Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Phones, phones, and more phones!



Back in May I received the fantastic news that I'd be teaching youngsters in a small fishing town in Galicia in Spain this coming school year. I was so thrilled that I started thinking, "Oh goodness what do I do about my phone?!"  Well I did some digging and some research and found out some stuff on Spanish phones that'll be super helpful to other new Auxiliars.


Part 1- CDMA or GSM (Spain uses GSM)


In the world there are two networks that dominate the cell phone market, CDMA-Code Division Multiple Access and GSM-Global System for Mobile communications. The quickest way to check to see if your phone is CDMA or GSM is to just take off the back and look around your battery (or underneath it) and see if you have a SIM or microSIM slot. It looks something like this:


This is a phone with a SIM card slot.  Normally the phone will have a slot that'll have a little picture that looks like a rectangle with one its corners cut off ( I guess a trapezoid?).  On this picture, it's the little picture with the arrow pointing upward.  That shows you how to orient the SIM card which surprisingly is shaped like a trapezoid too! If your phone has one of these slots you're in luck! Spain only uses GSM.



If you don't see this slot, don't fret. It just means you have a CDMA phone like me.  This means your phone will NOT work in Spain. Well, fret a little bit, because you're about to have to spend money.  If looking at the back of your phone still doesn't help you out, you can always google your cell phone service provider and see if they even offer GSM models of your phone.  If you have a CDMA phone, you will need to actually purchase an unlocked GSM phone so that you can use it in Spain.

Part 2- Check Frequencies on GSM phone

Now the next thing to note is that not all phones can operate on all frequencies of GSM networks.  In the United States, the GSM network is at 1900MHz/850MHz and 1700MHz/2100MHz.  If you're able to use your GSM phone in the US, it's probably working on one of those two frequencies.

Spain uses different frequencies.  To have your GSM phone successfully work in Spain it needs to be able to pick up  900MHz/1800MHz for simple 2g service and 2100MHz for 3g.

To figure out if your phone will work, just google it online and see what frequencies it works on.  Normally it's listed under "specifications" for your phone on whatever website you choose to go to.  If your phone shows that it works on the frequencies for Spain, you should be good to go so that when you get in Spain all you gotta do is buy a SIM card and call it a day. But if your phone doesn't work on that frequency, then refer to Part 3 because you'll be riding the struggle bus with us CDMA folks.


Part 3-  Poor CDMA folks, the struggle is really real for us 

Last time I traveled abroad, I bought a terrible phone from vodafone and said, next time I'm bringing an unlocked phone. So for the CDMA folks, you will have to buy a phone.  You can buy it when you're in Spain or buy it before your trip.  When searching for phones you want it to be "unlocked" and you want to check the specifications to make sure it works on Spain's frequencies.   See Part 4 for the info on "unlocked" phones.  You can easily buy a phone on Amazon or ebay that matches the frequencies found in Spain that is unlocked.  You may want to consider buying a "quad band" phone which means it works on several frequencies (in other words, you can almost use it anywhere in the world).   The phone I bought is a LG Optimus that is quad band.  It works on several frequencies and I got it for 200 bucks. This means I'll be able to use it in Spain and in the US when I return.  Once you buy your GSM unlocked phone, you're all set to go.  Just make sure that it definitely has Spain's frequencies listed.

So in a nutshell

1.) Search "unlocked GSM phone" on google
2.) Make sure it lists Spain's frequencies (900MHz/1800MHz for 2g and 2100MHz for 3g) in its specifications
3.) Click buy and dance around like you're Janelle Monae on a tightrope.


Part 4- Unlock the phone 

Alright my GSM folks, this is the final part before you too can dance like your CDMA brethren and dance like Janelle Monae.
Once you realize your phone works on Spain's frequency, you have to get your phone unlocked.  This can be as simple as a phone call to your service provider.  If they refuse to do it, call again and ask someone else.  If it seems like they just won't do it at all, then you can wait until your in Spain and go to a little shop that will unlock it for you.  From former Auxliars, it seems that this only costs about 15 to 30 euros.  
"Unlocking" your phone means you're effectively removing your phone from any carrier like Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Cricket, AT&T, etc and that way you can take your phone to any carrier.  Majority of phones purchased at a carrier are "locked" into those carriers and cannot be configured to be used with another network without "unlocking".  Phone companies "lock" their phones so they can let you buy super high-tech phones at subsidized rates once you agree to their contracts for a set period of time. An "unlocked" phone, is not with any carrier and this allows you to freely put in a SIM card and operate your phone on any network. 






I have gathered a lot of this information from other Auxiliars' blogs and random posts on the Internet. Here you can find the network coverage of many countries- GSM Coverage

























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