Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
Nokia was making multi-region/mulitband phones before Apple or Google made any phones. But Apple's first iPhone was CDMA or GSM, thus USA model didn't work elsewhere and Europe model didn't work in USA, though the Europe Nokia models might only have worked on USA non-CDMA operators (there was GSM and 3G in USA too in 2007)
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The original iPhone was GSM only, it wasn't until Apple started supplying iPhones through Verizon/Sprint/etc. that used CDMA, that the CDMA models were available.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
There is now considerable overlap even without a phone having multiple country specific bands as the old Nokia phones had. When the Apple iPhone first arrived in Europe it had GSM (900 & 1800 MHz back then, much has migrated to 3G/UMTS or 4G) but no 3G (then 2100 MHz only).
Some countries in Europe have replaced 3G/UMTS with 4G, but kept some 900 MHz GSM (smart meters, but works on phones). The 1800 went from GSM -> 3G -> 4G.
The 5G is mostly irrelevant except in stadiums, racecourses etc.
So since demise of CDMA (USA 2G) and much GSM (Europe 2G) and most 3G, most phones work worldwide. or the same model is used worldwide, but enabled feature change per operator
The available WiFi channels will vary with what region you set it to.
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For what it may be worth, most cellphone manufacturers seem to keep the costs down by using chipsets which match the bands in use in the destination country. There have been phones with chipsets that will work over multiple national sets of bands but at least for the one manufacturer whose product line I was somewhat familiar with, the "universal" phone was more expensive which was blamed on the chipset being more expensive.
As for 5G being only relevant at racecourses, stadiums, etc.? Sitting at home and turning off the WiFi, my phone labels the connection as 5G+ (3500MHz band, 5G SA). If I felt like steaming HD+ video over cellular, that would, in theory, allow me a faster and more reliable connection with fewer congestion issue. Of course, it would also eat into my data cap like it was a freebie.