Help Need advice on importing a Milestone to US

[MountainX]

I want a US English keyboard. And I plan to use it with T-Mobile.
Where should I buy it from? What price should I expect to pay?

I'm trying to stay away from eBay.

 

[colnago]

www.expansys.com

www.expansys-usa.com

 

[orGSD]

I ordered three from here:
Negri Electronics - iPhones, Pocket PC's, Smart Phones, Cell Phones, Ultra Mobile PC's, PDA's, GPS Devices, Cameras and More...

Spoke with a Mr. Ryan but I suspect anyone there is friendly.

Two other reputable stores which also carry or will carry the phone:
Motorola A855 MileStone Smartphone Black Unlocked Import at MobileCityOnline.com
Motorola Milestone aka Droid - Unlocked PDA Smartphone - Mobile Phone - Google

The one catch is however, AFAIK, you will not find any with a USA keyboard. I believe all imports are QWERTZ at the moment, the ones Negri has are. When you order just make sure you understand the keyboard layout, that you will not have 3G and that the item is either in stock or you know when it will ship. I knew all of those things and the three I ordered shipped from stock so all was fine.

Cheers,

orGSD

 

[colnago]

...that you will not have 3G and that the item is either in stock or you know when it will ship. I knew all of those things and the three I ordered shipped from stock so all was fine.

Cheers,

orGSD

UK versions support TMobile 3G bands for the states, and the "Canadian versions" have only AT&T bands listed, for "its" 3G support.

 

[orGSD]

This is what I have found:

UK: 3G WCDMA/900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA, GPRS Class 12, WiFi (Source: Milestone Android - Phone Without Compromise - Motorola United Kingdom)
DE: 3G WCDMA/900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA, GPRS Class 12, WiFi (Source: Motorola Milestone - Telefone f

 

[eachna]

This rundown makes me glad I bought the one I did. I bought the German model. I had been planning to wait for the Canadian phone but didn't have enough patience. I didn't realize it would support fewer bands.

It's wonderful. I can take pictures although it is a bit of a challenge. Also, I have the droid problem with the contacts not wanting to update.

After fixing a few settings, I can't even tell it isn't an "American" phone, except for the X and Y keys being in different spots. It does NOT work on Tmobile's 3G, it does work on Edge. I find the Droid Edge service is much slower than my G1 on Edge, which seems strange (maybe it's the newer browser?)

I swapped my sim from my old G1 and phone service immediately worked. Then, I called TMobile CS to get the APN settings for the data service. Total setup, about 30 minutes.

My biggest complaint? I miss the number row on the keyboard. Otherwise, I think it's true love!

 

[orGSD]

@eachna
I also took the G1->Milestone path.
I am equally surprised that according to Motorola, the Canadian Milestone is NOT a quad-band phone or world phone as they are sometimes called. I am wondering if that is a mistake on their site.

Have you had any success with T-Mobile Visual Voicemail? That is the one thing that I am having trouble with T-Mobile-wise. Their support wishes to not provide any assistance because the Milestone is not one of their phones, however the problems it is exhibiting were there on the G1 when I first configured it for Visual Voicemail. (I know I can configure Google Voice in place but I wish to keep the two mailboxes separate). I have a thread going here with my experiences so far:
Motorla Milestone ( GSM ver. of Verizon Droid / A... - T-Mobile Community

If you haven't tried could you test and let me know?

Cheers,

orGSD

 

[eachna]

@eachna
I also took the G1->Milestone path.
I am equally surprised that according to Motorola, the Canadian Milestone is NOT a quad-band phone or world phone as they are sometimes called. I am wondering if that is a mistake on their site.

Have you had any success with T-Mobile Visual Voicemail? That is the one thing that I am having trouble with T-Mobile-wise. Their support wishes to not provide any assistance because the Milestone is not one of their phones, however the problems it is exhibiting were there on the G1 when I first configured it for Visual Voicemail. (I know I can configure Google Voice in place but I wish to keep the two mailboxes separate). I have a thread going here with my experiences so far:
Motorla Milestone ( GSM ver. of Verizon Droid / A... - T-Mobile Community

If you haven't tried could you test and let me know?

Cheers,

orGSD

I've activated Visual Voicemail on my account. When I try to connect using the Visual Voicemail app, it just hangs. So, I'm not sure what you're experiencing exactly, but I can say that Visual Voicemail does not work for me on my milestone.

It perpetually hangs at trying to connect to my account.