Imagine a Sanyo 8400 class CDMA phone also with GSM/EDGE

[tkrandall]

for roaming outside the states. Would that not be sweet? I wich Sprint would come out with some middle-road phones with such world capability.

[rossfuz]

Wirelessly posted (palm treo 700p: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

why who want edge gsm maybee edge is way slow

[Gibsohnn]

Edge is pathetic. No one wants EDGE, or at least not anyone who has a clue.

[tkrandall]

Ok, fine, EDGE is slow compared to EVDO. I was just trying to not be TOO wishful. The point of the thread and what I would like to see is middle of the road phones that would have voice and data capabilities for when you travel outside the states like to Europe. There has to be aa sizable market of existing or potential Sprint (and VZW, Alltel) customers who would like this capability.

[Sprint Know It All]

what sprint needs to do is focus on a few things right now. they dont need to worry about expanding outside of the states when the executives can't fix whats here at home first. we really need to get things settled here first.

[simulacrum]

Why wouldn't Sprint want to make roaming agreements with domestic GSM carriers, assuming that they deployed enough phones that were CDMA/GSM capable? Sure, only the voice services would be available while off of a CDMA network, but any phone that could roam on CDMA or GSM would pretty much be able to go anywhere and I'm sure there would be people willing to pay for that capability.

[mjnov]

Why would anyone want to pay those roaming charging? Everyone wants a GSM "World Phone" but the majority of the time when they find out what it will cost per minute they say forget it. And that is with any service provider, international roaming is not cheap. I say buy a prepaid phone when you get to where ever you plan on traveling. The majority of the time thats the cheapest option.

[will_z32]

just buy a cheap gsm nokia off ebay or a friend, when you get to foreigb soil purchase a prepaid sim, much cheaper

[Gibsohnn]

Ok, fine, EDGE is slow compared to EVDO

Whoa, still an understatement, but getting better, LOL. I don't think the market for this service is that much in demand or the product would already be there by at least ONE of these carriers.

[EliteABombAZ]

If you carried a Sanyo 8400-ish phone throughout Europe and Asia, people would point and laugh at you for having such an outdated design.

[Jonathanlc2005]

um no... how about not

[FloorMatt]

Well, it's not like this type of phone doesn't exist...(and on SPRINT)

Samsung IP-A790

And now the Samsung IP-830w

No need to imagine.......those phones were made for usage here, and GSM International Usage. :)

[Moogle]

GSM phones are already far more advanced than their CDMA counterparts ...

Just checkout a site like: http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/handsets/pay_monthly/all/all

You'll quickly see that the Europeans have far outpaced us on not only phone features, but also phone price too. (FREE Samsung D900? Wow.)

Frankly, I'm not all too worried about getting another phone to roam in Europe... Do you think I'd want to pay Sprint $1+/minute anyway? No! I'd get a prepaid SIM from Orange, O2, Vodafone, etc. if I were in the UK.

[plik]

(FREE Samsung D900? Wow.)

The difference is that people in the UK are willing to pay for their plans.

Right now, at Orange, you can get 660 anytime minutes, 75 texts, and free nights (7pm to midnight!) and weekends for the low, low price of £40. Which works out to roughly $74 in real money.

We're all paying the same amount for everything. The pricing is just shuffled around a bit.

[Moogle]

The difference is that people in the UK are willing to pay for their plans.

Right now, at Orange, you can get 660 anytime minutes, 75 texts, and free nights (7pm to midnight!) and weekends for the low, low price of £40. Which works out to roughly $74 in real money.

We're all paying the same amount for everything. The pricing is just shuffled around a bit.


Yes. That's 660 minutes with PER SECOND BILLING and FREE INCOMING CALLS.

And not only that, but the purchasing power parity of the £££ is very different from the US$. Right now in the United States the minimum wage is only $5.15, but in the UK the minimum wage is £5.35 (~$10!)

£40 really isn't a lot of money like $75 is... £40 in the minds of a Briton is something akin to $40 in the minds of an American.

[Maja]

And not only that, but the purchasing power parity of the £££ is very different from the US$. Right now in the United States the minimum wage is only $5.15, but in the UK the minimum wage is £5.35 (~$10!)

£40 really isn't a lot of money like $75 is... £40 in the minds of a Briton is something akin to $40 in the minds of an American.

While I agree they currently have a far better selection of models to choose from, I don't know that I can agree with your statement in regards to the British pound. I couldn't find values for 2006, so let's look at 2004/2005:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2006-07-25a.88641.h

The median income £18.100, which using http://www.x-rates.com/d/GBP/table.html to figure, that would equate to $33577.31. If I look at the average household income, for the same time, in the US (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States) I get $43,389. While I agree that the British pound, and the minimum wage, have the distinction of providing more buying power, one must also look at the costs of living (mainly housing) that exists. I used to live there, so I can attest to that.

I guess bottom line is, money is money. If minimum wage is £5.35, and the plan is £40, it still takes roughly 8 hours to pay for that bill. On the flip side, in the US, if you are making minimum wage and have a $75 monthly phone bill, you really need to reconsider your priorities. :)

Sorry, guess I was just bored and felt like doing the math.

But in the end, what the heck is your magic number? It is part of the plan.

[scotsboyuk]

Since I'm British I think I'll chrip in at this point. :p Most contract customers here are probably on tariffs in the £30-£40 per month region, these are fairly standard contracts. At the moment the networks are making a big push on 18 month contracts because there are more mobiles than people (literally) and basically everyone who can have a mobile has one. As such competition is very fierce as they have to hold onto their own customers and poach each others'. So what we have been seeing more and more are 18 month contracts that give you half price line rental for the first x number of months, and perhaps double minutes, etc. They are also doing this to a lesser extent with 12 month contracts I believe.

The upshot of all of this is that most Britons can take out a contract, have it half price for a while then reduce the tariff. They also get a free handset (just about every handset is free on contract). The networks are so desperate to retain customers that they are willing to give deals, which on the face of it cost them money. For example, last year I was offered a free W800i on a contract that would be around £5 per month, with so many off-peak minutes (evening and weekends) and £100 in cash.

Britain is a very expensive country to live in, especially London! £40 is not a huge amount of money here to be honest although at the same time it is not a trivial amount as a monthly outgoing. To put it in some perspective, a pint of Guinness is around £2 (£4-£5 in London).

Whilst I'm here I might as well tackle the wage issue too. :p The average income is around £18,000 I believe, however, we don't necessarily have the same expenditures that Americans have. For example, comparatively few people pay health insurance in Britain because most medical treatment is free at the point of use (funded by general taxation). We are actually one of the most heavily taxed First World countries; 80% of the cost of petrol is tax, 17.5% of the cost of one's mobile phone bill is tax; 40% of earnings above £33,000 is tax; if you leave more than £250,000 in a will 50% is taken in tax, etc. It's a wonder we have any money left for mobile phones!

[scotsboyuk]

If you carried a Sanyo 8400-ish phone throughout Europe and Asia, people would point and laugh at you for having such an outdated design.

Tell me what is a Sanyo 8400 is like and I'll tell you if I would point and laugh. :p