international smart phone

can they be used at home in the good 'ole USA? i'm finally coming home after almost being in the desert suckiness for a year and wondering if i can bring my international s3 with me and use it with maybe straight talk or something.

i'm gonna have to make a bunch of calls to get parts for all my bikes ready to ride/race. i figure i may have 13 carbs to clean if the star tron didn't help. but that's another story.

 

I believe some of them you can. Are they still using SIM cards there as well?

 

and if not Dustin can clean the carbs while you run out to buy a new phone

 

And a case of PBR, and a lighter.

Who's gonna yell, "Y'all watch this!"?

 

sim cards

yeah, sim cards in use out here.

 

hahaha!

 

Pretty sure the International version of the S3 uses both GSM and the Verizon CDMA bands. You should be good to go.

-jim

 

if the phone is the I9300, you will be limited to AT&T and carries that use their network if you want full 3/4G speeds. With Straight Talk, you can choose to run off either ATT or T-Mobile's network. It will work on a limited basis with Tmobile however you will not be able to access Tmobiles 3/4G coverage because the i9300 doesn't support the 1700mhz band that Tmobile's 3/4G network uses. With Tmobile, you would be limited to their 2G/Edge network(unless you are in a market where T-Mobile got some ATT assets from the failed merger). The i9300 in a GSM phone so it won't work with Verizon or Sprint(CDMA carriers ).

 

thanks for the detailed info.

these may be dumb questions, but are all sim card international smart phones GSM, which include iphone's, s3's or even the new bb v10's? is a sim card what makes it a GSM vs CDMA?

 

Nope. It's the built in hardware. The sim card just authenticates you to the carriers network.

-jim