Around the World
Japanese Phones in US
Hi,
I am going to be in Japan for a few weeks. I am curious, does anyone know if I can buy a GSM Unlocked cellphone for use in with a US/Canadian carrier?
Help would be appreciated.
Thanks much,
Eric
I am going to be in Japan for a few weeks. I am curious, does anyone know if I can buy a GSM Unlocked cellphone for use in with a US/Canadian carrier?
Help would be appreciated.
Thanks much,
Eric
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Nope. They don't use GSM in Japan. Japan and Korea have always been the two oddball countries that mostly use their own technologies and/or frequency bands that are incompatible with the rest of the world.
That's slowly starting to change as they move toward standardized WCDMA in Japan and EVDO in Korea, but the frequencies are still different compared to networks in the U.S.
They are starting to come out with a few special kinds of "world phones" in those countries, but they are new and expensive, and I have yet to hear about unlocked versions that could be used with a US carrier's SIM card.
That's slowly starting to change as they move toward standardized WCDMA in Japan and EVDO in Korea, but the frequencies are still different compared to networks in the U.S.
They are starting to come out with a few special kinds of "world phones" in those countries, but they are new and expensive, and I have yet to hear about unlocked versions that could be used with a US carrier's SIM card.
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Sanyo has had the Global Passport cdma phones available through KDDI (Au) in Japan for a couple years now, but roaming outside of Japan is extremely expensive.
WCDMA/UMTS from Vodafone is the best bet for a world phone in Japan. NTT DoCoMo's WCDMA "FOMA" service is a tweak of the 3gpp spec and unfortunately is not compatible with other WCDMA serivces elsewhere in the world.
CDMA is also in Japan, some OEMs are developing EVDO, but one could argue the "worldliless" of CDMA.
WCDMA/UMTS from Vodafone is the best bet for a world phone in Japan. NTT DoCoMo's WCDMA "FOMA" service is a tweak of the 3gpp spec and unfortunately is not compatible with other WCDMA serivces elsewhere in the world.
CDMA is also in Japan, some OEMs are developing EVDO, but one could argue the "worldliless" of CDMA.
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I pretty sure in japan and korea they do NOT have conventional 900/1900/1800 MHz band, but I was in there last winter and I had rented form these guys in D.C, InTouch USA Japan phone rental, they have pretty good rates. the ph number is 1-703-222-7161
hope this helps
dai nayee
hope this helps
dai nayee
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