Live in the Philippines

Live in the Philippines helps expats with visas, moving and other services regarding the Philippines.

Will my cellphone work in the Philippines?

Communications / by

A short time back, Philip called me and asked if his cellular phone would work in the Philippines.

He told me that his network carrier in the United States is AT&T, and wondered if the phone would work in the Philippines.

Now, I am unsure. Does Philip mean will the phone itself work? In other words, can he put a local (Globe, Smart, etc) SIM in the phone and use it locally? Or, does he mean can he use the phone still on AT&T and can he roam on Philippine Networks? Well, it is hard to know exactly which of those he was asking, so I answered both questions in my video.

These days almost everybody has and uses a Celular Phone (well, except for Steve, he wrote a while back saying that he does not use a Cellphone!) This is a question I hear a lot from those who will be traveling to the Philippines, so it is good that Philip called in with this question, because I am sure a lot of people are wondering.

For my monologue this week, I have a surprise. Some information that many people will not be expecting. Listen in and find out what this is all about.

Can I use my Cellphone?

I hope this helps answer a question that a lot of people are always wondering about.

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Comments

  1. My recommendation is to get a Motorola G4 unlocked phone – cost in the US approx $180; Cost in the Philippines, about P11,000. The phone will work virtually anywhere in the world. I’ve yet to hear about a SIM card that won’t work with this phone.

      • A few years ago Lenovo purchased Motorola, so it’s really a Lenovo phone but keeps the Motorola brand. I have two – they are great and I’ve never had a problem. I am also partial to LG phones. My G2 is also a great phone, although it’s about 4 years old now.

  2. As for using a philippines simm in a cell phone, the only ones you can be sure will work without being unlocked are at&t ones, the others might or might not. Any carrier in the us or Canada will have a daily fee for your ‘home’ plan to work in the philippines. For us it runs 8 to 10 bucks a day. Worth it? Not to me, but up to the user. I leave my cell with a friend and he forwards it to my philip pines number once I havery one. Costs me less that way. If you are gonna unlock your cell to be sure a philippines simm will work, cheaper to do it BEFORE you travrl, also less chance the cell place will swap in Chinese parts while they have it.

    • On most phones now, doing an unlock doesn’t require parts, it is usually entering a code into the keypad, so the chance of Chinese parts on most phones now.

      Truth is, though.. most phones are made completely of Chinese parts. Even the ever praised iPhone is made in China.

  3. I have verizon I can receive and send regular phone calls in the Philippines
    As long as I have Wi-Fi conection for free

      • Here’s what happened
        I turned off my 4g in Philippines because of cost
        Then my phone was ringing anyway form my Verizon phone # text because I was on Wi-Fi this is a new feature

  4. Bob:

    With the amount of roaming that I do, I am pretty familiar with this topic.
    Pretty much any smart phone nowadays can operate on either GSM or CDMA. Back when I was based in the USA and roaming in the Philippines, that was not necessarily the case (Back then, a major benefit of Blackberry was that it could operate in either location).

    I tried doing the multiple SIM thing, and it was a mess, since I go to so many different countries. I currently spend between P30K and P40K per month with Globe. What kills you on the roaming, and is often a shock to many people, are the charges for data. An Iphone or Samsung that has the “Allow Data Roaming” set can really rack up some expensive data roaming charges very quickly, especially if apps start updating or something similar. If someone sends you a big PDF by email, it can get quite expensive, nevermind surfing or streaming video. The bill can be a shock… big time. I do not know if ATT has roaming packages similar to what I do with Globe (he needs to check with them), but Globe offers unlimited data in around 100 countries for around P600 per day. I enable the roaming with them and keep the costs down by using WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, etc. In fact, when I was recently in Australia, hotels there are notorious for small bandwidth limits on expensive wifi connections. It was actually far cheaper to roam with Globe and use a personal hotspot from my phone than to use the hotel’s wifi.

    Finally, at the Ever Commonwealth mall near my house (a “low end” mall), there are dozens of stalls where you can pick up a simple Nokia handset for around P700 (use a SIM in that)… for just making calls, throw it or give it away when you are done with it. You can also buy many cheap Cherry or Chinese basic smart phones for under P2000, or even used nicer smart phones for less than that.

    • CDMA is the old cellular technology it’s still used by Verizon in the US and parts of Spain and the Philippines. You know you have a CDMA phone whtn it doesn’t use a SIM card. CDMA doesn’t do data transfers and calls at the sane time. Data transfer is slower. You csn also buy phones that use CDMA and GSM at the sane time. AT&T works great in the Philippines but it can get expensive in roaming areas unless you turn it off. it’s just cheaper to buy a SIM card at the airport

    • when I first got here to central Mindanao 7 years ago I could buy a sim card fo 40p that I could call the USA for a mere 2p a minute. now I cant seem to find one? uncertain why.

    • CDMA is the old cellular technology it’s still used by Verizon in the US and parts of Spain and the Philippines. You know you have a CDMA phone whtn it doesn’t use a SIM card. CDMA doesn’t do data transfers and calls at the sane time. Data transfer is slower. You csn also buy phones that use CDMA and GSM at the sane time. AT&T works great in the Philippines but it can get expensive in roaming areas unless you turn it off. it’s just cheaper to buy a SIM card at the airport

    • when I first got here to central Mindanao 7 years ago I could buy a sim card fo 40p that I could call the USA for a mere 2p a minute. now I cant seem to find one? uncertain why.

  9. When I arrived, I had my phone permanently unlocked by a specialist friend of mine so that I could use it with any of the services. Most phones from the US are locked from the provider. Mine was with T-Mobile and when I asked for the code to do so they told me no. My wife got it taken care of for 200php. 🙂

  10. When I arrived, I had my phone permanently unlocked by a specialist friend of mine so that I could use it with any of the services. Most phones from the US are locked from the provider. Mine was with T-Mobile and when I asked for the code to do so they told me no. My wife got it taken care of for 200php. 🙂

  11. Sorry for bringing back an older article. I have been using Tmobile in the US for the past 5 years. They offer free text and data in 130 countries when travelling (calls are a reasonable $0.20 min…but I just use skype or wifi calling if I need it).

    It has worked really well for me in the PI as well as Japan, China, Hong Kong and Korea.

    I travel extensively for work in the Middle East and have had no issues in UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, or Egypt, however no service in Oman so far.

    They do say that they will cut off your service if the phone is mostly used out of the US during the year, but I gave my wife a Tmobile phone for the last four months she was in Cavite awaiting her visa and had no issues, and she takes it with her on her 60-90 day visits home.

    Hope it helps someone 🙂