International travel with Razr Maxx

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One more tidbit of information from Motorola.

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[TD="class: ecxtext, bgcolor: #C6D3BA"] Via Email (Jim)[/TD]
[TD="class: ecxtext, bgcolor: #C6D3BA, align: right"]07/04/2012 09:10 AM[/TD]
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[TD="class: ecxtext, colspan: 2"]Dear ,

Here is the list of supported frequencies of the phone:

CDMA 800/1900,
GSM 850/900/1800/1900,
LTE 13,
W-CDMA 850/900/1900/2100

For information about Motorola products and services, please visit us at Motorola Home - Motorola USA

Thank you for contacting Motorola e-mail support.

Best Regards,

Jim[/TD]
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[TD="class: ecxtext, bgcolor: #A0C4DE"] Customer By Email ()[/TD]
[TD="class: ecxtext, bgcolor: #A0C4DE, align: right"]07/03/2012 02:41 PM[/TD]
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[TD="class: ecxtext, colspan: 2"]Jim,
Thanks for the reply! Would you happen to have a list of the frequencies that the phone supports with each radio?

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[Kitulu]

Thanks for this information. It now fully and unequivocally answers that question. When you come back to the us, stop at a verizon store to pick up a free sim card. Verizon deactivates a sim card after 24 hours if it is not in a phone. I made that mistake when I temporarily was using a vortex and then could not activate my 4g phone. Finally called verizon and they explained that the sim Is automatically deactivated after 24 hours.

Is that a new thing? I took my Droid 2 Global to Afghanistan on a 10 month deployment, swapped out the SIM card for a Roshan card and used it locally for that time, and swapped back in the Verizon SIM card when I rotated back to the States...it worked just fine.

 

[bsweetness]

Is that a new thing? I took my Droid 2 Global to Afghanistan on a 10 month deployment, swapped out the SIM card for a Roshan card and used it locally for that time, and swapped back in the Verizon SIM card when I rotated back to the States...it worked just fine.

They're two different types of SIM cards that operate in different ways for Verizon. The SIM card in your Droid 2 Global was a GSM SIM that wasn't used for anything while in the United States. Verizon doesn't have a GSM network, so it wasn't a part of their system while in the U.S. at all. On the other hand, LTE SIM cards are actively used on Verizon's network in the U.S. for account activation and authentication among other things. So, it's two different situations with two different types of cellular technology.

 

[TisMyDroid]

Thanks bsweetness because I didn't know the answer to that. I was going to offer that maybe it was just something that verizon told me when I couldn't activate my phone because it was their only guess.

 

[bsweetness]

Thanks bsweetness because I didn't know the answer to that. I was going to offer that maybe it was just something that verizon told me when I couldn't activate my phone because it was their only guess.

I've never actually read or been told that LTE SIM cards are automatically deactivated if they haven't been used for 24hrs. That may or may not be true, but I'd actually be surprised if it is true. They'd have no way of knowing if your phone was just turned off, if you're in a place where you don't get signal, or if the SIM card has been removed, so it would potentially make a fair amount of customers unhappy. I think the person who told you that only said it because, as you mentioned, it was their only guess.

In your case, you replaced the LTE device with a 3G-only device on your line, and that will automatically deactivate the SIM card, even if you only use the 3G-only device for an hour. A 3G-only device activates differently than a LTE device, so when you switch between those types of devices, you're changing the way in which you activate. When you have a LTE phone, your account and activation is tied to the SIM card. With a 3G-only phone, they're tied to the ESN/IMEI that's noted as being on your account. If you move from LTE to 3G-only, your account is no longer tied to the SIM card. So, when you go back to a LTE device, you'll need a new SIM card.

That said, while I'm not sure if LTE SIM cards on Verizon really do deactivated after 24 hours of not being used (and I seriously doubt they do), there definitely are major differences between the GSM SIM cards Verizon uses in 3G-only devices for international roaming and LTE SIM cards.

