2005 General Reports

[Long Stroker]

Excellent breakdown on GSM, Off2Golf.

I use T-Mobile here in the states which like you said uses GSM phones. All the phones from T-Mobile do come locked. They will however, unlock it for free. Just call them up with your phone's serial number, and they will email you the unlock code with instructions on how to enter it into your phone. Very quick and easy.

Just be careful when entering the code. Three consecutive wrong entries and the phone will go into "lockdown mode" rendering it unuseable. I had no problems, however.

[J Wadd]

Good breakdown, Pro. Buuut, there's also the "tier-two" option, which can reduce the prices of everything by two thirds (150-ish USD/day), and still provide one with the MTV hip-hop fuck fest of your life. Stay at a good 2-3 star hotel for 20USD, eat like a king with the locals (5USD/meal), hit the mid-tier clubs for undiscovered 8s and 9s (30-50/girl) etc., etc., etc. I like to travel down there for months at a time, so the 450/day path is a little (as of yet) out of my budget for that long. Maybe someday soon...

Also, has anyone found any of the hook-up modeling agencies down there? I know that those off-work Giselles down there will suck a man for a price, the trick (no pun intended) is finding them. Two girls at one of the "Hilton backside" clubs had modeled -- 5'10'' naturally blonde lean 10s -- 150/real each. I actually hooked one of the up, and I have a picture of her that I need to get developed. Problem is, neither would do bbbj. The ones that get away...

Happy Hunting,
JWadd

[Prosal]

There's "party" and "party" ...

I can't imagine how someone can "party" in Rio or SP (or in Bangkok, as mentionned in a previous post) with $30 $/day !!!

The cost of a Black Label bottle in any Rio's good regular disco (Nuth or Baronetti), or in Love Story in SP, is 300 reals ; add the handshack to the manager to get a good table, some Smirnoff bottles or tequila shots for some girlies, maybe a tray of sushis, plus a good tip to the waiter ..... 600 reals is a minimum in those places to really "party" ....

I sometimes saw guys (locals) spending surely much more than 2000 reals during a night's out in Baronnetti.

Of course, there's always cheap charlies who will nurse their 4 reals Antartica latta, stuck to a barstool in Help, this having nothing to do with "partying" IMO ....

Anyway, my personnal average daily budget, when in Sao Paulo, is :

Aparthotel : 130 reals
Food : 80 reals
General stuff : 40 reals (laundry, room service, ect ..)
Taxis : 80 reals (expensives in Sao Paulo)
Party : +/- 600 reals (drinks in Cafe Photo, Gaugin or Kilt + bottle/ladies drinks/VIP service in Love Story)
Garota (s) : 150/200 reals per garota

Total : +/- 1100 reals per day.

Pro

[Snooky]

Dirty's

Here are my numbers per day in USD $

Apartment $50
Food $15-20
Partying $30
Women $50-$200 (depends on how many sessions)
General stuff $20

I would budget for $200-250 a day.

[El Mejor Beso]

Is the "Bang Boat" still running? It was last year around this time.

[Mynameissue]

I am thinking about making my first trip to Rio in April. I was wondering if someone could help me out. How much money would I roughly need for a two week holiday in Rio. I've been to Thailand and I can get by on around 1300 euro/1750 US Dollars or less for two weeks, this would include food, hotels/apartment, girls every night, general stuff and partying. Money is a bit tight at the moment so if it was going to be really expensive I wouldn’t be able to afford it. This is just a break down of a typical day for me in Thailand

Apartment or Hotel Between say $13-26 US Dollars.
Food about $13-20
Partying $30
Women $27-30
General stuff $20

So generally I spend about $126 US or less a day. Or 94 Euro.

I would be really grateful if somebody could give some advice on this one.

Cheers.

[Bulldog67]

Off2golf,

Yours is a pretty good assessment of the GSM system. I have a Motorola V60i and an older Motorola Timeport 260, both of which were purchased while I was stationed in Saudi Arabia. I've used them with pre-paid SIM cards in Norway, Holland, France, Austria, Thailand, and all the Middle Easr countries. I'm now stationed in Brazil, and they both work fine with the pre-paid cards here.

The worst service I've had is in the US. The was last there two years ago, and GSM service was limited to Voicestream. I had pretty good service in LA and Houston, but once out of these major cities, lost service completely.

Swamp Rat

[Kinesics]

Disclaimer: This post is based on my personal knowledge and I do not profess any engineering and technology mastery in wireless industry. I happen to acquire the knowledge based on my traveling needs and convenience. If you find that my post is incorrect and insufficient, please feel free to amend or complement it. As I happened to live in US, this post more gear towards US fellow citizens traveling abroad.

