Buying a Cell Phone in Ecuador | Travel Tech - Lonely Planet Forum

ONLINE

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:27:26 +0000

My US cell phone with local SIM was stolen in Quito. Cut out of my pocket on a crowded bus. I now need to buy another one. After Ecuador will be going to Argentina & Chile (then NZ & Oz).

Am I correct in assuming that any cell phone I buy in Ecuador will also work in Argentina & Chile (if not NZ & Oz - if I even get that far without it being stolen).

If you know about buying cell phones in Ecuador (cost, whether they will work in Argentian & Chile, etc) any advice would be appreciated. I am aware that I will have to get a SIM for each country. Thanks in advance.

ONLINE

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:57:46 +0000

As long as you buy a cell phone that is quadband it should work pretty much anywhere around the world.

To answer your question directly, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador all use the same 2 frequencies for the cell phone service so any dualband phones you buy in Ecuador will work in the 3 countries above but it will not work in NZ or Oz as these 2 countries are on different frequencies to Aregentina/Ecuador/Chile.

If you can afford it, a quadband phone is the way to go.

Good luck!

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ONLINE

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:17:02 +0000

With all the thievery in Ecuador I would think it would be easy to get anything second-hand. No sense investing in quality, as your next (phone/camera/etc) may be stolen as well.

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ONLINE

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:55:55 +0000

What may help prevent those slashing thieves? Check out www.pacsafe.com for their range of thieft deterrent bags.
I have a couple of these (for various occasions) and have never had any thing cut or stolen out of them. Just extra piece of mind.

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