Nokia E61 - Roaming Around The World
After 16 days, 7 countries and countless of miles travelled I am finally back home! My preparation for the trip paid off - I had plenty of battery power throughout the trip. However, I wish I would have listened to the comments of the original posting and loaded up on WorldMate! As much as I like the application I just can't believe I forgot to install it. It would have been an indispensable tool on the trip.
I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to roam from country to country and network to network and still get very good reception and uninterrupted data service. I got great coverage and speed in locations I would not have expected to - Vietnam for an example.
My biggest surprise was that the Nokia E61 worked excellent in Japan - something I didn't know.
Of course, all this roaming comes with a very steep price - Cingular charges $4.99 per minute while in Vietnam. Needless to say I kept the usage to a minimum!
October 22nd, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Having travelled the world with my GSM phone, I am not surprised you had a good experience with coverage and data especially with a UMTS capable E61! - America - land of the free and home of bad cellular (Blame the FCC which did not place a geographic requirement for coverage as a condition of license and operators for designing networks for ‘in-car’ coverage instead of in-building to save money) Of course, we do have a lot of geography here compared to many more densely populated countries…
October 22nd, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Much recognized. It seems Asia leaps compared to Europe and esp the US. Japan is not comparable, and in terms of mobile devices a completely different market than any other in the world.
October 22nd, 2006 at 6:25 pm
How was the pho in Vietnam? I bet you probably had to order two of them because the portions are smaller than the ones in the US. You have to try the pho here in the DC area if you are ever here.
October 22nd, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Hi Tu,
The Pho alone was worth the trip to Vietnam - absolutely delicious. You’re right about the size. It’s quite smaller but that’s OK. It leaves you wanting more
Never been to the DC area but it is on my list. When I do get the chance I’ll remember to try out the Pho.
Cheers
ED
October 22nd, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Very nice pics. Makes me miss the motherland when I see the pics of the Petronas Towers.
October 22nd, 2006 at 8:35 pm
U made a stop in Malaysia… but wrong season due to haze from neighbouring countries.
October 22nd, 2006 at 11:07 pm
My e61 worked great on my recent trip , you got any chance to experience free hotspots anywhere mine worked like a charm at Kualalumpur airport , all the starbucks and Coffee Bean outlets in Penang and KL and at Bangkok international airport outside business class lounge , free internet ahh the blessing of technology
October 22nd, 2006 at 11:51 pm
The KLIA (KL International Airport) has full WiFi coverage for FREE. Previously, it is only confined to the departure halls. Now, it’s everywhere including the washrooms.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:03 am
Hi,
I recently travelled to Italy, France, UK and US on business trip, and my e 61 was a perfect mate to keep me in my business mainstream through its seamless push email (mail for exchange).
I simply love it…
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:46 am
Thanks for sharing your experience. I was actually about to change my current E61 to some other gadgets available. But with your reminder of the readily available hotspots in Asia, i am thinking twice again as i will be heading for that region soon. Unlike here in Melbourne, there is not much free hotspots around. I just use the Wifi at home. This is a great blog btw. Thanks for sharing.
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 am
Hey Ed,
Didn’t know you were stopping by Kuala Lumpur. Would’ve bought you a cup of coffee while you were in town to thank you for a great blog!
Next time then… but that’ll have to be in Sydney, Australia! :p
Cheers!
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:53 am
Hey, I see that you went to Kuala Lumpur. My wife and I are planning to go there next week. Was wondering if the haze was something to be concerned about? I have been tracking the haze through surfing sites on my E61 and so far the only data i can get is that it is moderate. I dont know what that means but how did you fair in Kuala Lumpur?:)
**Posted through Nokia E61**
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:31 am
Mark charles,
You better wait until December to come to M’sia. weather reports say the monsoon rain would only come fast and furious to blow away the haze by late November.
on a diff note ………..
was in amsterdam, stayed at Radisson hotel near schipol….they offer guests free wireless broadband.. it was sweet…with images and text popping up like chicken pox on my e61.
surprisingly, the zurich airport wifi kept crashing the nokia browser and restarting the phone.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:42 am
Hi Guys,
Mark - I didn’t notice much of the haze. It’s not something I would worry about. I really, reallly liked Kuala Lumpur. It’s such a diverse and exciting place. So much energy and hope! People were really friendly too, I will definetely come back to KL.
