Foreign Iphone will work in Japan?

[unkosando]

I have an Iphone I bought overseas... can I replace the sim and use it in Japan?

Thanks in advance.

[FG Lurker]

I have an Iphone I bought overseas... can I replace the sim and use it in Japan?

Maybe.

Is your phone unlocked?

If it is locked to its original carrier then you need to jailbreak and unlock.

Once it is unlocked you can use it on Softbank or Docomo, but with a couple of caveats:

Softbank are assholes. They won't let you use an overseas iPhone on their network with one of their unlimited packet data plans. Don't try to get around this, you'll just get a massive packet bill (several hundred thousand yen probably) cause they monitor this with the phone's unique IMEI now.

Docomo are more willing to work with overseas phones but at a price. You can use one of their PC-oriented unlimited packet plans, but the monthly data charge cap is about 13,000yen, a lot higher than their normal phone cap of around 6000yen.

[American Oyaji]

If you are with AT&T, they can set your account up for foreign use if you tell them before-hand.

[unkosando]

Shit!... Sounds like a lot of hassle.

How much are new iphones going for in Japan?

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Shit!... Sounds like a lot of hassle.

How much are new iphones going for in Japan?

don't think you can buy them outright. FGL would know.

if you don't have a work/residence permit, you can't buy one in japan anyway.

[unkosando]

Thanks CYKA and AO... Coming back to Japan on a spouse visa from India. Over here they cost about $700US.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Thanks CYKA and AO... Coming back to Japan on a spouse visa from India. Over here they cost about $700US.

get your wife to sign the contract for you then.

again, FGL will be the expert here, but i don't think you can actually buy one outright. think you have to buy it over a 6 or 12 month payment plan.

[FG Lurker]

Shit!... Sounds like a lot of hassle.

How much are new iphones going for in Japan?

Coming back to Japan on a spouse visa from India. Over here they cost about $700US.

Softbank have become increasingly gaijin-unfriendly over the past few years. Some people have no problems signing up with them, others have had to provide a Japanese credit card (nearly impossible to get for most non-permanent gaijin). Softbank's credit check seems very arbitrary and they don't tell you why you have been denied.

Docomo on the other hand seems to have been improving their customer service. They've gone from not giving a fuck about anyone to apparently actually working to meet customer needs. It's a bizzaro world for anyone used to the old-time world of NTT. It also looks like Docomo have started to allow you to register your overseas phone's IMEI with them, which would then allow you to use their smartphone-oriented data plans. I haven't tried this myself and only heard about it very recently (ie since my last post above).

I wouldn't buy a phone to bring to Japan. Instead I would go and talk to Docomo once you get here and see what they have to say about using an overseas phone on their network. If it looks like IMEI registration is workable then I would order an unlocked iPhone 4 (or Android phone) from overseas and register it with Docomo on one of their smartphone unlimited packet plans. You'll get WAY better performance (2x faster a lot of the time) and WAY better coverage. They also tend to have the right amount of capacity for a given area, unlike Softbank that is often woefully under serviced.

Basically, stay away from Softbank if at all possible.

[FG Lurker]

get your wife to sign the contract for you then.

again, FGL will be the expert here, but i don't think you can actually buy one outright. think you have to buy it over a 6 or 12 month payment plan.

You can actually buy them outright and Softbank now forces some gaijin to do this. It doesn't work out any cheaper though and may actually work out more expensive. (I don't know if you still get the phone subsidy if you sign a 2 year contract when you buy the phone outright. If you do get the subsidy then the price works out the same. If you don't get it then the phone will be considerably more expensive to buy outright.) It's a massive scam though cause if you buy a phone outright in Japan it is still locked to Softbank and unlocking an iPhone is a total PITA. You're much better off to buy an unlocked phone from outside Japan and use it on Docomo.

[CrankyBastard]

You can get a used one.

http://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/inshop-mall/Apple+SoftBank+iPhone+3G/-/sid.220897-st.A

[FG Lurker]

You can get a used one.

http://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/inshop-mall/Apple+SoftBank+iPhone+3G/-/sid.220897-st.A

...except those prices are highway robbery...

(Plus you're still locked to Softbank with those phones.)

[CrankyBastard]

[FG Lurker]

[CrankyBastard]

I don't anticipate upgrading my 3GS to iOS 4, even though some of the features are appealing.

Thanks for the info.
Been running 3GS on iOS4 for a week now. Speed isnt a problem, if anything the device seems more responsive, but battery consumption is definitely worse.

[FG Lurker]

Thanks for the info.
Been running 3GS on iOS4 for a week now. Speed isnt a problem, if anything the device seems more responsive, but battery consumption is definitely worse.

That's definitely interesting. Reports I have read have many people complaining about how much the phone has slowed down. I'll do some more reading and maybe end up doing the upgrade after all...

If you're looking for a portable battery to top up your phone on the move I highly recommend one of these. Bought mine for about 5000yen ~18 months ago. Works perfectly with the 3GS and any other gadget I have tried that can charge via USB.

[BigInJapan]

I don't anticipate upgrading my 3GS to iOS 4, even though some of the features are appealing.

I've been running iOS 4 on my 3GS since it came out last week, and I haven't noticed any problems, or slowdowns. Photos in sub-folders were reduced to low quality, but re-syncing fixed that.
I use mine mostly over Wi-Fi at home, and the speed is about the same, maybe slightly faster uploading.

[FG Lurker]

I've been running iOS 4 on my 3GS since it came out last week, and I haven't noticed any problems, or slowdowns. Photos in sub-folders were reduced to low quality, but re-syncing fixed that.
I use mine mostly over Wi-Fi at home, and the speed is about the same, maybe slightly faster uploading.

What I am concerned about is similar to what I experienced when I upgraded my original iPhone 3G to iOS3.0: The UI got very, very slow. Annoyingly slow. Network performance probably didn't change much but the interface got a lot less responsive.

Regarding network performance though, I just ran the iPhone speedtest.net app over wifi from here in Osaka. Tokyo server, iPhone 3GS, iOS 3.1.2. Results were:

Download: 13.49Mbps
Upload: 15.24Mbps
Ping: 64ms

(These results are actually a bit slow compared to what I get with the iPhone on Wifi with the home eo-Hikari connection.)

I guess I'll wait until I come across someone who has done the upgrade and see how their phone compares side-by-side.

[American Oyaji]

It WAS a hassle upgrading my 3GS to iOS4.

I basically had to set it up as a new iPhone from scratch. Lost a LOT of settings. But this is the first time I've done it, so I know what to do in the future.

A lot of my problems though, were app specific, not related to the iOS itself.

(Dealing with Cisco these days, so mixing up IOS and iOS)