[krballer]

Hi guys. I've tried posting this elsewhere but am looking for answers. I've got a few questions, including the use of the Korean equivalent SIM card in a US cell phone. I think my post may be of help to other expats living in Korea and will share this valuable info on a Korean smartphone enthusiast site.

As for some background, I live and work in S. Korea and have been wanting to buy a Blackberry from the states...probably a Storm 2 since they only have the Bold 9000 here. I've done some research regarding the use of foreign-bought phones to be signed up for the major carriers here such as SK Telecom. Korea is CDMA country but apparently, people can use outside phones if tested and registered by a certification agency.

The reason why 3G phones are approved here, even the AT&T (GSM) iPhone, is probably because of compatibility with UMTS, which I think goes by WCDMA here (I was told phones with WCDMA 2100 mhz capability will be approved). Seeing that the Storm 2 has UMTS 2100 mhz compatibility, I believe this phone can be used here.

Please help me with three pertinent questions that will help us expats here~

1. Korea calls their SIM equivalent cards "USIM" and all 3G phones sold here have it now. They look exactly like SIM cards and have similar function. Don't know but maybe its actually a RUIM card I've heard about? I'm told I need one to use their service so is it possible to use their USIM card?

2. Korean phones have a settings option to have all menus and titles in English, which is what I'm using. When sending text messages (SMS), we have the ability to push one button on the fly mid sentence to switch between Korean->English (lower, upper case)->numerals. Will I be able to do the same (keep menus in English, able to switch text in Korean with a press of a button) with the Storm 2? Or will I have to constantly go into some menu to select a language to input different language text? Or even have to download something if it's not built-in?

Thank you for reading this long post. Your answers will help me greatly and by me passing on this knowledge, you can feel satisfaction of having helped a whole other nation of expats.

[srr333]

I returned from Korea a few days ago and I just installed the Korean language pack on my 8310. When I compose text I get a "switch input language" choice in the drop down menu. Now I can read and type xxx54620;xxx44544; on my phone. Im not sure which OS you will be using, but I would think that the process would be similar. You can download East Asian and multilanguage OS here.
blackberry.com/Downloads/browseSoftware.do