South Korean Cell Networks

A

Aharon

Honorary Master
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Hi,

I have a friend who will be going to South Korea for a year. From what I can see on the net they have a CDMA network and not a GSM network, although I did see a sight where they say you can roam on GSM.

Anyways, she would like to take a Blackberry from SA to South Korea - are there any that will be compatible?

Also, if you could shed some light on the networks available?

Many thanks
 
South Korea is not listed on gsmarena.com so cant see what frequency they using. Some countries like Japan only utilize 2100 band so you need a 3G phone to roam there.

When I am back at work tomorrow, I will look on our roaming intranet site and see if I can get some info on the networks there.

OC
 
Thx OC - that would be greatly appreciated
 
Hi there. We have the below roaming agreement with South Korea.

Network Name GSM GPRS 3G Local Calls Calls to SA or International Receive a Call send and sms Data rates per mb
KTF FREETEL CO. LTD Yes No No R 8,00 R23,50 R 6,00 R 2,75 R 128,00 -
Click to expand...
 
Hi OC :)

Many thanks! So that network is GSM/3G. However - do u know how Blackberry works there?
 
We do not have a 3G data roaming agreement with them according to the list above. You will see GPRS and 3G is marked as "No"....so she should be able to use voice and SMS, but BBM and email will most likely not work.
 
Hey, I'm in South Korea atm. There are MANY networks available, from LG to Show to SK to T.

First things first, that Blackberry is useless. Your friend has two options:

1. Renting a phone for ₩1300 (R8.40) a day from SK Telecoms for the whole year and be able to use his SA number. Remember, roaming charges are hell expensive. If he wants this, there are only two places he can do this, one in Jongo in Seoul or the airport.
There are MANY networks available, from LG to Show to SK to T.

2. Buying a second hand phone and activating a prepaid account for a year. Make sure you bring your passport, ID is not enough. Make sure he can provide an adress, credit details etc. Now this is very important, once you buy a phone, you're stuck with the network it logo'd with. For example, if you are with T Mobile, your phone will say T Mobile and you are not able to get a phone number activated at LG or Show even though its a Samsung model, it doesn't matter. IF you get an LG logo'd phone, you can only activate at LG. Phones go from ₩30000 for basic models to beyond for higher end. I bought a decent touch screen one for ₩80000. Make sure you get a charger. I'm with Show, I pay ₩6000 per month and get billed ₩1.8 per second use.

Don't bother getting a new phone, its a bloody mission for non Koreans. Also, make sure the person who activates the phone for you changes the phone completly to English before you leave. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

For a first world country with the worlds fastest internet, never in my life has it ever been so difficult for me to get a number :O
 
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