Everyone wants a 3G phone these days. Okay, not everyone. I know a number of people who do not give a chicken leg for such things as 3G, 3.5G, et al.

If and when you do go shopping for a 3G phone, please be sure to note that some 3G phones will not work with our 3G networks here in Nigeria.

It really is simple: the Americans have their own 3G frequency bands – HSDPA 850 / 1900, different from what Europe and the rest of the world generally uses – HSDPA 2100 MHz.

The sad (and outrageous) part is that some importers bring in American-type 3G phones, the ones specified as HSDPA 850 / 1900. These will NOT work with our 3G networks.

The bunch of rogues or ignoramuses (depending on which category the erring retailer may fall under) who sell these devices will attempt to convince you that these specs mean nothing. Do not give in to them, or else you will find yourself stuck with a 3G phone that cannot connect to a 3G network here.

If you are not into a lot of technical jargon, let me help break it down for you.

If you forget anything else, remember this one – if it does not say HSDPA 2100, UMTS 2100 or WCDMA 2100 on the sales box, it isn’t for use here.

HSDPA, UMTS and WCDMA all refer to 3G-based services, so don’t let those acronyms throw you. Simply look out for the figure 2100.

Again, if the phone is not specified as 2100, it isn’t for use here. Repeat after me, “2100 is the number“. Yes; I feel like a primary school teacher.

I recently remembered an event that took place last year and realized that sharing it will be of benefit to our readers on Mobility Nigeria. This post is about a unit of Nokia E71 that I purchased from a reputable store in Lagos. Prior to this purchase, I had used three different E71 units and they were all purchased from this same store.

You may be wondering how I could have used that number of the same phone in such a short time. What happened was that people would see the phone with me, fall in love with it, and then offer to buy it off of me. And so, I would sell, buy another unit – and then go through the cycle again.

Anyway, I picked up this particular E71 from my trusted phone store. It had the I-cell warranty seal and also had a “Made in Finland” stamp on it.

Cutting to the chase, I put my SIM in the device and powered it up. As is my custom, I changed the phone network setting option to UMTS, meaning the phone would connect to only a 3G network. When I did this, I noticed that network signal disappeared on the phone.

Thinking that this was a temporary network problem that would be resolved soon, I decided to leave the UMTS setting unchanged. By the evening of that day the phone was still not picking up a 3G signal.

I made a few calls and discovered that 3G network was very alive on the phones of my friends. I began to wonder about things. Restarting the phone several times made no difference.

Finally, I was forced to pick the manual and read. Imagine me reading a phone manual! Unthinkable! But given the circumstance, I didn’t have a choice because I needed an explanation for what was happening. Right on the first page of the manual was the answer to my question.

The manual stated that the 3G frequency of this particular unit was WCDMA 1900, which is only available on the American continent. This meant that here in Nigeria the phone in question could connect only to GSM/GPRS/EDGE but was unable to use any of our 3G networks. The 3G band deployed in Nigeria is WCDMA 2100, not WCDMA 1900.

I was completely stunned. Having got spoilt with 3G speeds, not to mention 3.5G, how could I go back to anything less? I just couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Also, I asked myself why I-cell would import phones that are incompatible with our 3G band here. Are they even remotely aware that these are the sort of things they should check before bringing any phone to the country?

Did I learn anything from that experience? Yes! If anything, I began to check the frequency band before taking any phone from any store.

If you don’t want any nasty surprises, you should too.