What is the best pay as you go (pre-paid) mobile network in Japan?

[Hokuto-shinken]

Hi FG`s,

I am looking for a new phone and as I don`t use it very often, only really to recieve phone calls, the pay as you go service suits me best.

Vodaphone + Softbank mobiles



E-mail >
Short mail >
Top up card valid for > 30 days (3000円)

Docomo




E-mail >
Short mail >
Top up card valid for >

Au




E-mail >
C-mail (To Au numbers only) >
Top up card valid for > 30 days (3000円)

I think Au have the best customer service and DoCoMo have the best style phones, but Softbank is the best company to go with if you seek a pay as you go phone. However am I the only one that thinks the new models look awful. I am looking into buying a vodafone model from the internet at the moment. Any advice would be great.

Thanks

[Kuang_Grade]

I thought that Docomo had gotten out the prepaid business in 2005 and their existing prepaids were to be phased out of service by 2007 or 2008.

Softbank's 403SH looks pretty nice for a prepaid phone. You have to add a new card every 60 days (up to 90 days for the one of the Pj service variants)
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/prepaid/about/usage_period.html

Au's phones don't look too bad either, although their usage period varies with size of the card you buy (the bigger the card, the longer it lasts). Au's rates look a bit lower than Softbank's...and if I'm reading the chart right, it looks like you could buy a 10000 yen card and it would be good for a year...
http://www.au.kddi.com/english/prepaid/calling.html

Softbank's minimum yearly cost would be 6x 3000 yen cards, although it looks like you could get the phone, use one card, when that ran out, you could still get incoming calls/emails (but not make any outgoing calls or emails) for another 12 months after that first card ran out.

Prepaid phones are usually less sexy looking and offer fewer or truncated services (after all, the carriers really want you to be a monthly customer) and are usually targeted to those who are cheap/careless/can't handle their money/children. The phones are often non-sexy often to keep the phone cost low as well as to make them less appealing to people who like sexy phones.

This topic have popped up in the past treads and I think people generally suggested that going monthly, although a bit more expensive, offered more options for services and much more choices in phones. While I'm not in Japan, I pretty much always think that prepaid is the way to go unless you spend most of your waking hours on the phone. And outside of Japan, you can always plug a prepaid sim into unlocked phone, so you are not necessarily stuck with fugly prepaid phones...I'm looking forward to my new Sony Ericsson K800i to arrive in a few days and I'm going to put my $70/1000 minute per year prepaid sim into it.

[ichigo partygirl]

What is the cost to buy one of these phones? If you have a phone already (i have an AU) could you boot that up as a pre-pay so you could have the same number??? I ask because im coming back for a 5week trip and really want to have a phone then

[Hokuto-shinken]

[Hokuto-shinken]

What is the cost to buy one of these phones? If you have a phone already (i have an AU) could you boot that up as a pre-pay so you could have the same number??? I ask because im coming back for a 5week trip and really want to have a phone then

It depends on which Au phone you have. You can change your contract to a pre-paid service with some Au mobiles but not all of them. I think Au`s pre-paid service is pretty expensive though. You must pay 3000円 every 30 days. If you don`t pay this you can`t use your phone and you can`t get phone calls too.

[FG Lurker]

What is the cost to buy one of these phones? If you have a phone already (i have an AU) could you boot that up as a pre-pay

You will need a gaijin card (or Japanese driver's license I guess) to buy a phone. It would probably be the same thing if you wished to re-activate your current phone, either in a prepaid or contract mode.

so you could have the same number???

Unless you have been paying your keitai bills in your absence someone else will very likely have your old number now.

I ask because im coming back for a 5week trip and really want to have a phone then

Hope you have a great time!!

[ichigo partygirl]

drat i forgot about the new strictness on gaijin cards for getting phones...how annoying. BTW im really keen to have a few drinks with fellow FGs when im back. So if you're around in August-September let me know (PM me) and we can sort something out

[Kuang_Grade]

Well, I said it looked good for a prepaid phone, which are often at least 2 years behind the technology curve...The current softbank phones are step up looks wise from what they were offering prepaid customers not that long ago...such as the V102Ds and J-SA06s
http://www.katch.ne.jp/~ongei/keitai/pj.htm



Partygirl, if your current phone at home is a 3G phone that can handle UMTS, you might be able to rent a SIM from softbank and plug that into your phone...The rate is only 105 yen per day and the charges are similar to those of prepaid phones...but this is something relatively new and I suspect that most people wouldn't be able to go this route (some EU folks might have a shot, almost no US folks have a chance, don't know what the phone market is like in NZ).
http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/phones/sim3g.php

[Greji]

don't know what the phone market is like in NZ).
http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/phones/sim3g.php

They got three phones in the country and all three have cranks. Where Ichigo lives, they're still using tin cans connected by string.

[ichigo partygirl]

They got three phones in the country and all three have cranks. Where Ichigo lives, they're still using tin cans connected by string.

string?? come on we still use flax fibers twisted together

[Greji]

string?? come on we still use flax fibers twisted together

Every try goat hair?

[Mulboyne]

Softbank has announed new prepaid phone call charges of 9 yen for 6 seconds to be introduced from the 1st of June. They were 1 yen for 1 second but these charges were doubled to 2 yen per second. The revisions are therefore a cut in charges but still 50% above the old tariff.

[Takechanpoo]

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