mobile phone

We will be visiting Ecuador early next year for about six weeks and would like to keep in touch with family in Australia, mainly through SMS.
My domestic ISP is the Three network and I have a quad band LG mobile phone, which I understand would be usable in USA and am hoping would be OK in Ecuador. Does anyone know if my mobile would be usable? I guess I may need to purchase a local SIM card. Perhaps it is easier to buy a local mobile phone complete with SIM card ? Hope someone can advise or suggest.

matthei

Hello
My mobile phone worked in Peru and Chile, but not in Ecuador, but I only have a tri band phone. When I went into my phone shop before departure, they put my phone onto international roaming but said I would need a quad band phone for Ecuador - so if you have one of these you may be fine. Watch the costs for voice calls though - it is pretty pricey to call back to Australia! You might be better off buying a phone card or something to get a cheaper rate, or finding an internet cafe or cabina that has reasonable rates.

i had the same prob, only having a tri band phone. they only use one GSM band in Ecuador which is unusual. Most places use 2, which gives more chances to work. Im not sure which band they use, but i had a Siemans A70 - look up the bands on the Siemans website, see which one it doesnt have, and then see if you have the 'missing' band on your phone. If you do it will work. Best to buy a local SIM card. Very easy yo get hold of. Unless of course you have cheap messages via roaming on your existing contract.

best wishes

Michael

Doh! Just seen you have a quad band. It will work. U just need to decide about the SIM card. For six weeks i would get a local card. they are very easy to get hold off.

To be able to use your phone with a local provider in Ecuador it must be unlocked. Yours, being a quad-band phone, covers the 850 Mhz band needed in Ecuador.

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

Quad band will work fine in Ecuador as will CDMA I think. Yes unfortunately the US advised Ecuador to go with 850 GSM as they have it in some parts of the US. It's not used by many countries around the world these days and I believe they will eventually get around to changing to another band of GSM as well. Make sure your phone is unlocked and get a local SIM card. Porta has a larger reception area than Moviestar which is handy if you are in the country and want to make a call. Costs are much the same for the two of them. If you use your Aussie SIM card as I did I used Vodafone with a Porta reception as I had bought a triband (850, 1800,1900 GSM) when there last year with a prepaid Porta SIM card but found my Vodafone worked there earlier this year on a trip to Ecuador and used that but all the calls go via Australia so cost more. I found I had reception in many areas when my Moviestar friends didn't and the strange thing was I was on the Vodafone network as well as having Porta reception.