Droid Turbo work in Philippines? Unlock or Not for access to 4GLTE with local sim

[Adam Derbyshire]

My brother works for verizon. im getting a droid turbo (employee edition) if that matters. Im also going to manila for a month or 2 soon. Im not interested in roaming or anything verizon offers. Im planning on getting a lte sim card out there and am wondering if I need to unlock my phone for the lte to work.

From my understanding I can use a local sim and have voice/sms fine without unlocking but what about data? I'd be ok with 3G.

The local carriers (Smart LTE uses 2100Mhz, 1800Mhz and 850MHz bands) and (Globe uses 1800mhz, 2500 and 2600).

my droid turbo says
2G Network-GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
CDMA 800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
4G Network LTE 700 / 1700 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 (Bands 2, 3, 4, 7, 13)

My question is what local carrier is best for at least 3G and do I have to have my droid turbo unlocked prior to going there to access at least 3G?

unlocking obviously voids the warranty when i get back. thanks

 

[doogald]

As far as I know, there is nothing to unlock. All Verizon global phones are not SIM-locked and you should be able to put any SIM that supports the GSM bands. I'm not sure about what's best in the Philippines, though.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Droid Turbo work overseas out of the box with local 4GLTE sim? Unlock or not unlock? Manila

Yes you have to have it unlocked (here, by Verizon, which they should do if you're going overseas). No, it won't void the warranty.

Which carrier? It depends on which frequencies which carrier is using on the towers you'll be using. What you really want is a phone that does 4G on 850, 1800, 2100, 2500 and 2600. Unless you contact someone in networking at the carriers in question to find out what they use where, the best you can get is a wild guess. Smart would probably give you the best shot, but you still might find yourself in 2G data areas.