Japan Prepaid SIM

The odd one

In France we have far much greater prepaid SIM provider. For minimum 10 euros every 3 months people can call you and you can use that money as a credit for 20 cent a minute.
You'll just have to pay a sim card for 5 euros but you'll also need an unlocked phone. But it is quite easy to find nowadays (you could unlock you iPhone ! ^^)
http://www.simyo.fr/telephonie-mobile/offre-et-tarifs.html
I even bought a software unlocked japanese keitai that work with that sim card (Althought I think it is forbiden in Japan, there is a big black market in Japan.

I think MVNO are what you are looking for.
You can look up for MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator ).

I just used my local provider's international roaming, which meant I was on either the Docomo or Softbank network depending on location. All my call/message fees were the same as at home, just with Japan as the "local" region instead of Australia. I only wanted my phone in case of emergencies (lost credit card, got separated from my travelling buddies, need to contact hotel etc) so that suited me pretty well.

The downside was that, even though the usual call/message rates of my plan applied within Japan, none of my data allowance did... and data was charged at 20c per megabyte or something like that. It definitely would have been handy to be able to use maps and internet on my iPhone while out and about, but it would have left me with a hefty bill so I avoided it. Still, if I'd ever gotten really lost the option would have been there, and that's at least better than not being allowed to use data at all.

As for Australia, I haven't used pre-paid here in a very long time but I pre-paid SIMs seem to be readily available at all sorts of stores. Call/message rates are probably reasonable, but data is stingy enough on post-paid/plan services here so I wouldn't expect much value from pre-paid at all.

I wish I could help you with info Danny. iPhones are notoriously tricky to travel internationally with. I think the fact that you said you are going to want unlimited data when you travel, that's going to be the problem, i've never heard of a prepaid sim offering that. One thing I do know a little about is all the horror stories from people who have taken their iPhones overseas and got hit with nasty international roaming and data charges, some bills in the 10's of thousands of dollars. Seems like most of these people are from the USA like me though. Of course this doesn't really matter, cause you wont be traveling with your carriers sim in it overseas hopefully, lol. You might want to just turn off international roaming or take the sim out and just use it as a pimped out iPod Touch, then pick up a prepaid unit in the airport when you arrive. But those services you found might be ok, just watch that it's truly unlimited data.
I'm still on my iPhone 2G (over 2 years old now) and have never even jailbroke it. 8-)

In Singapore, prepaid SIM card must be registered under the name of the person who will be using it. Non-citizen must produce passport. This is to counter terrorists and loan sharks.

using softbank pre-paid phone for a while.. 3000yen for a pre-paid card.. then you have to buy a new one once you used every yen on it ^^..

I was using this only for voice.. and it was nice, with the 3000 yen =3 month at least.. so 1000yen/month ^^

now I have switch for another softbank, but not a pre-paid any more, wich mean I can use internet to check my mail and so..

I plan to take an iphone soon, but maybe I will wait to see if a new version comming out??

So, if I have understood what you said, and iphone with unlimited data = 4410yen/month? is it correct? never more then this?

I had somebad suprise with my actual phone, and had to call softbank a lot of time to desactivate a lot of service I never ask for.. ( one day I received a bill of 7200yen! and did nothing special! softbank told me I have a special service of "something I didn t understand" and was paying each time I received a spam mail! bad joke! )

Hmmm... Looks like I'd have to go with the Hotspot option in Japan since I don't want to go to the hassle of renting other phones. Then again, one could always just use the hotel's wireless connection, right...?

And that Prepaid China Mobile SIM card looks like just the thing I need in HK! Been using CSL whenever I visit but that only covers voice. Thanks for the info, DC! I'll be looking into it.

As for foreign mobile use in the UK, you can always go for a PAYG (pay as you go) SIM card and pay for whatever you use, no subscription fee. Plenty around.

The 3G £15/month looks like a good deal but it's "unlimited internet access" doesn't include using your phone as a modem and there is a "1GB fair use" cap for using the internet on your phone - There's no such thing as "unlimited" unfortunately ^^;

If you just want to use a laptop on the move, you can also go for the USB "dongle" option which can also be pay as you go. Don't have to worry about finding a wireless network nearby.

http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/Choose_a_price_plan

One thing often overlooked when people are roaming internationally is the 2G/3G frequencies used for each country. All the cellphones, as long as they are not too old, will probably work with all four 2G(GSM) frequency bands (850/900/1800/1900); however, I don't think any cellphone is capable of working with all five? 3G(UMTS) frequency bands (850/900/1700/1900/2100) right now, including iPhone, so you might not be able to use 3G networks when you are overseas and have to stick to 2G networks.