 

[emcx3]

In your case, you replaced the LTE device with a 3G-only device on your line, and that will automatically deactivate the SIM card, even if you only use the 3G-only device for an hour. A 3G-only device activates differently than a LTE device, so when you switch between those types of devices, you're changing the way in which you activate. When you have a LTE phone, your account and activation is tied to the SIM card. With a 3G-only phone, they're tied to the ESN/IMEI that's noted as being on your account. If you move from LTE to 3G-only, your account is no longer tied to the SIM card. So, when you go back to a LTE device, you'll need a new SIM card.


Could you explain how this works please? If you turn off the phone and pull the Verizon sim card and then put in a card for another network in another country, how does the Verizon card get deactivated? The phone is talking to a different company on a different network. Does the phone do this automatically, require a new card if you activate the 3g part? How do we know that this is what will happen?

Thanks

 

[bsweetness]

Could you explain how this works please? If you turn off the phone and pull the Verizon sim card and then put in a card for another network in another country, how does the Verizon card get deactivated? The phone is talking to a different company on a different network. Does the phone do this automatically, require a new card if you activate the 3g part? How do we know that this is what will happen?

We don't know that this happens for sure. In fact, I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen. I think two completely different situations are starting to get mixed up here.

What happened with TisMyDroid's LTE SIM has nothing to do with international travel or using a foreign SIM. For a brief time, TisMyDroid had to stop using his LTE phone and use an older 3G-only Verizon phone that he had. In order to use the older phone, he had to activate it on his Verizon account. Doing this automatically deactivated his LTE phone (and the LTE SIM along with it) because you can't have two different devices activated on the same line. When he wanted to switch back to his LTE phone, he tried to put his LTE SIM card back into the LTE phone in order to activate it, but it wouldn't activate because the SIM card had been deactivated. When he asked Verizon about it, the person he spoke to told him that a LTE SIM card will be automatically deactivated after 24 hours if it's not in a phone. I have never heard or read this anywhere. Since I can't say for sure from experience, I'm not going to say it's 100% not true, but I'm 99% sure that it's not true. TisMyDroid's LTE SIM was deactivated because he activated a different phone on his Verizon account that didn't use the SIM, not because the SIM wasn't in use.

Given what he was told by Verizon, TisMyDroid was trying to help people who will be using the phone outside of the U.S. by repeating what Verizon told him regarding LTE SIM cards being inactive. But, since people traveling with the RAZR/MAXX won't be activating a different, non-LTE phone on their account while they're gone, their LTE SIM cards should remain active. There shouldn't be any problems putting them back in after returning to the U.S. TisMyDroid activated an older Verizon phone on his Verizon account in the U.S., which deactivated his LTE phone (and the SIM along with it). Using a foreign GSM SIM card does not deactivate your LTE phone on Verizon because the GSM card is for a completely different network. As far as Verizon is concerned, your LTE phone and SIM are still activated on your account.

So, again, I think two completely different situations are getting a little mixed up.

 

[TisMyDroid]

Yes bsweetness, that could be exactly the case... it was deactivated because I activated another phone. It would be fairly easy for verizon to deactivate a sim card. All they would have to do is take the sim card # out of their system which would render it useless. When the verizon rep told me this, she said that verizon does it to protect your account... if someone took your sim card they could activate a phone that would end up being billed to your account... essentially stealing your service.

On the other hand, I called verizon to ask them if my would have any problems with his sim being deactivated after keeping his phone on airplane mode while he is in venice for six weeks. They said it should automatically work again when he got back to US. I asked why that would be different than my taking the sim card out of the phone. The only explanation she gave me was that his sim card would still be in the phone... but how would they know that if he is on airplane mode?

 

[emcx3]

Thanks for clearing that up..... Maybe litman could prove or disprove our theory by putting his Verizon LTE sim back in and see if it boots up on Verizon's network. I'm going to Europe mid-month and it would be great to be able to switch back and forth between my US number and a number on a local network.

Thanks all for the info.

 

[littman]

I'll be back on the 18th. I'll tell you then

 

[littman]

Here is a few things I have learned since the last post.
1/ To conserve data (since my prepaid card only had 100mb) is to goto play store>> settings> turn on "update over wifi only"
This will prevent you from going to sleep and find out the next morning that half your data lan has been used up updating apps

2/go to menu>>settings>more>mobile networks>> turn on data roaming.

