Korean cell phones in US?

Question

If I purchase a phone in Korea, will it still work and will it be compatible with an US plan such as verizon or cingular??

SOUTH Korea

Answer 1

Well, if you purchased it in NORTH KOREA, watch out!!!
One of these days it might jump into the Pacific Ocean as a missile test.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

First off, check if your phone works on the GSM system or the CDMA. If its a CDMA, im sorry, the phone wont work in the US, if its a GSM, read on.

Secondly, make sure your phone is a "TRI-BAND". which means it runs on frequencies of 800/1800/1900.. this takes care of all the bands and you should be good to go. If its not a tri-band, again, im sorry the phone wont work in the US.

The 3rd and last question is whether your phone was bought through a carrier or just from a grey market vendor. Most cell phone carriers (t-mobile, orange, hutch, cingular, O2 etc) lock the phones they sell. This means that the phone will only work with their service. If this is the case you have to contact them locally in Korea, tell them you wish to use the phone outside the country and get an 'unlock' code for the phone. After this step, you are set to use your phone in America.

The GSM system for mobile phones is nationally used only by Cingular & T-Mobile in the US (AllTel & a few others locally). So unfortunately you are stuck with just a few choices. Go to a phone service re-seller and he will guide you through the process.

Hope this helps..

Answer 4

Let me give you the answer no one else gave you. This is important!!!

In Korea, the phones are on the CDMA network, but it's a different form of CDMA than the one that Sprint and Verizon run. It's a 3rd Generation CDMA and the phone will not be compatable with the U.S. providers.

Second, Korea does not run GSM phones so you will not be able to find any GSM phones in Korea. Korea is dominated by Samsung Communications the Samsungs in Korea are all CDMA. Samsungs can be GSM but those are designed for the rest of the world.

So, don't waste your money on a Korean phone cause it won't work here. If you want a cool Asian phone, goto Taiwan or Hong Kong and find a nice GSM phone. Japan also runs the same CDMA technology as Korea.

Ignore the messages above this because they don't hold any validity to phones in Korea.

Answer 5

Well it just depends on what phone you bought. I live in SK and have a phone and when I travel to the US it works but my prices for roaming are outrageous. Phones do work but it will have to be unlocked. I would say though unless you live here don't buy a phone. They are Expensive and well most functions are still in Korean. There is english menus but like interent and stuff is mostly Korean. I hope this helps. If you do buy a phone though get the new Smasung 3G+ phone. It is a cool thing that is a video phone. That is right video conferencing on a phone call. It is expensive though and won't work int he US ( video mode). It is over 750 USD.

Answer 6

Most other countries use GSM so if you have a GSM phone you might be able to either use your phone as is or you could get a local phone key.

In the US most carrier's use CMCD but Cingular and T-mobile use GSM.

So look at your instruction manual and see what system your phone uses. Or take it to one of the carrier's stores and have them look at it.

Good luck.

Answer 7

do you've a korean/asian shop close to you? because often times they have telephone vendors in there, and most of the time they have pre-programmed the phone to a particular telephone organization..(ie: tmobile, cingular..)

Answer 8

probably not.