The problem gets worse. Today, in AU, we have 1800MHz, soon we'll have other frequencies when the analogue TV signals are completely switched off and freed up. LTE needs to be supported on many different frequencies as you say. Some radio / chipsets though .... are "programmable", so that they can support more of a range -- switchable by software settings; I can't find the reference now though, but I don't think any currently available phone has this feature. I expect that we'll keep seeing new phones, and we'll keep needing to replace them just for the radio capability, if nothing else is important enough. It makes the switch from analogue mobile to digital look insignificant. Bottom line is that any phone you get today, may not have the radio support you need in 2 or 3 years time. And of course the whole NSA set of problems is something else to consider. Perhaps we need to switch over to Firefox Mobile OS. Android has it's problems as does iOS ... need I say more? "iOS is a proprietary operating system whose source code is not available for auditing by third parties. You should entrust neither your communications nor your data to a closed source device." -- according to prism-break.org My solution to the problem is simple, use a separate radio that does nothing more than provide data, absolutely nothing more than a secure hotspot -- possibly better if via Tor as well. Then use a phone device that can use fully encrypted comms, end to end. Get the best phone that can support this setup and never use it as a /normal/ mobile. Cheers A.