international roaming service, then it would work. The best thing is that you must have to check out with your provider about your mobile connection & its services, as they will give you better answer.

[max+patricia 24]

Depends on what network you plan to use in the U.S.

AT&T and T-Mobile are the main providers in the U.S. that use GSM (SIM cards). Verizon and Sprint use CDMA.

[Lancelotte25 1]

You can send text and receive vice versa, don't foret to activate the roaming before leaving the country.

[furble 3]

I'm sure it will work, but will be expensive. If it is prepaid (like most phones in Indonesia), expect it to be finished after 1 phone call. Here I buy $5 worth of prepaid (called Pulsa here) and that is good for a month of phone calls, including international calls to the US at 1 penny a minute. In America cell phone calls are so wildly expensive the $5 after international roaming might not last 3 text messages.

If you are on a Contract in the Philipines then get ready for a hell of a bill. If I put my U.S. AT&T sim card in my iPhone here in Bali even for 1 hour with data and all else that is going on my phone bill in the U.S. from AT&T will be far in excess of $300, and that's for an hour.

[Tim/Mav 305]

Maybe in my case with your same question I really don't know if these phone stores in the US Screwed me over or not. I was told the phone will not work. So they sold me a cheap Motorala for $40.00 and UNLOCKED IT. Then they said: Upon your arrival at the Airport or shop buy a new Sim Card that will work there. E-bay sells these cards for double the price you would pay in the Phils. I just was'nt worth it. We just used Mav's phone. I was with her 100% of the time and never had to make any calls. A ealier post indicated: GSM ? That is true.

[F & J 21]

Hi! You can use the Globe OFW SIM here in the U.S. That's what I did when I brought my Nokia phone from the Philippines. There will be 2 SIMs in the pack and one will be the OFW SIM, the second will be a Family SIM that you will need to leave with someone in the Philippines. If they load credits on the Family SIM at least once every 30 days, the OFW SIM that you use here in the U.S. will have a zero maintaining balance. It will only cost them Php1 to send text messages to your OFW SIM from the Philippines but it will cost you Php15 to txt them back. They will also charge you for receiving incoming calls (I believe it's Php80 per minute). A good alternative would be the MagicJack

[souleymon 27]

Its expensive either way

[TimeTravel 78]

In 2009, I gave my one of Indian postpaid phone to my wife while she was on the way back for USA to renew the visa. She had one stop in Germany. I called her, she picked up, and we talked almost 20 min or more on International roaming, and when I got phone bill, I was not charged any single penny! They forgot to charge!

[A and T 82]

Is the phone quadband and unlocked/open line? if so yes you will be fine, in the USA you can use the GSM phone with ATT or Tmobile (the only 2 big carriers that use sim cards) Tmobile offers a cheaper plan for those that already own phones off contract, but coverage isnt as good as ATT (whom is more expensive)

[shure 8]

Hi once again VJ's Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...Just wanna get some of your ideas .If I bring my cell phone to US u think will work?Is anyone here already brought their phones?Bcuz I would like it bring it with me but if its not working there I will just give it to my brother. Thank u in advance

Thanks everyone for your quick reply, may you have a prosperous new year...And goodluck to all

[PaulnUsa 19]

Hi once again VJ's Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...Just wanna get some of your ideas .If I bring my cell phone to US u think will work?Is anyone here already brought their phones?Bcuz I would like it bring it with me but if its not working there I will just give it to my brother. Thank u in advance

Smart and Globe does.. I have both and they work fine in the USA and you receive text for FREE.. just need a 100 peso charge every 90 days to keep it active. You can load yourself at artry .com or something like that just google smart globe load and it comes up and other websites also

[Scott and Mhay 57]

We had a smart roaming card and it has worked pretty much everywhere in the US. With the SMART card, you don't need to keep a balance on it. We hadn't loaded the sim card in quite sometime (over a year with zero balance). We just kept that sim card for my wife's family to txt to cheap. We are now in Italy, and the SMART sim doesn't work (SMART doesn't have an agreement with any of the carriers in Italy).

[SuperDuper! 230]

You can send text and receive vice versa, don't foret to activate the roaming before leaving the country.

What you want to do, is keep your phone. Get an international roaming SIM from Globe or Smart, activate it before leaving to US, and then get a Chikka.com acct, and then you can text back and forth to the PI for cheap. You can reload your card with Aryty.com

Then, when you go back to the PI to visit, you will have a phone to use right away when you land.

It's better to just get a new phone in the US, because then you won't be limited to a certain carrier that might have poor or no coverage in your area.

Buy your family member another phone, if it makes you feel bad to keep your phone.

Congratz!

Edit: Your phone will need to be a tri-band or quad band to do this in US.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Boing!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Topic has been moved from IR-1/CR-1 forum as topic does not relate to the immigration process and is more appropriate in this forum