TDMA, CDMA and GSM

US wireless carriers (known as cell phone companies) had started their business using technology called TDMA (Time Division Multiplexing Access) and CDMA (Code Division Multiplexing Access) while most of other countries have been on GSM (Global System for Mobile communications).

Then wireless carriers based on GSM had launched the business in US. VoiceStream is one of early adapter of GSM in US market. Now there are a couple of carriers are operating in US – Cingular (a joint venture between SBC and BellSouth) and T-Mobile. Cingular has finished acquisition of AT&T Wireless not too long ago to be the largest wireless carrier in US.

As far as I know, there are two countries where GSM has not been commercially or widely deployed – Japan and South Korea. South Korea has roaming agreement with Verizon Wireless network as all carriers in South Korea are based on CDMA. If comrades on this board want to use their Verizon wireless phone in Korea, you have to take your phone to Verizon store and download ‘preferred roaming list’ on your phone which can only be done at their stores.

Major wireless carrier for CDMA is VerizonWireless.

One unique physical technological difference between GSM and TDMA/CDMA is SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card which is installed on GSM based mobile phones. SIM cards can be considered as brain for wireless technology and network access.

There are four frequencies being used for GSM in various countries today. Rule of thumb is that 900Mhz/1800Mhz are industry defector standard outside of USA while 850Mhz/1900Mhz are being used in USA.

There have been numerous comments about the tri-band mobile phones which typically support 900Mhz/1800Mhz/1900Mhz. This is why the tri-band mobile phones can be used in US and outside US provided the tri-band phones are “unlocked”. I think that definition of “unlocked” is for a GSM phone to operate and function normally regardless of SIM card offered by GSM wireless carriers throughout the world.

If GSM phones are “locked”, these phones only can operate and function with a specific GSM carrier SIM card, and therefore these phones can not function (send/receive calls) with other carriers’ SIM card.

Therefore, bottom line for travelers to take advantage of using in-country local wireless phone number/rate is to bring/buy a ‘unlocked’ tri-band GSM phone. Then buy a SIM card (prepaid local number) and install the card on the phone. Then you are ready to go after 30 min to one hour activation processing period.

Once you have a local SIM card in your phone, it works like any other local mobile phone with various capabilities like regional or national or international roaming, caller-ID, three-way calling, and the likes.

I have been using Motorola V60 tri-band phone in Europe, Latin America and Asia using local SIM cards and international roaming using a Cingular SIM. I have had little problems or difficulties to date.

Quad-band mobile phones have been introduced lately. I have recently bought a Motorola Razr V3 phone through Cingular which supports four different bandwidth – 850Mhz/900Mhz/1800Mhz/1900Mhz. This phone was activated as US number and delivered unlocked. I popped in a foreign SIM card which has international roaming agreement with Cingular for US roaming. It works like a champ! Now this phone can be used in all GSM carriers known globally as all GSM frequencies are supported by this phone.

While pre-paid SIM cards work fine for normal usage for in-country local calls and in-country roaming, these may come with functional restrictions compared to ‘monthly billing’ account phones. Each wireless carrier in each country set their own rules for their business and by local industry and government regulations, it is very difficult for me to articulate the details.

Unlocked GSM phones can be purchased through various websites and originally carrier specific locked GSM phones can be unlocked by many local mobile phone/telecom retailers, especially outside US. I remember a post that it takes a few minutes and a few dollars to unlock a GSM phone.

My apologies for long wind post but hope understand my desire to assist fellow comrades!

O2G

[El Austriaco]

in brazil do girls carry an id and is it normal to ask for that?

yes, i think it is. every time i checked into my hotel with a garota, they would ask for it. of course, in case you go to a love hotel, they won't. and in the termas, i've never seen an id. but then again, considering how concerned they are in a terma not be a considered a "brothel" as defined by brazilian law (to the point that you have to pay cash for the programa, so that there's no record of anything going on there - like mc), i can't really imagine that a terma would risk it's license by employing anyone ****.

don't really think that any garota would object if you ask for id. if she did, i'd be careful. very careful.

[Lover Boy #2]

This cell question has been gone over before. You need a tri-band GSM unlocked cell phone from any country....it doesn't matter as long as it is unlocked. Then just add a sim chip from any of around 4 providers in Rio. You now have a cell #. You can use something like T-Mobile or Telecom Germany....but the rates are very high compared to just changing the chip in an unlocked phone. Certain cities will need a change of chip.

[Admin]

Thread Starter.