From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android


Technical part starts at the ***.

My brother and his wife were visiting Peru for a couple months, and my
SiL calls and says my 86yo brother is doing badly. So I buy a ticket on Tuesday for Friday. I had been shopping 3 weeks earlier so shopping
went quickly and amazingly, the prices were the same 3 days in advance
as 3 weeks in advance.

I coulnd't use their wifi becasue my SIL didn't remember the router
password (though later I found out it had WPA or whatever, but that only
helps when I'm at the apartment), so I went to buy a sim at Plaza San
Miguel, at the Movistar store. She wouldn't sell me one. I said I have
my passport. She said a passport is not enough. Turns out since late
December they are not selling sims (or phones I heard) to tourists or
iiuc non-citizens, like my sil and brother.

***The employee didn't suggest it but a Peru reddit said to use an esim
or buy roaming. My phone won't take an esim but amazingly, when,
because I'm always optimistic, I tried to make a call with my American
Mint Mobile sim still in place, a bot came on and said to wait (is this
bot interception surprising?), and a person soon came on who said I
could buy international roaming, like 20 dollars for 10 days. So I did,
but it did not work.

Today I found out it's because my my phone does not have Band 71. Have
you ever heard of it. what do you know about Band 71?
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

micky wrote:

I found out it's because my my phone does not have Band 71. Have
you ever heard of it. what do you know about Band 71?

Not sure how common it is, but WikiP thinks it is used in the US

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands#:~:text=71,FDD>
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

In comp.mobile.android, on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:14:06 +0100, Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

micky wrote:

I found out it's because my my phone does not have Band 71. Have
you ever heard of it. what do you know about Band 71?

Not sure how common it is, but WikiP thinks it is used in the US

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands#:~:text=71,FDD>

Yes, that's what the mint mobile woman said too, especially on T-mobile
towers iirc which mint mobile uses. But I still don't get it. If it's
used in the US but not in Peru, why should it matter that my phone
does't have it when I'm in Peru***? Or was this just some excuse they
made up?

(If anything it should matter when I'm in the US. The phone doesn't
have band 71 here either, but it works. ***I wish my mind was quicker or
I would have asked her both halves of this when we were chatting.)

She agreed that my phone was an "international" phone***, but she also
said that Xiaomi phones are targeted at the non-American market so they
often don't include it. My phone was sold in 2019 according to
gsmarens, and I think that's when I bought it, a Redmi Note 8 Pro.
It has these 4G bands, 4G bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 40, 41. Yes, no 71.

They are up to Note 15 Pro now and it has it and lots of other bands:
4G bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32,
38, 40, 41, 42, 48, 66, 71
5G bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 26, 28, 38, 40, 41, 48, 66,
71, 77, 78 SA/NSA

That doesn't mean she was wrong, but it doesn't suport her either. I
wonder if Band 71 was used in the US in 2019

*** Which is why I bought it. I bought the previous phone when I was
abroad and it didn't/doesn't have all the frequencies that either the
USA or my cellular provider used when I decided to buy another phone.
I'm still not sure if frequencies were the reason but with my previous
phone, there was a dead area at the north end of Roland Avenue in
Baltimore, and just west of Harper's Ferry W.Va. I stopped at the
second place and talked to someone and he used a different carrier and
said it didnt' work exactly where we were either. I went back to the
first location with the old phone and the new phone I got, but this time
the guard wouldn't let me in to the gated community.

I would try again, but months ago I dropped the spare phone between some
big boxes in the spare-bedroom/storage room. I've moved the boxes and
looked all over the floor and under the bed and I can't find it.

I'm sure there are other areas where the phone doesn't work, but I don't
pay attention most of the time.

You may have noticed that I have big doubts about ASI. But it is
good that you can ask more complicated questions. What cellular
frequences are used in Peru.
Peru uses a combination of 700 MHz (Band 28), 1700/2100 MHz (AWS, Band
4), and 1900 MHz (PCS, Band 2) for 4G LTE, with 3.5 GHz (n78) for 5G,
primarily through carriers Claro, Movistar, Entel, and Bitel. 3G
services operate on 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands. Most modern
international phones are compatible.
Right. No band 71.

Peru only has 34 million people. Did I mention since December they
don't sell sims (chips) to tourists?
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