Andrew - I’m sorry I missed the opportunity to meet. I’m always up for spending some geeky time over a cup of coffee
Elisha - Petronas Towers were very impressive. I like the fact that entrance to the sky bridge was free - a nice touch.
Cheers
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Entrance to the skybridge is free? Thats not fair. Last time I was there was in 1998 and they would not let us up any of the towers without a pass.
Hopefully I can make it back next year and try again. For those who have Asthma or Bronchitis, the haze is not good for you. I remember when I was in Elementary school they even gave use some kind of face masks like the ones in hospitals to wear when we had some bad haze during the burning forests in Indonesia.
I always had difficulty breathing when there is prolonged haze due to the fact that i had Bronchitis since I was young.
October 29th, 2006 at 2:21 am
hi
visit the Philippines soon in your travels…we have 7,107 islands to hop around…enjoy the culture,food..best dive sites..
and a lot of E61 users to make friends with.your blog rocks..
thank you and MABUHAY
November 4th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Okay, I’m in London and my E61 is not connecting. I’m with Optus back home and they have network agreements with the usual players here. The network settings on my phone are okay. Being the weekend I cannot raise anyone at Optus or Nokia to assist. Ugh! mark@towersystems.com.au
November 4th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Hi Ranz,
I would love to visit the Philipines. It’s on my list!
Thanks!
November 4th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Hi Mark,
Have you tried to select another “roaming partner”? You can set up the device to let you manually choose the carrier. That might solve your connection problems.
Ed
November 5th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
I was checking out the “Catalogs” application in Tools for complimentary and trial applications (for download) and came across “Birdstep Mobile IP” which is described at http://www.smartroaming.com. It “keeps your Nokia applications connected while you are on the move.. that constantly monitors your network connections and makes sure that you are always using the best one.” Has anyone looked into this to see if it actually helps?
November 14th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
A quick clarification — you were traveling with a unlocked E61 (imported) and a Cingular SIM, right? How is the data rate in the US with Cingular? Edge or UMTS speed?
Thanks!
November 14th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
Hi Wario,
That is correct. The speed outside the US is great! because you can take advantage of UMTS. However, in the US you have to rely on edge because Cingular uses a different Mhz than the one Nokia E61 supports.
November 15th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Thanks for the reply. So basically, you would get the same results with either T-Mo or Cingular in the US (both Edge) and UMTS internationally with whomever they partner with. Have you tried the VOIP feature yet, either domestically or while traveling?
November 15th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Hi!
Cingular is giving 3G in my area but only on thier LG phone and not even E62. I sometimes see 3G showing on my E61 even when I don’t have signals, like the metro. I assume for some reason its picking up CDMA signals from VZ wireless and thinking its 3G.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:07 am
Hi, i have been roaming with my E61 in Japan and HK, before I set out I had all of my appointments in my calender synced with Ical on a mac, when I landed in Japan, the auto network operator time kicked in to put me on the right zone, this then shifted all of my meetings to that zone so the times were all out, turning the auto network update off didn’t fix this, how do you stop the calender/meeting times changing?? big pain in the ass from a ’smart’ phone.
December 20th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I was in Japan last month. I wasnt sure if my E61 would even work there since it was not on the approved list of telco.
It worked quite well except that I could not send any text messages, which I believe is a quirk from the fact that we are GSM in the Philippines and Japan uses WCDMA.
I brought my phone anyway because I feel totally bereft without the ebooks stored inside. Mobipocket works wonders and I can bring the equivalent of an entire shelf of books with me wherever I go!
January 21st, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Has anyone used their E61 in Japan with a U.S. t-mobile sim card? I understand t-mobile has an agreement with a couple of Japanese carriers.