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Iphone 4 International Dilemma Data Plan

D

dmacleese

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 28, 2010
18
0
Soo basically I will be traveling back and forth between America and Japan for work. Some of the stays in Japan will be for up to 2 months at a time. My dilemma is that I just bought the iPhone 4 two weeks ago in the US and would like to be able to use data while in Japan while not paying outrageous fees.

I am willing to jailbreak/unlock but the only iphone provider in Japan does not offer pre paid/pay as you go Sim cards.

Att international plans are pretty awful so I thought about canceling my AT&T contract and purchasing a MiFi with a verizon/vodafone gsm simcard or just buying the verizon mifi and basically solely use the phone on the MiFi in both countries (aka buy a skype phone number and just use skype for calls/txts). However, Japan is entirely CDMA so I still don't think I'll be able to access data.

So if anyone could please give me some ideas/options it would be greatly appreciated.

Also if Japan is entirely CDMA how do their GSM hardware Iphones work? I've been looking for answers and just keep coming up empty. Thought it would be best to ask you guys thanks!
 
so would a vodafone gsm sim card work in Japan through MiFi? would i get 3g?

also does the docomo plan allow for streaming data?(would i be able to use youtube and skype)
 
I would be roaming but i can use a international roaming plan through verizon which is $65 a month for unlimited data i than also could use the mifi for tethering my laptop too. But if the gsm sim wont pickup data i wont go down that road
 
dmacleese said:
I would be roaming but i can use a international roaming plan through verizon which is $65 a month for unlimited data i than also could use the mifi for tethering my laptop too. But if the gsm sim wont pickup data i wont go down that road
Click to expand...

Like I said, Japan doesn't have GSM, so no sim card will pick up GSM.

The Verizon MiFi is CDMA Rev. A, Rev. O, 1XRTT so no it won't pick up a GSM data. It will/may pick up KDDI au signal like this guy says but he also says the reception is spotty at best.
 
so from what i got out of his post is that if i got a unlocked MiFi which doesnt use CDMA and put my GSM verizon/vodafone sim card in it it somehow would find a carrier and connect more so than from the cdma capabilities of his verizon phone.
 
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