Will my USA AT&T Lumia 920 work in New Zealand?

[sirwannabe]

Hi all,

My sister is leaving from the US to NZ and is upgrading her phone here in America on AT&T. Due to the durability, speed, and great camera and battery life, I suggested the 920 to her over the iphone 5, but am not sure if it will work abroad? I know nothing about bandwidths and whatever being a "world phone" means, so can anyone clear this up with me? I know hardware issues with the 920 seem pretty common, and I myself wrote a rather long rant article a while back about how I returned mine and cant go back to it, but alas I gave it one more try last week after playing with a friends 8X and havent touched my previous phone (4S) since. I wouldn't want her to have the bricked experience and have that be a headache before she leaves, but its worth a try given the 920, in its working condition, is really an amazing phone. Input?

Thanks

EDIT: I ended this post veering off topic a little. Just talking about connectivity abroad

 

[ttsoldier]

No.

 

[PhantomNZ]

Here in NZ we have 3 carriers, 2 sharing the same frequencies.

Telecom NZ use WCDMA 850 with 2100 infill. (3G only)
Vodafone / 2Degrees use GSM 900 / 1800 (2G) and UTMS 900 / 2100 (3G)

Your device would have to be unlocked and support those frequencies for it to work.

 

[jdhooghe]

No. I was in France and not even GPS worked.
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express

 

[jfmanzo]

sirwannabe, don't thank somebody for giving you a completely wrong answer. The 920 is pentaband and will "work" in any country in the world. You'll have to get it unlocked to partake of a local SIM and local talk/data charges but even if you don't unlock it it will "work" while roaming, which will be horrifically expensive, but it will indeed still "work."

I don't understand jd's point at all- GPS should work even without a SIM in France or anywhere. All of Europe is 2100 band HSPA and the 920 will absolutely, positively be usable in France.

 

[timriley]

jfmanzo: I believe sirwannabe stated that his sister would be getting a Lumia920 on AT&T. The 920 sold by AT&T is NOT pentaband: it is only quadband and lacks the 1700MHz frequency (not an issue in NZ with the carriers PhantomNZ listed though). Even flashing the ROM with a non-AT&T rom will not make it pentaband (in fact, flashing pentaband phones with the AT&T ROM has reportedly caused peremant loss/lock of the 5th band, as others are reporting, even with a 're'flash back to a non-AT&T rom). The 920's sold outside of the US (including Canada) are pentaband however. Also, AT&T nor 3rd party carriers will unlock the AT&T 920 at this time - possibly after their supposed 6mo exclusivity ends, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

sirwannabe, don't thank somebody for giving you a completely wrong answer. The 920 is pentaband and will "work" in any country in the world. You'll have to get it unlocked to partake of a local SIM and local talk/data charges but even if you don't unlock it it will "work" while roaming, which will be horrifically expensive, but it will indeed still "work."

I don't understand jd's point at all- GPS should work even without a SIM in France or anywhere. All of Europe is 2100 band HSPA and the 920 will absolutely, positively be usable in France.

 

[manicottiK]

Based on what PhantomNZ said and the Nokia-published specs for the AT&T variant of the Lumia 920 (model number RM-820), your sister will have fine 2G, 3G, and 3+G (or fake-4G) service. The frequencies that work in NZ are shown in bold below. Note that mobile operators/carriers in NZ are just starting to test/roll-out actual 4G LTE, so which LTE bands the 920 support is mostly irrelevant.

RM-820, AT&T variant:
? EGSM 850/900/1800/1900,
? WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100,
? LTE band 4 (1700/2100) & 17 (700)

The key issue already raised is that the AT&T Lumia 920 is going to be SIM-locked to AT&T for at least six months. This means that your sister would be in NZ using a US phone number and every local call that she makes while in NZ to a another number in NZ will be treated as an expensive international call and every call she makes from NZ to the US will also be treated as an expensive international call. (Yes, AT&T gets you coming and going!) Data is going to cost $120/mo for 800 MB on top of the US-only data plan that AT&T requires for all smartphones.

So, while the radios will work fine in NZ, the voice and data usage costs probably make the idea of living in NZ with an AT&T device a poor choice. If you can buy a SIM-unlocked 920, she'd be better served by that. Also, do remember that the differences between the international and the AT&T versions of the 920 are ONLY in the LTE radios. If she could survive at home with 3G or 4G (the "fake 4G that we've had for 2-3 years, not the real 4G LTE) she should get the unlocked international version.

 

[ttsoldier]

sirwannabe, don't thank somebody for giving you a completely wrong answer. The 920 is pentaband and will "work" in any country in the world. You'll have to get it unlocked to partake of a local SIM and local talk/data charges but even if you don't unlock it it will "work" while roaming, which will be horrifically expensive, but it will indeed still "work."

I don't understand jd's point at all- GPS should work even without a SIM in France or anywhere. All of Europe is 2100 band HSPA and the 920 will absolutely, positively be usable in France.

Sorry. I should have said "No. Not right now. She will have to wait for an unlock to come out"

 

[sirwannabe]

Thanks for the info everyone. it helps alot!

 

[fulnix]

might be cheaper to get Skype Premium($100) and use her phone on WiFi only. She would get a specific Skype # that she could get local to NZ if that is important and she can choose one country to make free calls to I believe so that would be the US I'm assuming. The $100 covers you for the year. Then just leave her phone in airplane mode with WiFi on so she doesn't get data charges. Not a perfect solution but it would work maybe.