Anyone Use Their Droid in Europe?

[EuropeBound]

Hello, I did a search and went through a few threads, but couldn't find a definite answer to my question.

I'm in the States, but traveling to London, Amsterdam, and Paris for a couple weeks next month.

I realize you can't make calls and use 3g, however, I'm wondering if I can connect to wifi over there to use the internet?

I'm looking for responses from people who have actually tried, not assumptions.

Thanks!!

 

[navdoc1110]

use overseas

I have used the skype application oversease via wifi and there is no problem making skype to skype calls

 

[EuropeBound]

hey thanks for the input.

so i guess that answers my question with wifi.

just wanted to make sure the wifi worked ok over there.

im not too concerned with calling people...i just want to use the droid to check my email and update facebook

if anyone can recommend an electrical outlet converter, that would be great too!

thanks again.

 

[dfunction]

hi navdoc1110:

did you test the gps in europe?

thanks

 

[wfholcom]

Droid in Europe

I used it in Costa Rica on Wifi but didn't try a Skype call. Wifi worked fine for e-mail and all other web uses. Navigation did not work.

Costa Rica is GSM only with no CDMA.

Google came up in Spanish, it knew where i was, and i could switch to English.

 

[Sam]

Para ingles, regresa a los estado unidos. Lol

 

[dfunction]

Was in Italy

Hey all:

Just a follow up, I was in Italy and not able to use the GPS on the Droid (bummer!).

-d

 

[jlghertner]

travel to canada

as I approached the inspection station crossing in the Thousand Islands in Upstate NY to Canada, all GPS signal and navigation stopped dead, no maps, no nothing.

roaming charges for the few days cost me $45 and lost trying to get through Montreal.

Wifi worked great but no internet with cell service.

 

[lukesamuels2010]

when I'm in Europe I use skype. I put in my credit card so I can call phones in america and its only like 2 cnts a minute. Wifi is a good thing. I wish you could put a sim card in a droid. You would think since Vodafone owns verizon that they would want that.

I was told that Europe has more wifi available than the states. I have spent so much time there and found that to be not true. Many placees make you pay.

For an adapter I would just get the adapter, I don't think you need a big one that converts the power since most chargers have them built in. (I may be totally wrong)

 

[Droid- DC]

I’m about to go to Europe too, made maps for Orux (an offline capable GPS map application), and after some research realized I wasted my time, and that it won’t work with the Droid in Europe for the following reason:

Most phones, as with the Droid, with "GPS" in fact use A-GPS technology. The "A" stands for assisted, and means that the phone relies on the network for help in determining location. Although the phone does receive GPS signals directly from the satellites, it can't determine actual location without help from the cell network.

gpsOne is a position location technology developed by SnapTrack, a subsidiary of Qualcomm. GpsOne is an A-GPS technology, meaning it uses GPS satellites in conjunction with land-based stations (towers) to determine a phone’s location.

Phones with gpsOne can receive raw signals directly from GPS satellites, but require a live connection to a network-based location server to do so. The location server helps the phone find the correct satellites. The location server also processes the raw signals and makes the final calculations that determine location.

gpsOne is integrated into most Qualcomm CDMA chipsets, and is the position location technology used by most CDMA carriers.

From the sounds of it, the only way the Droid's GPS would work in Europe is if it had a Standalone (autonomous) GPS reciever (like a Garmin or TomTom does) or had International GSM roaming. Sadly it does not have either of those, and therefore the GPS will not work outside of the Verizon/CDMA network (800/1900 MHz).

Read more GPS vs. A-GPS: A Quick Tutorial: http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/gps_vs_agps_a_quick_tutorial.html

 

[Project37]

Droid-DC, thanks for a very helpful and informative post. And your first one, at that!

We're off to Europe later this year, so it's nice to know the realities of Droid's usability. Still, it's clearly a great "netbook" to have for e-mail, web, etc. The Skype feature is a nice perk that will most likely get some use.

 

[Droid- DC]

You're welcome, hopefully it will be helpful to others as well who were curious like myself. I usually use cheap local prepaid SIMs in unlocked GSM phones when overseas, but will look into the Skype option, sounds like it works well!

Cheers!

 

[GOON]

i use my droid in africa puerto rico and japan.

 

[Droid- DC]

i use my droid in africa puerto rico and japan.

Goon,

What capabilities were you able to use in Africa & Japan?

Verizon has coverage in Puerto Rico, so no surprise there.

I know Africa & Japan also have some CDMA networks (unlike Europe) but I didn’t know Verizon roams there.

As I said before, theoretically if there is a CDMA network present, then the A-GPS could work if the phone can communicate with the towers. There are no CDMA networks in Europe though, but there are some throughout other continents, like Africa and Asia.

Global CDMA Map: CDG : Worldwide : Worldwide

 

[christim]

Excellent reply, thanks. I was in Europe last fall and figured GPS didn't work because I had no offline maps. This explains it perfectly.