That being said, I think Asia/Europe/Japan use the same 3G frequency bands so your iPhone/3G phones purchased in those countries will work fine with 3G networks in any of those countries, while the US/Canada ones might not. I know my HTC Hero purchased in Canada will not work with 3G networks in Taiwan, so you might want to double-check!

You will have to unlock your iPhone. Depends an how you did the jailbreak of your 3GS if it is possible though. Some crap going on there with the updated baseband/bootrom from Apple. And how did you "accidentally" jailbreak it? ^^

It seems like getting a pre-paid SIM card is a viable option to do when in Japan. Or your cell phone provider can offer you an international plan that is geared to the country that you are going to and charges you accordingly.

Getting a prepaid sim is rather easy in Belgium. All carriers offer this option, since it seems a lot more popular than contracts among teenagers. (Contracts can get very expensive if you can't keep a hold of yourself) And in that way it's also popular with parents since they can somewhat control the amount their kids spend on calls and texts.

Plus you often get X amount of free texts whenever you top off your credit within 3 or 4 months since your last top-up. Sometimes you even get up to 15.000 text messages for free. (Though I wonder if there's anyone who can manage to text that much... (O_O) )

The only thing that can be annoying to foreigners is the fact that there's no such thing as a cellphone rental service. (As far as I'm aware of at least) So you're obligated to get yourself an unlocked phone. You can get some for 20 Euros, but don't expect those devices to be data ready.

Relatively easy for you to get a prepaid SIM in Hong Kong, most mobile outlets sell at least one.

I never knew why they had to make it so difficult in Japan. Last I went there, I had to rent a Softbank phone instead of using my own, as I have when visiting Malaysia, Australia or UK. Looks like I'll have to get meself an iPhone before I go study in Japan sometime next year.

BTW, Danny, when you coming to HK anyway?

For those who plan to stay in Germany for more than a few days you can try to get a o2 "Freikarte" which translates to 'complimentary ticket' or 'free pass'.
They are free and if you charge them with 15 Euro they'll give you 150 free SMS as well. A minute airtime costs 15 cent. It is not available always you have to see if they have the promotion running. It is mail order so you need to be able to give an address in Germany.

Other than this you can buy pre-paid cards for 10-20 Euro from all 4 network operators or even at discount convenience stores (Aldi card or blau card). Don't know about data plans for those though.

The cards should word in any phone (i.e. your own) unless you buy them bundled with a phone.

Thanks for the informative post Danny! I'm moving to Japan and this is helpful! :)

This may be be easier than getting a global SIM card. Thanks for the info.

Hong Kong is pretty easy. 3HK sell prepaid SIMs in vending machines in places like Wan Chai ferry terminal which covers things like data and voice tarrifs in different flavours. They also have lots of great shops. I prefer China Mobile's SIM which gives me a Chinese and Hong Kong number. I keep both my home (UK) SIM and China Mobile SIM in a Samsung SGH-D780 which is a basic voice phone with a dual SIM capability built in.

In the UK, Vodafone does a reasonable pre-paid SIM. I have one put oneside along with a dongle for when the interwebz breaks because BT can be a bit tardy fixing your line. If you were travelling to more than the UK in Europe you could do worse then have a look at MaxROAM (maxroam.com) and buy a sim before you came

hi danny! I'm from hong kong but currently studying in Australia. everytime I go back I just buy a new sim card, it's easy, no identification required. you just go in 7eleven or circle k at the airport and ask them for a sim. those sim cards expire in 6 months or so if inactive after activated. with the Internet plan u think it's peoples but it's not 3g Internet. there are free government wifi spots around anyway so I don't think a data plan is necessary.

Prices seem really high in Japan. Here in Finland prices are a lot smaller. There's no monthly fees. Incoming calls are free and calls, MMS and SMS made by you are ~0.066€/minute/each. Data plans with unlimited usage range from 9.80€/month (384 kbit/s) to 34.90€/month (5 Mbit/s). You can also buy different kinds of packages which include a certain amount of messages, calls, etc.

if my calculations+interpretation is right, the 0.32 yen per packet comes to some seriously much yen per megabyte

per packet = 128 bytes (from their site http://www.softbank-rental.jp/campaign/jpng/ )
so 1kb = 1024/128 > 8 packets per kb
1 mb = 1024kb * 8 > 8192 packets per mb
so per mb = 8192 * 0.32 > 2621.44 yen per mb

i think ill stick to not using the data lol

If your looking for a SIM in UK personally I would so do not go for "3" just due to the fact that even though it is "dirt cheap" from personal experience it has the worst connectivity, and sometimes calls don't even go through.
Many a time i've tried to call someone on the 3 network and ended up wasting all my credit cause it wouldn't even ring and went straight to voicemail ^^;

I do roam when I return back to Malaysia as I live and work in Singapore. The most expensive part of roaming are data roaming which I turn off when crossing the border.

d@@b

i live in the uk and personally i would go for "3" i've been with them for 6 years and i have never had any problems. the 3G signal is only dodgy in the countryside but in towns and cities
its really fast. and unlimited means unlimited, i regularly go on hlj and here a few times a day using about 20mb wort of data a day and have never been charged anymore. tis brilliant ^__^

When I visit Japan I hire a phone at Narita as soon as I get through Immigration.

