Buying phones in Japan

Absolut

I'm in need of a new phone, after a few accidents with my last one (Meteor, pay as you go). I'm going to be in Japan for a few days over the summer (Tokyo) and was wondering if I'm better off going with a cheap pay as you go phone now and then a good sim free phone in Tokyo, or just getting a semi-decent Meteor phone now?

Is it even possible to buy sim free GSM phones in Japan that will work on the Meteor network, or are they even better value?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Urban Weigl

Japan only uses 3G/UMTS, and phones available there only have GSM for roaming purposes.

I know Softbank phones should work here since they're all at least UMTS 2100 + Tri-band GSM. Or at least most have GSM. The reason they do is so Japanese people can roam abroad.

drdre

nah i wouldnt buy one from there because of gsm specifcation and also theres alot of fake nokia's going around asia.

Urban Weigl

I wouldn't worry too much about fake Nokia's in Japan, should be easy to spot anyway. I WOULD worry about fake Nokia's in parts of China and many other Asian countries, especially markets, etc.

jesus_thats_gre

Afaik, whatever the network that was owned by Vodafone is called, use handsets that are compatible with Ireland's GSM and UMTS networks. NTT DoCoMo handsets will not work here as they use a different 3G standard.

TJJP

Absolut wrote:

I'm in need of a new phone, after a few accidents with my last one (Meteor, pay as you go). I'm going to be in Japan for a few days over the summer (Tokyo) and was wondering if I'm better off going with a cheap pay as you go phone now and then a good sim free phone in Tokyo, or just getting a semi-decent Meteor phone now?

Is it even possible to buy sim free GSM phones in Japan that will work on the Meteor network, or are they even better value?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Aside from whats been said already, Japanese phones are no good here. Japanese system doesn't use sim cards. Phones are pre programmed with network and number. The're useless outside the country. Bring a quad band phone from here (Nokia 6230/i, V3 or most motorollas) and you'll be grand.

You'll need to have roaming enabled and it won't be cheap, but will be cheaper than pre-pay in Japan. Prepay isn't common due to a clampdown on phone related criminal activity and isn't economically viable for a few days. Rental phones are available too, but are a rip off.

ps. No quality issues in Japan, it ain't asia in the way earlier posters suggested.

neilled

TJJP wrote:

Aside from whats been said already, Japanese phones are no good here. Japanese system doesn't use sim cards. Phones are pre programmed with network and number. The're useless outside the country. Bring a quad band phone from here (Nokia 6230/i, V3 or most motorollas) and you'll be grand.

You'll need to have roaming enabled and it won't be cheap, but will be cheaper than pre-pay in Japan. Prepay isn't common due to a clampdown on phone related criminal activity and isn't economically viable for a few days. Rental phones are available too, but are a rip off.

ps. No quality issues in Japan, it ain't asia in the way earlier posters suggested.

TJJP he won't. The Japanese consider GSM an archaic standard for backwards part of the world and are in the process or shutting down the remenants of their 2.5G networks which aren't gsm compatible. If your heading out there you will need a 3G handset with roaming enabled. NTT DOCOMO used to provide a a list of compatible handsets on their website or you can rent one from them when you arrive there. Vodafone japan or whatever they're called these days should also support roaming. 3G handsets only, GSM is a no go.

Quadband phones are GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900.

Japanese networks use 3G on 2100 band