UK (GSM) phone work in US (Cingular)?

[syxbit]

phones come out a lot earlier in europe,
i live in the US (Utah) and want cool phone like the latest nokia, or sony ericcson mp3 phones.
can i just buy a cingular cheap phone, and off ebay get an unlocked GSM phone from England and just switch the SIM?
also, i heard that if i do this, i might not be able to use many cingular options
any ideas?
thanks

[olly666]

It's a risky idea. First of all you'll need to make sure that you buy a quadband phone, as no other phone from Europe (incl. triband...) will work with US carriers. The only quadband phones I know of are Motorola's (not all of them). If your carrier does operate on a sim-card system you can throw your card into a new phone. As far as options being compatible, Cingular are the only ones that can answer that for you. Usually European's can't use options on American phones in Europe, not the other way around. On a final note, keep in mind that on top of whatever you pay for your phone - you risk being charged customs tax when importing it into the U.S.

Hope that helped. Good luck!

[Box215]

It's a risky idea. First of all you'll need to make sure that you buy a quadband phone, as no other phone from Europe (incl. triband...) will work with US carriers. The only quadband phones I know of are Motorola's (not all of them). If your carrier does operate on a sim-card system you can throw your card into a new phone. As far as options being compatible, Cingular are the only ones that can answer that for you. Usually European's can't use options on American phones in Europe, not the other way around. On a final note, keep in mind that on top of whatever you pay for your phone - you risk being charged customs tax when importing it into the U.S.

Hope that helped. Good luck!

wow, youre completely off on some things

You can buy a phone from Europe if you'd like (unlocked of course), but the problem is phones from Europe are tri-band 900/1800/1900. Cingular uses 850/1900, so by buying a phone that doesnt have 850, you run the risk of not getting the most out of cingular's service. So youre better off just buying a phone from Cingular. However, if you have T-Mobile, you can use a tri-band phone fomr europe becuase T-Mobile runs on 1900 only. However, T-Mobile is implementing 850 roaming, so getting an 850 phone now might be a good investment for T-Mobile in the future. Hope this helps. if you have anymore questions, just ask.