I always use AU KDDI because the first time I did it they were the nearest booth and they have a loyalty scheme.

The cost is higher than the Softbank cost but goes down the more times you hire. Also, the handset is included in the cost.

I don't use the data services, only basic call functions, because I use my computers for data.

I think it is a complete pain in the butt that Japan doesn't have 'Pay As You Go' services like the UK. In London I can buy a phone for £10 and pay only 20p per minute for calls and 10p per text flat rate. It is a very good solution if you only want basic functions and don't want to make a lot of calls.

"Found this for the UK > http://threestore.three.co.uk/sim/default.aspx Unlimited Internets for 15 pounds a month? @.@"

It says SIM contract, so you probably have to go through a credit check to get it, which is a hassle if you don't have a UK bank account as you'll most likely fail it.

Before my current plan,I've been using O2's pay as you go SIM that gives me unlimited text(within UK only) and unlimited internet for the month when I top up £15. Simple and easy!!

she looks like she's trying to hide behind her scarf. "you do not see me, move along."

Here in Australia, when we buy the prepaid sim, its ours. Seeing how in Japan it must be rented for 105 yen per day seems inconvenient.

The only carrier of iphones over here is AT&T, but I don't know about any prepaid SIMs though...

For dear Danny and other people who are interested what "cost per packet" means:
I personally have never heard of such an offer, sounds kind of weird to me and it should come out pretty expensive.
Anyway, a packet is a single message that is transferred through the Internet from start point (like web server) to end point (like client). The amount of data that's transferred in a single packet is variable and is usually depends on the amount of errors on the line (along with other factors which by the way could depend on the ISP too). The more errors there are on the line, the less data is transferred with each packet, and that of course depends on the reception quality and amount of interruptions like magnetic waves (in case of mobile devices), That's about it.
So, to conclude, I wouldn't get that package, maybe only in case the reception is perfect, and if the ISP doesn't minimize the packet size or something...

As far as I know, Softbank is the only provider in Japan that rents out sim cards by themselves to visitors without residency. The other providers only provide phone+sim card together. Bit of a pain in the arse since I'd rather use my own keitai than their prepaid phones. Also a bit annoying how much paperwork that's required to get a cell phone and contract in Japan. The worst is how they require proof of residency and stuff to even buy a phone itself. And western DRM has nothing on how locked-down Japanese phones are.

Looks useful for when I'll visit Tokyo tomorrow.. Softbank huh. Gotta check if they support international calls back to Singapore! :D

I still want an AU phone... *cough*

Prepaid card purchased in Malaysia is not as easy as other did to their system. Everyone must be registered and verify then you'll be authorize to use the sim card. I have been using postpaid plan for awhile now and very happy about it with a RM35 limit each month which I can't exceed it :D

Hm, I don't see 0.32/packet fee listed on the softbank page referenced?
All I see is also cryptic 16 yen/6 seconds. http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/prepaid_plan.html which also makes little sense.

I wonder if I can just ask my Japanese friend to buy a softbank prepaid sim and it would work in my iphone (I might even accidentally jailbreak/unlock it for this purpose)? Just want google maps to work, in case I am lost or something.

Easy to get SIM here, just register (name and I.C. number included) choose your number then it's ready to use. Don't forget to charge the credit before the dateline and have to pay $25 once every year for the line your using (for example BMobile).

For those of you going for a trip to Japan and wanting a phone, I would highly recommend getting Softbank Prepaid phones. I have the 730SC and getting the phone was a breeze and the price wasn't bad either. Once you run out of minutes, you can buy more minutes at any convenience stores. Plus you get unlimited messages(mail).

Its a funny thing that Danny posted this when he did. My dad is taking a business trip out of the US and called me back here using Magicjack (that computer phone call free thing) saying his cell phone doesn't work in the Philippines. I was talking with my mom about it saying that we make sure to get SIM cards that work wherever we go out of the country. I can refer to this article if when I plan to go to Japan for SIM cards.

