which cell phone provider in tokyo?

[aychseven]

might be moving to tokyo at the end of the year and i'm wondering what people think of the various cell phone providers (KDDI AU, NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank in particular) and the prices, service (dropped calls etc), and customer service

oh and maybe someone can explain the pricing structure in Japan. in the US it's rather simple and i'm a little confused. looks like you pay a monthly fee AND per minute rates?

[rnbwsnunacrns]

Originally Posted by aychseven

might be moving to tokyo at the end of the year and i'm wondering what people think of the various cell phone providers (KDDI AU, NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank in particular) and the prices, service (dropped calls etc), and customer service

oh and maybe someone can explain the pricing structure in Japan. in the US it's rather simple and i'm a little confused. looks like you pay a monthly fee AND per minute rates?

i would buy the one called dwango... i think thats the name... but the only reason i want it is cuz of the ad for it.... i love gackt...

[Nyororin]

I thought Dwango was just a ring tones service?

As for recommendations...
It really all depends on what you plan to be doing. If you plan to stay in Tokyo your entire time, Edge is a very very cheap and reliable service.
Softbank tries any way they can to rip you off, although they make themselves *look* cheap. I wouldn`t touch them with a 10 foot pole, let alone use them. The only thing they`re good for is cheap, crappy prepaid phones.
AU is pretty much standard, as is Docomo. They`re both pretty equal.

[vulgarshudder]

Phones you can go contract, or prepaid. But prepaid, I'm not sure they should even be qualified as phones so we'll just get to contracts. Contracts you will pay a monthly service, and a rate per min, as well as for downloading, using internet and emails. Basically.

I've been with AU, Softbank, and Docomo.

AU I got when I was a student and you can get a gaku wari, half off your service plan. So it can work out cheap if you don't use it much. Back then every student was on AU for the discount, so you call all your student friends cheaper and do short messages to them.

Softbank you can get a cheaper montly rate if you sign up with them for two years. But despite being on their gold plan I always rang up a huge huge bill somehow. Keitai internet I suspect, despite being on their internet packet... They've just done a 'white plan' which is like 1000something yen a month...but I suspect if you go into 'normal' japanese usage the bill will pile up with that.

And Docomo, well I know alot about this since I just brought a new phone with them this week. Bad thing, you need to BUY the phone even if you're signing up with a new contract...and well I wanted the new P904 series with all the bells and whistles, so yeah that was pricey.
They have various levels of plan you can go on, like how much it costs per mins. The bigger your level the cheaper it is to make calls.
But Docomo I think really can't compare with all the little services you can pay extra for (why YES of course I needed to have the scrolling news/whether/sports/horoscopes updates on my phone!)
And they have this 2-1 service which means you can get 2 numbers and 2 email addresses, which is handy if you want say QueenDom.I-love-S&M@docomo.co.jp for uh friends, and Sally.Sue1980@docomo.co.jp for work.
Also docomo has internet packets, which like the phone rates are the higher level you are on, the cheaper it is per byte of internet you download. BUT, they have a 'all you can use' packet, which means you can download games, music, look at the whether forcast all you want.
Oh and Docomo has a few discounts. They have a yearly discount, it starts at 23% discount and goes up every year or something. And a family discount/singles discount...
Also the advantage with docomo is that it's pretty popular so most other people are on it.

Yes this is all very complicated and I'm sure there's more I signed for than I realised.

So for me personally, I'm taken with Docomo's phones and services, and the all you can use for the i-mode services (internet, email).

I'm pretty sure the major phone companies all have english websites, just google them.

[Nyororin]

Umm, you don`t HAVE to buy the phone through Docomo.

You only have to buy the *new* models. This is the same for any of the companies. They do not give away the new model phones. The only time you`re going to get a free phone is when the market price of the phone drops below the commission the shop gets for having you sign up for a contract. In other words, old phones.

This is the same for ALL the companies. If they say you`re getting a new phone for "free" - it`s just "not up front". Trust me, you`ll pay for it in your monthly bill. But really, recently they all pretty much go by the same rule - you pay for the difference of the phone price and the commission they receive. If you sign up for a big money plan for a year, wow! Look at that! The newest model drops to half price!

(Still happy with my P902i... Which we only ended up paying 5000 for...)

[LittleSpoon]

When I was in Japan I used Vodafone (now Softbank). I don't reccomend Softbank for one reason. Their logo. It sucks. Couple of gray bars and the words "Softbank" c'mon! The vodafone logo was cooler...thats my 5 cents.

[pandayanyan]

hey does anyone know what technology these carriers use? Gsm? cdma? can i unlock a phone i already have if it usses the same technology and get it activated over there? I know it is possible here in the states and in europe but just wondering about Japan seeing as I have no experience or knowledge of their cell phone technology.

[samokan]

when it comes to signal, AU has the strongest. Even docomo can't beat them on that. Softbank has the crappiest signal. But why I stayed with Softbank?

its because of: GSM, 3G, International Support ( Roaming and Multi-Language support ).

There are lots of cool fones in AU but does not have the feature above. They even have a fone with a internal HD about 4G capability for music support, but the other capabilities of that fone is crap and does not have a multi-lingual support. AU's 3G lines of phones as of the moment is limited, but their software support/application are cool. But their dometic lines of fone are really amazing but be sure to check if it has multi-lingual support cause most don't.

Docomo, well just read the other post above. Their phones are really cool, and some even have free dictionary software ( upgradable ).
The last time that Ive checked with Docomo, their 3G lines are really cool but still no GSM support and automatic international roaming. So if you go outside japan your phone is totally useless but is good as camera or alarm clock. And their plan is a bit pricey especially if you get the latest release.

Right now am sticking with softbank, since most of the ppl that I talk ( too much ) are all softbank users, so its really convenient ,its FREE and UNLIMITED. am only paying the packets that I use with the none-softbank user and my international SMS use Im using white plan, and I like it better with the pre-define packages, cause I can use or select which feature I like.
So am paying 2200 ( white plan+insurance/features+phone ) + packets used (optionally). So most right now am paying not more than 3500 per month. I don't used fone for surfing the net, except for train schedule if necessary

So if you love surfing the net on your phone, cute and cool phone applications, go with AU or DOCOMO.

[Nyororin]

when it comes to signal, AU has the strongest. Even docomo can't beat them on that.

Try taking an AU into the mountains...

Docomo has them beat, hands down. We have relatives who live in areas where *only* Docomo gets a signal.
Maybe if you`re in the city, AU can top them in strength, but if you want a signal everywhere in Japan Docomo is pretty much the only way to go. We travel a lot, so the coverage means quite a lot.

[samokan]

actually that info came from a friend who was doing a signal testing on differents phones ( though not official ). And from my previous company director who have 2 phones both AU and DOCOMO to make sure he has a signal always..

This 2 phone companies are on "war" right now .. so the status last year might not be the same today