How do I know if my mobile will work in the countries I am travelling to?

Quick Version

• Most of the world (including New Zealand) uses GSM 900 / GSM 1800.
• This means that if your phone works in New Zealand, it will work almost anywhere (some exceptions for old Telecom handsets).
• USA and the Americas
  • You will need a Quad band phone (you may get away with a Tri-band, but it won't be as good)
• Japan and South Korea
  • You will need a 3G phone that uses WCDMA

General Guide

Step 1

Work out which frequencies your mobile phone handset can use.

• Mobile handsets can work with any combination of four GSM frequency bands and two 3G frequency bands
• Look at the TravelSIM Country List page
• The network type will be GSM900 / GSM1800/ GSM1900 / GSM850 or some combination of these
• Japan and South Korea are WCDMA

Step 2

Work out what frequencies are used by the mobile phone networks in the countries you are travelling to.

• Search Google for Make and Model specification (e.g. Nokia 6230i specification)
• See here for more info on this topic

Step 3

Your phone must work on the same frequency(s) as the country(s) you will be travelling to.