2006-11-22 03:05:00 · 4 answers · asked by janetli101 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Cell Phones & Plans
Around the world cell phone operate on three different frequencies. If your phone is triband (most new ones are) this means it will work anywhere in the world. Probably not that important unless you travel a lot. Cell phones are locked so that it will only be compatable with individual providers. If it is locked with Cingular it will not work with Verizon. There are methods available to unlock them, but more than likely too advanced for the common consumer, unless you have an electronics knowledge base, then if that is the case....google, "unlock cellphone." =) Good luck!
2006-11-22 03:10:56 · answer #1 · answered by Eric 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
GSM phones work in a band of frequencies usually the 850/1800/1900 MHz band here in USA. So if your phone is triband it can support all 3 bands and hence can be used in other parts of the world which use one of those bands supported by your GSM phone. As for unlocking, providers usually "lock" their equipment to be used by a particular service provider. The process of unlocking makes it usuable with any service provider anywhere in the world. Both of these apply only to GSM (Cingular, TMobile) phones since CDMA (like Verizon) uses a different technology
2006-11-22 03:17:22 · answer #2 · answered by ♠ Nemesis ♠ 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are numerous GSM frequencies in use around the world. And a mobile phone's antenna can not always pickup all of them. So when you see tri-band or quad-band you will also notice a bunch of numbers after it. These are the frequencies that are supported. Be careful though. A European or Asian tri-band is different to a US Tri-band. If you are buying the phone in the you will be fine, if you are not and yo are going to use it in the US, check the freq. as mentioned above. Also, if you are buying in the US and you will be traveling a alot, buy a quad band.
Unlocked, just means that you can use a SIM card from any network provider in any country from around the world.
2006-11-22 03:15:47 · answer #3 · answered by the_big_v 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
what does it mean when cellphone has triband option? and what is unlock cellphone?
2015-08-16 21:18:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
According to this definition, tri-band refers to a GSM phone that can operate on the 900/1800/1900 Mhz frequencies.
http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/glossary.shtml#t
I think, however, that I've seen it used to refer to phones that operate on other trios of frequencies as well.
Unlock refers to the subsidy lock on the GSM phone. The cell providers usually lock these phones for use on their networks only. Unlocking the phone frees it for use with any network.
2006-11-22 03:48:05 · answer #5 · answered by Andrew H 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
trimode is the ability to work on Digital, Analog, and PCS service.
Unlock is just what it sounds like - you have to unlock your cellphone in order to use it on a different carrier for which it was purchased (assuming it uses the same technology as the other carrier).
2006-11-22 03:10:34 · answer #6 · answered by Amanda S 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