Would be funny if you blended in with the mannequins who kind of look real in the background, and did a contest to guess who was real and who wasn't. LOL

im using softbank too,because most of my friends use it :)
n as danny said,phone call is free from 1am to 9pm^^

You mean Internet data plans on your phone that you apply for in your home country doesn't work in Japan?

You didn't mention getting a phone or SIM from a counter at Narita airport.

For instance, you can rent a Softbank phone for free from the counter called Mobal. There are no rental charges, so it's a really cost-effective way to keep in touch. If you want to check it out, the website is www.mobalnarita.com.

Have fun!

James

When I went, I intended on getting a prepaid SIM for my phone, but didn't realize you had to make a reservation before arriving. I'm glad you posted the prices though, I couldn't find any indication on how much it would cost me.

Fortunately, my phone was able to roam in Japan, though that was a pretty expensive option. I didn't have a daily charge, but it cost me somewhere around $3/minute to use. Text messages were $0.50 per outbound message, and I don't even want to know what the data charge would have been. 0.35JPY per KB seems pretty reasonable though.

If you ever come to the US again, there are only two SIM card carriers here. Of the two, only one of them actually has decent coverage everywhere, though the other has good coverage in certain cities. We have ATT (the carrier that has rights to the iPhone) and T-Mobile. Of the two, I'd go with ATT for coverage, though both offer prepaid options. The best way to get one would be to go to the store, and buy a SIM card and pay for minutes. I've never done it, so no idea what the charge for a card would be...

i rented a softbank sim from kansai airport last july.

the problem with renting a sim only is that softbank DOES NOT provide you internet and data settings.

it is a major inconvenience not in the sense that you can't check your gmail or surf the net etc., but the biggest problem is that since in japan, you can't send SMS across different networks, you will need to send MMS (email) instead. i think this is well known in japan, which is why people send emails instead of SMS.

without appropriate settings, neither can you receive emails from friends. you can see that a message has been received, but you can't download the message without data, which is frustrating to say the least. people are not going to assume or know that you are using a prepaid sim and that you can't receive their emails, and send them anyway.

if all you are going to use a phone for is to contact home or to make calls only, there isn't a problem. but keeping in touch with friends within japan will be problematic.

Was just in the UK last week, a few notes:

1) At Heathrow, you can buy a SIM card out of a vending machine, which is really cool (there's no ID requirements in the UK), but watch out; they're often a bit of a rip-off as I didn't get any credit on my 10 GBP SIM card.

2) Watch out for "unlimited" Internet that really isn't.

3) It's difficult to top-up online without a UK credit card, at least with Orange; thankfully, every convenience store and post office can give you a top-up credit for cash.

4) All my UK experience is with Orange. They have a "Camel" prepaid plan that is designed for international visitors and has good rates for calling abroad. Their mobile Internet service is activated by default on the SIM and is capped at a maximum 2 GBP per day (or less if you're not using it heavily, charged per-kilobyte).

HTH, and please tell anyone you can in Japan that their system of not allowing short-term visitors to get SIM cards sucks...

Gonna rent one for my dad since he will be staying here for about 2 weeks.

Just go anywhere in HK and you can get a prepaid SIM for dirt cheap! (some places are cheaper)

In the US, they sell prepaid phones and if you want to add more time you have to get a prepaid card to give it some more minutes. Really stupid and no internet. It's really hard to go incognito when the government can listen in whenever they want....

Interesting info, have to remember this the next time I go to Japan.

Considering how all the best phones are Japan-first or Japan-only it would be silly not to consider buying one to unlock and bring home. Especially if you are from the benighted US, where we get just about everything decent last. I'm still assuming that GSM phones are pretty much the same where the radio is concerned between here and Japan.

I rented the Softbank phone while I was there. It was so convenient as you can recharge your prepaid sim card if it runs out of money online. Just wished they had options to choose from instead of only that phone.

If it's not been said, you might want to be wary of a 3 sim in the UK, their network is different to what most providers use and not all that many phones work on it.
Orange and Vodafone have the best coverage, o2 is the original iphone carrier in the uk, their data network sucks though (got one of the 3g usb dongles, and the connection on it drops all the time).

Data's still pretty expensive over here, but you can get offers on most pay and go sims too, something like http://shop.o2.co.uk/tariffs/Pay_and_Go/benefits/Text_and_Web is a pretty good deal, most other carriers do similar pay&go deals too, but watch out for 'fair use policies'. Unlimited may be an english word, but apparently no one over here understands what it means....

Don't know anything about prepaid sims. Didn't know you can even buy just the sims.

Gonna rent one for my dad since he will be staying here for about 2 weeks.