How to check if a phone can work abroad

If we are planning a trip abroad to a country such as Japan, China, the United States or India, doubts may arise as to whether our telephone will work properly, given that these countries use different technologies to connect to cellular network.

The same dilemma can arise in the case you want to buy an imported phone on an online shopwith the doubt that it does not work with the SIMs of Italian operators (it can only be used with the services of the country in which it is sold).

In the following guide we will show you in detail how to check if a phone can work abroad and, by the transitive property, whether an import foreign phone can work well in Italy smoothly (for calls and for the Internet connection).

READ ALSO -> How to surf the Internet abroad for free (or almost)

1) Technologies and frequencies used in Italy

In Italy the following technologies are used for calls on the mobile network and for the Internet connection on the cellular network:

• 900 MHz GSM, GPRS, EDGE
• 900/2100 MHz UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+
• 700/800/900/1500/1800/2100/2600 MHz LTE, LTE-A
• 700/1800/3500/28000 MHz 5G NR

The frequency band it is essential to be able to use telephone operators and often they do not coincide with other foreign countries, which can also use different technologies not available in Italy.

For further information, we can read our guide to all internet connection types explained.

2) Technologies and frequencies used abroad

To understand the difference, here are the technologies and operating frequencies in the United States:

• GSM 1900 MHz (GPRS, EDGE)
• LTE, LTE-A 600 MHz (71), 700 MHz (12), 850 MHz (5), 1700/2100 MHz (4,66), 1900 MHz (2,25), 2500 MHz (41)
• 5G NR 600 MHz (n71), 1900 MHz (n25), 1700/2100 MHz (n66), 2.5 GHz (n41), 26 GHz (n258), 39 GHz (n260), 28 GHz (n261)

Not all frequencies coincide, often leading to an Italian phone not working properly on US roaming networks. Another example can be given by observing the technologies and frequencies of a country like China (where cheap imported phones often come from):

• GSM-900/1800 (GPRS, EDGE)
• 850/2100 MHz CDMA2000 1xRTT EV-DO Rev 0, Rev A
• 2100(B1)/1800(B3)/900(B8) LTE
• 1900(B39)/2300(B40)/2600(B38,B41) MHz TD-LTE
• 700 MHz(N28)/2.6 GHz(N41)/4.7 GHz(N79) 5G NR

In China, a phone for the European market may not work at all, while in the United States a lot depends on the operator we connect to when roaming. As a result, a Chinese phone may not work in LTE or 5G in Italy and the United States.

Per discover the technologies and frequencies of any country in the world we can rely on a site like Wikipedia, where we find everything well explained and within comfortable tables for each continent:

• Europa
• Central Asia and Africa
• Asia and the Pacific
• Americas

Since the Wikipedia pages that we can use as a reference are in English, we can quickly translate them by reading our article on how to read any site or web page translated into Italian.

3) Find out if a phone can work abroad

If you are not sure about the characteristics of your phone or have doubts about buying an imported Chinese phone, we can do some quick research on the site GSMArena to find the complete card with all the frequencies in which it works and the technologies supported by every telephone on the market in the world.

If we are looking for a phone that has various versions (EU version and China version for example), we are only looking for information on the version we are about to buy or need to use at the moment, so as not to run into any bad surprises after arriving in China or after bought a phone on Aliexpress.

As an alternative to GSMArena we can also use the site Will My Phone Work it is possible to indicate the make and model of the telephone and then the country where you want check if it works to know, for sure, if it’s good or not.

Conclusions

With all the information in this article we will be able to understand immediately that a telephone works abroad or if an imported telephone will work once it arrives in Italy. If your phone doesn’t work abroad, that’s a big problembut we can always fix that with a good Wi-Fi connection, so we can unlimited free calls.

If we are looking for an imported phone, let’s try to buy it on Amazon, so as to benefit from the Amazon guarantee, which reimburses the money spent within two years.

To learn more, we can read our guides to Abroad tariffs from WindTre, TIM, Vodafone mobile phones come on how to save money with your mobile abroad outside Italy and on holiday.

If, on the other hand, we have doubts about Chinese phones we can continue reading on our ai articles best chinese smartphones by price range and at best chinese brands of smartphones.