Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Butterfly]

Does anyone know why the HELL, almost every one of my friends in different countries can send SMS messages to each other, (UK to New Zealand for example) but I can't receive or send any in Korea? It really pisses me off.

And is this likely to change any time soon before I buy a new cellular phone?

Anyone?

[casinoman]

Not quite sure about this Butterfly as I am not a techie. I do know that pretty much everywhere in the world is on a standard known as GSM except North America, Japan and Korea which are on CDMA. While it is possible to make calls from one system to the next this may not be true for text messeges (not sure about this at all). What I do know is that the GSM standard seems to be a lot more convenient because when you travel from one country to another you can buy a local "SIM card" to use in your phone and then use prepaid calling cards for long distance calls. When you go to another country another SIM card can be used and your phone is good to go. With CDMA standard phones it seems that you have to actually sign up with a telephone company to get service. These phones also seem to have some sort of pre-programmed software that only allows them to be used with a specific telephone company. I don't know how this will affect your new phone purchase but when I was inquiring about this in Canada, I was told that in order to get a phone where I could get service in Korea and also use in countries on the GSM standard, I would have to get a tri-band phone and also get it "unlocked" (basically get rid of the pre-programmed software). I still don't think this would allow you to send SMS messeges from Korea to another country. I couldn't send/receive SMS to/from Canada when I was in Korea even though both countries are on the CDMA standard. Hope this helps.

[Butterfly]

Interesting, thanks Casino Man.