My wife is looking for a cell phone take can work here with our Verizon plan but can also work in Asia during our next trip. What options do we have? I dont know much about cell phones. I just get ours upgraded every now and then through verizon.
What phone does she currently have? Almost all Verizon phones come unlocked and are world phones. (meaning they have GSM and CDMA radios). She should be able to purchase a pre-paid sim card in Asia and have service when she puts it in the phone. Or of course rack up roaming charges with her current sim (Nothing wrong with that if you can afford it, and if you need to be reached at a certain number)
A Galaxy S4. So that should work? Is there a way to make certain? We are back in US and I just inserted the sim card from Asia. It says roaming and there is a notification saying that the sim card is from an unrecognizable source. Any way to make certain that the S4 will work in Asia? Doesnt it have to be unlocked btw (not sure what that implies exactly)? I dont think the S4 is unlocked. Or atleast it didnt say it was unlocked when we got it from verizon.
The S4 should be unlocked for Global GSM. She won't get LTE speeds but she should get 3g when using the SIM from asia. Only thing you need to confirm is if the phone supports the correct bands. Which part of asia is she going?
All Verizon 4GLTE phones are carrier unlocked right out of the box. You may have gotten that confused with bootloader unlocked which is used for modifying the device. Yes, since you put in your asia sim card and it says roaming, it's because it's acting as if you took an asian phone over to the US and it's roaming. And yes, we can confirm http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/global-roaming-faqs/
Malay uses 900 and 1800 for 3g Verizon Galaxy S4 supports that so you should be good to go. I knew that since I went to KL last year. =).
