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Panasonic FOMA P900iV work in Canada? 2005/9/22 14:58
Hi all. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I'm very interested in the Panasonic FOMA P900iV cellular phone. I'm not sure if this phone will work here. If someone knows anything about this, please reply, thanks!

The mobile services here are Telus, Fido, and Rogers AT&T.
by Jimmy Heng  

. 2005/9/23 21:35
No. Most FOMA phones including P900iV are W-CDMA only.
by meringue4 rate this post as useful

Australia? 2005/9/29 19:27
Does the Panasonic FOMA P900iV work in Australia?
We Have Vodafone, 3 and many more
by Aussie rate this post as useful

England 2005/11/5 02:52
forget austrailia will it work in england? were like the stone age of phones.
by Dust rate this post as useful

FOMA in OZ 2005/11/5 21:53
Hey all,

I work for a major telco in Australia and on of the tech guys gave me this answer to an initial enquiry I made. Got one of the orange P900iV and wanted to get it going...

"If the handset uses the protocols setout by the UMTS standard (ie runs on frequency range 1900 - 2100 mhz) it should work, however as optus stands we would not be able to support it, same as all overseas and unsupport handset support we currently offer.

Best to go to spec site for handset to see if it will work on UMTS networks via WCDMA. We have not done any testing with overseas handsets."

I have stuck a '3' SIM card in it and no luck. Phone says 'Unrecognised UIM'. They have a slightly different SIm I think. Still researching that one.

I then checked out Wikipedia and found the following interesting info;

On W-CDMA
History

W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards. Later, W-CDMA was selected as the air interface for UMTS, the 3G successor to GSM.

mplementations

The world's first commercial W-CDMA service, FOMA, was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 2001. FOMA is not compatible with UMTS. But the effort for migrating the FOMA specifications to UMTS are indicated by Japan.

Technology

W-CDMA may use unpaired or paired spectrum, though the current implementations of W-CDMA (i.e. FOMA and UMTS) all use a pair of 5MHz spectrum, one for uplink and one for downlink. See Spread spectrum for more information. FOMA uses 16 slots per radio frame, where as UMTS uses 15 slots per radio frame.

On UTMS

Technology

Note: Most of the underlying technological aspects of UMTS are common among all W-CDMA variants. Please see W-CDMA for more info. The followings are some technical information specific to UMTS, not shared by FOMA or other W-CDMA implementations.
Technically speaking, W-CDMA (as per the definition of IMT2000) is merely the air interface, while UMTS is the complete stack of communication protocols designated for 3G global mobile telecommunications and as a direct successor to GSM. However, W-CDMA is frequently used as a general, umbrella term to collectively refer to the family of 3G standards that uses W-CDMA as its air interface, that includes UMTS, FOMA and J-Phone.

Like other real-world W-CDMA implementations, UMTS uses a pair of 5 MHz channels, one in the 1900 MHz range for uplink and one in the 2100 MHz range for downlink.

The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 1885-2025 MHz for uplink and 2110-2200 MHz for downlink.

NTT DoCoMo's 3G network, FOMA, was the first commercial network using W-CDMA since 2002. The first W-CDMA version used by NTT DoCoMo was incompatible with the UMTS standard at the radio level, however USIM cards used by FOMA phones are compatible with GSM phones, so that USIM card based roaming is possible from Japan to GSM areas without any problem. Today the NTT DoCoMo network - as well as all the W-CDMA networks in the world - use the standard version of UMTS, allowing potential global roaming. Whether and under which conditions roaming can actually be used by subscribers depends on the commercial agreements between operators.

For more UTMS info check out this link -
http://www.umtsworld.com/umts/faq.htm

and then on FOMA it had;

FOMA, officially short for Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access, is the brand name for the 3G services being offered by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

FOMA was the world's first W-CDMA 3G service when launched in 2001. FOMA is compatible with standard UMTS, both via the radio link as well as via USIM card exchange, and hence provides several alternative options for global roaming: either with or without change of handset. Since mobile services in Japan are generally more advanced than in most other countries, e.g. FeliCa-i-Mode Wallet Phones, i-Mode mobile data services etc, to obtain full benefit of FOMA services local Japanese handsets are used.

Initially - as the first full-scale 3G service in the world - FOMA handsets were of experimental character targeting early adopters, and were big, had poor battery life and the network covered the center of Japan's largest towns only. For the first 1-2 years, FOMA was essentially an experimental service for early adopters - mainly communication industry professionals.

Around March 2004, with almost full national coverage including subway stations and the inside of most major buildings, and with the introduction of DoCoMo's 900i series of handsets, FOMA achieved the breakthrough into mass sales, and sales soared. As of summer 2005, FOMA has almost 15 million subscribers and is the fastest growing cellphone network in Japan.

