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US iPhone in Japan

B

bjobes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
168
0
I have a few users here that will be taking their 3G's to Japan. Does anyone have any experience yet traveling to Japan using the phone and data network?
 
No, but be prepared for high rates. I think you need to call AT&T and have them turn International Roaming on too.
 
I already have international turned on with these. The rates aren't as important as the reliability which is my main concern I suppose.
 
Living in Japan

I am currently living in Japan, but don't want to deal with the discriminatory practices by the Soft Bank concerning the iPhone purchase.

Can I buy an iPhone in the states, and then have Soft Bank activate it with their SIM card? If anyone has information about that, I'd love to know.

Thanks.
 
goofyjoemoore said:
I am currently living in Japan, but don't want to deal with the discriminatory practices by the Soft Bank concerning the iPhone purchase.

Can I buy an iPhone in the states, and then have Soft Bank activate it with their SIM card? If anyone has information about that, I'd love to know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Nope.
 
the signal is different

you can not come to japan with an american phone. My first iphone doesnt work out here and my 3G, so i have been told, will not work in the states.

so no, but you can download fring and use skype over a wi-fi connection for fairly cheap
 
goofyjoemoore said:
I am currently living in Japan, but don't want to deal with the discriminatory practices by the Soft Bank concerning the iPhone purchase.

Can I buy an iPhone in the states, and then have Soft Bank activate it with their SIM card? If anyone has information about that, I'd love to know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Discriminatory practices? "OH NO I HAVE TO PAY THE FULL PRICE FOR THE PHONE BECAUSE MY VISA DOESN'T COVER THE FULL PERIOD OF THE PLAN"

I love it when whiny foreigners complain about being discriminated against in Japan. Most of the time they are white males and have never experienced any real discrimination in their lives.

Harden up, I queued up on the day it was released, shelled out the full price for the phone and haven't regretted it since.

oftheheavens said:
you can not come to japan with an american phone. My first iphone doesnt work out here and my 3G, so i have been told, will not work in the states.

so no, but you can download fring and use skype over a wi-fi connection for fairly cheap
Click to expand...

You have no idea what you are talking about, the iPhone 3g is exactly the same worldwide.
 
goofyjoemoore said:
I am currently living in Japan, but don't want to deal with the discriminatory practices by the Soft Bank concerning the iPhone purchase.

Can I buy an iPhone in the states, and then have Soft Bank activate it with their SIM card? If anyone has information about that, I'd love to know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. I bought an iPhone 3G over here and the clerk kept changing his terms - he finally demanded that we pay $800+ on our first bill, then $50/month (with no minutes, texts, OR Visual Voicemail [costs $4/month extra in Japan]), then that our contract term doesn't start for another two months. The cherries on top are that (1) I don't get reception at my house and (2) the real bill is around $80/month even though I rarely call anyone and the only people who text me are SoftBank (no idea why - I can't read the Kanji).

I'm totally pissed at SoftBank:
-$800 iPhone 3G
-$70+ month
-14-26 month contract (you can get a one-year contract for a $100 increase in iPhone price - I did)
-No reception at home
-$300+ cellular signal repeater or femtocell

Anyway, you can't do that. When you buy an iPhone 3G you are forced to sign a contract with AT&T.
 
Bringing your iPhone over to Japan is no problem. Again, make sure you have international roaming turned on.

I'm not sure why, but for the first three days I didn't get signal (maybe I didn't reboot enough). But the 4th day all of the sudden I could connect to NTT Docomo. I think it's cause I turned on data roaming on the iPhone or something? Anyways after I got signal everything worked fine.
 
oftheheavens said:
you can not come to japan with an american phone. My first iphone doesnt work out here and my 3G, so i have been told, will not work in the states.
Click to expand...

Not entirely correct. You can't bring a US 2G GSM phone to Japan, because there is no 2G GSM/EDGE service in Japan. This is why the 1st Gen iPhone wouldn't work. All service in Japan is either FOMA, CDMA2000 or 2100Mhz UMTS/HSPA. There may also be remnants of "PDC" which is the old 2G technology that Japan (and no other country) used.

However, the iPhone 3G does have 2100Mhz UMTS capability, which is the one network type in Japan (NTT DoCoMo and Softbank) that the iPhone can indeed use. This is also how Softbank can sell the iPhone 3G (which internally is the same as iPhone 3Gs across the globe).
 
Thanks scaredpoet that was the info I was looking for.

scaredpoet said:
Not entirely correct. You can't bring a US 2G GSM phone to Japan, because there is no 2G GSM/EDGE service in Japan. This is why the 1st Gen iPhone wouldn't work. All service in Japan is either FOMA, CDMA2000 or 2100Mhz UMTS/HSPA. There may also be remnants of "PDC" which is the old 2G technology that Japan (and no other country) used.

However, the iPhone 3G does have 2100Mhz UMTS capability, which is the one network type in Japan (NTT DoCoMo and Softbank) that the iPhone can indeed use. This is also how Softbank can sell the iPhone 3G (which internally is the same as iPhone 3Gs across the globe).
Click to expand...
 
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