3G Prepaid Service | Softbank

[Guest]

[color="DarkOrchid"][SIZE="2"][font="Verdana"]I am thinking about getting the new Panasonic 705Px mobile phone. It looks a lot nicer than the other prepaid phones Softbank had. Here is the link to the official website for the handset here.





When Softbank was Vodafone, you could use receive e-mails for 1 year without having to top up the phone. After the change to Softbank, you could only have about 30 days I think before you have to pay to receive e-mails.

Does anybody know with the new 3G price plan for this new phone, if you can have the same e-mail address for 1 year and receive e-mails or will you have to pay every 30 days or so to keep the address?

Thanks [/color][/font][/SIZE]

[Kuang_Grade]

While far from clear, it sounds like they've figured out about that 'pay for two months...get SMS messages for a year' diddle and don't want deal with it on their 3G phones.

https://www.softbank.jp/mb/en/prepaid/3G/index.html

*2 If card balance validity is under 30 days at application or automatic renewal, card balance takes precedence and Unlimited Mail is canceled. To use up to 30 days, add airtime (recharge) before card balance expires.

*3 Receiving S! Mail requires a subscription to Unlimited Mail.

My reading of this is that to get SMS, you need to be on unlimited mail, which means you have keep adding value to the phone, since if you have less than 30 days of credit, unlimited mail turns off. But there isn't much detail to work off on either the english or Japanese prepaid 3G pages, so it is far from clear what the terms are exactly.

But the get SMS for a year seems to be in effect still for the non-3G service (6-2 service) but you wouldn't get the phone you've posted about

https://www.softbank.jp/mb/en/prepaid/about/usage_period.html

They have english speaking staff at these shops, although you are supposed to call ahead and make sure one of them will be around.

https://www.softbank.jp/mb/en/shop/index.html

[Guest]

[color="DarkOrchid"]Thank you for the reply. It`s a shame that they won`t let you receive e-mail for free for a year with the new 3G phone.

I have a 2G Toshiba Prepaid phone a the moment but after 30 days, if I don`t pay to keep my e-mail address I loose my address. Before that I had a nice Vodaphone prepaid phone and I could receive e-mail free for a year.

I know I must be a bit of a cheep skate, but I can`t afford the contract phones, as I have to tie up about 2000 yen every month even if I don`t use the phone. Wish they got back to the old system.[/color]