What’s interesting to note is that the Phone Settings of both the Sprint and Verizon Wireless CDMA Touch Pro2 reveal that US HSPA 3G bands are supported, and more specifically, the same 850 and 1900 MHz frequency used by carrier AT&T.

Although Sprint’s model of the Touch Pro2 comes SIM unlocked and you can pop in an international SIM when traveling, domestic SIMs will not work in the device. I had tried an AT&T and a T-Mobile SIM without either working. Since the phone is already SIM unlocked, I am not sure what you’re mileage will be to attempt a call to Sprint to inquire about using the phone–gasp–on AT&T’s 3G network.

Verizon Wireless, on the other hand, SIM-locks their devices. Their PR person told me that the carrier will happily unlock the SIM feature to use a non-Verizon SIM when traveling after a customer has an account for six months. The benefit of using another carrier’s SIM when traveling is that you can just get a pre-paid SIM card in the country you will travel to and not have to worry about crazy data rates or voice roaming rates with Verizon Wireless. I wanted to get the Verizon Touch Pro2 unlocked to test the GSM voice quality in the US over AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s network as I am not about to travel and leave the country anytime soon. Requesting the phone to be unlocked wasn’t met with much warmth by my Verizon rep, who told me that:

No one uses the phone that way — they leave the country and as much as I know you think all networks are alike, they really vary a great deal…

I don’t know how much GSM networks vary except that the US may support different bandwidths than our foreign neighbors. According to the rep, In this case, the GSM frequencies of the U.S. networks are different from many outside of the country. What I do know is that the Verizon Wireless Touch Pro2 (and also Sprint’s for that matter) supports these GSM frequencies in addition to the CDMA frequencies: GSM 900, 1800 and UMTS 2100, 900; GSM 1900, 850 and UMTS 1900, 850; and UMTS 2100. Suffice it to say, if it were unlocked, perhaps this model can function on AT&T’s network since it does support the US 850 and 1900 MHz bands on both GSM/EDGE and UMTS 3G.

Whatever Verizon’s paranoia is, it seems that perhaps Verizon Wireless is not ready to play against AT&T and is afraid of the GSM competition. But Big Red’s fears against Ma Bell’s Blue may not be all blues anyways as AT&T’s scheduled for its own Touch Pro2 anyways called the Tilt2 so I can’t really foresee any customer really wanting to buy a Verizon Wireless Touch Pro2 to leave for AT&T in this case.

I just wish someone would just give me the “straight talk” here rather than play up the technology angle, which may or may not be the case for why a domestic SIM isn’t supported.