A few irritating features

Each time you boot the phone, it will ask you to input the SIM card passcode
Then when you swipe the phone open it will put up a statement that "a non network sim card has been found" You will need to hit OK
Then it will search for a CDMA carrier which after 15 seconds it will tell you that no carrier was found, switch to global mode. Hit OK then the phone will then find carriers

 

[littman]

I flew today from Hungary to Switzerland. No service with my Hungarian SIM card (T-mobile). After speaking with some ex-pats they said that you cannot get interational roaming with pre paid SIM cards. Maybe if I went with a provider like Orange that spans many countries, it might have worked

Anyways, I decidd to reinstall my verizon SIM card
I booted the phone and no service.

I then went online and upgraded my monthly verizon plan to add international roaming.
I waited and nothing
I re booted my phone and now I had 3 bars wih a little "R" above it and I was able to make calls

I had no data.

If you remember from a post aobe that I have canged my APN settings
I went to menu>>settings>>more>>mobile networks>>network mode and changed it from global to GSM
this now allows me to change the APN
by going to menu>>settings>>more>>mobile networks>>acess point name>> hit the menu button and select reset to default
then reboot the phone and now I had data

I will post again when back in the US and I immediately received tex messages from Verizon re cost

At $20.42/MB of data I went to menu>>settings>>more>>mobile networks>>and unchecked data endabled

By the way I set up a textPlus account by Pinger and the free WIFI calls worked great
I had my Google voice number ported to my textplus number so all my US textmessages and voice mail came to my phone for free

 

[bsweetness]

Here is a few things I have learned since the last post.
1/ To conserve data (since my prepaid card only had 100mb) is to goto play store>> settings> turn on "update over wifi only"
This will prevent you from going to sleep and find out the next morning that half your data lan has been used up updating apps

2/go to menu>>settings>more>mobile networks>> turn on data roaming.

A few irritating features

Each time you boot the phone, it will ask you to input the SIM card passcode
Then when you swipe the phone open it will put up a statement that "a non network sim card has been found" You will need to hit OK
Then it will search for a CDMA carrier which after 15 seconds it will tell you that no carrier was found, switch to global mode. Hit OK then the phone will then find carriers

The prompting for the SIM card passcode is associated with the SIM, not the phone. You should be able to remove the passcode from the SIM if you want to. Also, when using a foreign SIM, go to Settings -> More -> Mobile networks -> Network mode and select GSM/UMTS. This should keep the phone in GSM mode and completely cut out the futile search for a CDMA network.

 

[littman]

bseetness- You are right but if you turn the phone off to conserver energy, it will default back to the original setting and will ask you again for the sim code and you have to change it to gsm

 

[bsweetness]

bseetness- You are right but if you turn the phone off to conserver energy, it will default back to the original setting and will ask you again for the sim code and you have to change it to gsm

The SIM passcode is something you control. A reboot of the phone will not change it. Go to Settings -> Security -> and scroll down to "SIM CARD LOCK." If you change the passcode, or if you remove it, that change is programmed into the SIM. A reboot of the phone will not change it back. The phone has no way of doing that, nor does the SIM, once you've changed it. It would be like you setting a password for your email, and then after rebooting your computer, your computer or email provider up and changing your email password. If you don't remove the passcode from the SIM in the settings for the SIM, it will ask you for it each time when rebooting the phone. If do you remove it, there will be no passcode to enter.

I just put my phone in GSM/UMTS mode, turned it off for a few minutes, and then turned it back on. The phone remained in GSM/UMTS mode, both with the Verizon SIM and a foreign SIM. Shortly after getting up and running, it asked me via a popup if I wanted to switch to CDMA/LTE mode since it couldn't find a GSM network. In that popup, it also gave me an option to remain in GSM mode and never have that popup appear again. Upon boot up, if yours says something about a non-network SIM (which it never did on mine), and if it's searching for a CDMA network, it sounds like you have it Global mode and not in GSM/UMTS mode.

So again, you can remove the SIM passcode and you can manually put the phone remain in GSM/UMTS mode. Turning the phone off and then on again at a later point will not change either of those if you get them setup correctly.