That's about all the info I have pieced together so far. Hope it helps. I am still researching and will try and keep posted. Please let me know of any other useful info you find.

Cheers from down under,

The BFG
by The BFG rate this post as useful

. 2005/11/5 23:59
I have stuck a '3' SIM card in it and no luck. Phone says 'Unrecognised UIM'. They have a slightly different SIm I think. Still researching that one.

All FOMA phones are SIM locked. You can't use your local SIM.
by meringue4 rate this post as useful

Ok So.. 2005/11/7 00:03
ok so FOMA phones are sim locked how do we go about unlocking them, its gotta b possible.
by Dust rate this post as useful

P900iv FR 2005/12/14 23:29
Hi all,
the "P900iv" is it compatible in France ??
by Kevin rate this post as useful

P900iV should work UK.... 2006/1/11 20:29
I hear that UMTS and the W-CDMA are both standard for 3G in UK as well as Japan. Also with release of i-mode on 02 in UK, then the phone is even more so compatible. Therefore, should it not be easy to make the phone work? I hope, because I just begin study in UK and the P900iV was bought for me to take.
by Mirai Kiyonari rate this post as useful

. 2006/1/17 08:30
Most FOMA phones are not guaranteed to work with foreign W-CDMA networks.

Even if P900iV does work in a foreign country, nobody has succeeded in unlocking it so you have to use it with a DoCoMo contract and expensive int'l roaming fee.
by meringue4 rate this post as useful

P900iv Will Work In The UK 2006/3/12 19:44
Hi, ive read everything people have written, and i know the solution to the P900iV and it will work on international networks aslong as the network has W-CDMA Roaming abilities, the japanese brought out a R-UIM card (Removable User Identity Module) which was made for the modern foma phones due to the security of the phone, In japan their phones are locked to the person who uses it so every last little bit of information about a user is stored on the UIM card, if you research www.docomo.com and look on all the different phones you can find out lots of information about what their phones are like. anyway the point is if you can get a UIM card imported from Japan and have all your details imprinted in the UIM then you can set up a roaming contract with FOMA its not cheap but the conversion should help

well if anyone else has more information about this phone and about UIM cards please e-mail me as im still looking into the phone myself

regards,
Dan
by Dan Still rate this post as useful

Forgot My Email Address 2006/3/12 19:45
sorry my email is danstill2@yahoo.co.uk
by Dan Still rate this post as useful

P900iv will it work in USA Florida? 2006/4/28 08:56
im extremly interested in the P900iv is there anyway that it can work in Florida, if not then can anyone tell me a phone that is similar to the P900iv tat will work in Florida?
by S-Won rate this post as useful

question with foma p900iv 2006/6/7 11:10
Hi all,
the "P900iv" is it compatible in vietnam?
can unlock in here?

by hoa dai nhan rate this post as useful

Is it possible to use in the USA? 2006/7/28 20:53
I want this phone but I am from America so I cannot buy it, how can I express my love for Final Fantasy without the phone. i want this phone so bad. It is unbearable, I refuse to use any other phone but the P900iv. I love that phone with a passion do you do understand! Let me share this phone with the world. Long Live Final Fantasy.
by Cuong Trinh rate this post as useful

is it usable in the USA? 2006/8/28 10:46
does this phone work in the usa or not? if its locked can it be unlocked?
by rich rate this post as useful

Unlocking 2006/8/30 07:45
All FOMA phones are locked to NTT. Only NTT can issue unlocking code, and I don't know how readily they do that. Also all new FOMA phones are only sold with contract, so impossible to get without residence in Japan. Used phones sometimes find their way on to the market, usually online but also in some shops. Most are still locked to NTT.
If you can get a recent unlocked FOMA phone, there's no reason why it shouldn't work abroad with any sim card on compatible 3G service - virtually anywhere except South Korea.
by Alec rate this post as useful

Won't work 2006/9/12 21:12
Phones here are so customised that it won't unlock. Docomo does this on purpose, so it won't work.

There used to be some Vodafone Japan phones that can be unlocked. But its getting pointless now, the newest phones include digital TV that is Japan spec only.

Also as Vodfone becomes Softbank Mobile, they have started to talk about 2year contract commitments and further customisation to their phones. i.e. it will be very carrier centric.
by P900iV rate this post as useful

Unlocking one 2006/12/6 12:16
I found a way to unluck it to get into the software and have a fully functional transfer but im in north america so we use differnt frequency than foma they use 2 frequencies at once one for up link one for downlink so its no good anyway
by Denis rate this post as useful

how do you do it? 2007/1/5 10:04
Denis i read your message and im planning to get the phone and im from north america and i need to know how to unlock it can you tell me?
by mondo rate this post as useful

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