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Igor
10-23-2003, 04:55 PM
Hi folks!

I'm leaving for Japan in a few weeks. I'd like to know if I will be able to roam on Japan GSM networks with my T68i. How is the Japan GSM coverage? I will stay in Tokyo for a week, but the remaining time I plan to wander around in other cities, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and all the in-betweens. Is there a national GSM coverage as in Europe, or they use some other network?

Also, is there a GSM network in Hawaii?

I have a Sony Ericsson T68i triband handset , my home network is Vodafone (Omnitel Italia), and I was able to roam everywhere in Europe and Egypt.

thanks
MitzEclipse
10-23-2003, 05:29 PM
As far as I know, there is no roamable GSM network in Japan. No GSM phone will work there. I did read some articles that they're planning on deploying GSM roaming of some sort, but right now, they are using I-Mode I believe.

Hawaii has GSM with very good coverage by T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless. I'm not sure if cingular is out there.
Sid
10-23-2003, 05:45 PM
You will need to hire a phone in Japan if you wish to use mobile services there.
Ack
10-27-2003, 01:15 AM
There is no GSM in Japan. I was there in May/June and my t68i no workie :)
AL9999
10-27-2003, 04:57 AM
Yeah no GSM in Japan. I'm going there too in December and I can't take my phone with me (ToT)

There are three operators in Japan: NTT DoCoMo, au (KDDI) and Vodafone. DoCoMo and Vodafone use 2G PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) networks (unique to Japan) and 3G W-CDMA networks and au uses a CDMA2000 1x EV-DO network.

If you had a CDMA phone you could have roamed on au's network, but unfortunately there's no GSM there at all. Unless some foreign group to Japan wanted to roll out a GSM network there I can't see why they'd bother, as they're all moving on to 3G networks now...

One other option if you're not interested in renting a phone is to buy a pre-paid mobile. Vodafone sell a prepaid mobile with 3,000 yen of credit for 9,800 yen. However the credit expires in a month and the phone number assigned to the phone expires six months after purchase (if you don't buy more credit at all in that time). Plus, numbers are programmed into the phones, no SIM cards here (except for the W-CDMA network phones).

Ah well. =)