yeah i think for 3g to work u need the international version... but for 4g i believe att and tmobile share a similar spectrum. so im not too sure. its probable something with his settings.
Simple mobile is an MVNO of Tmobile and their HSPA+ frequency is 1700Mhz and the Galaxy SII does not support, so that is why you are not getting 3G or 3.5G speeds.