MV10

We're taking a two-week vacation in Japan in several months. We have US G1s that I plan to unlock one of these days. Is it possible to buy a SIM card that will work in Japan for the duration of our vacation?

MV10

Thanks. I wasn't sure if they use the same frequencies and protocols in Japan.

Heck, I've never bought a SIM that way... is it possible to buy one with a data plan? I use e-mail and messaging a lot more than I use voice calls.

What defines a factory reset, and what causes them? Are you talking about something like Google pushing a new OS version down or something like that?

MV10

Thanks for the info.

MV10

It turns out that SIM card rental is probably not the best option for a G1 owner. All the options are very expensive.

T-Mo will let you roam in Japan. A typical month of usage between my wife's G1 and my own would cost around $2200 on top of the regular $140-ish monthly service charge. We'll only be there about 12 days, but nearly $900 for typical usage is still too steep for me. (We're data-heavy users, lots of e-mail.) In Japan, the data connection will be 3G (UMTS).

I started looking for SIM rentals, and the only thing you can do in-country (without an alien non-resident card with more than 90 days until expiration and possibly other immigration-related documentation) is rent a SIM that'll let you make voice calls only, and then at rates which are similar to T-Mobile's international roaming rate. But for me the clincher was: no data access at all, period. Apparently it's illegal for them to give you data access. They've created quite a few new laws in the past couple years to prevent "illegal cell phone usage" (whatever that means).

However, pre-paid and rental SIMs are available in advance, from companies outside of Japan (generally European), but their usage costs are similar to T-Mobile's roaming pricing, plus the overhead of setup and the rental fee itself... no real point since T-Mobile's automatic roaming will get you the same thing.

The best deal actually appears to be renting a completely different phone for the trip. Places like rentafonejapan.com have rate structures that work out to maybe one third of the cost -- but then you have some random phone number and e-mail address for the duration. I'm thinking about doing that and forwarding everything, although that obviously strays far afield from my original question about using the G1 over there.

It's a shame they make it so prohibitively expensive. $15 per meg of data? Ridiculous...

Anyway, maybe the info will help somebody else at some point.

Last edited by MV10; April 30th, 2009 at 11:33 AM.

dynodroid

MV10, wow, thanks for that information. I'm not leaving this country anytime soon, unfortunately, but after looking at those prices it might be even longer before I leave!

Have fun on your trip!

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MV10

Good thinking, I guess. Hard to imagine why I'd factory-reset in the middle of a vacation, but your point is valid.

cwaltherp22

i was wondering if an unlocked hero will work in Japan. Thanks so much.