If you have a iPhone and it's sim free (fortunately!), what is the best plan for you?
1. Review - How to choose a mobile carrier and plan?
Only what you need to do is checking the following table!
You wanna have...
Facetime | Make a Call | Personal Hotspot | Your Plan |
No (Not available) | Yes | Up to 7.2Mbps | (1) NTT Docomo |
Up to 300kbps | (2) Japan Communications | ||
No | Up to 7.2Mbps | (3) NTT Docomo with Data Only Plan | |
YES | YES | Not available | (4) Softbank |
(1) NTT Docomo
If you have an iPhone with this plan, a maximum charge of ¥10,395 (approx. 100USD) will be applied. You can make a Personal Hotspot connection with fantastic 7.2Mbps speed (in theory) and can't activate Facetime. And you manually have to configure the APN settings with "mopera.net".
(2) Japan Communications
If you are okay with a bit compromised Personal Hotspot functionality, Japan Communications (Nihon tuushin or 日本通信) will be your choice. As a NTT Docomo MVNO, they give you a better network coverage than Softbank that is the official iPhone carrier in Japan, and a better price than Docomo, which is approximately ¥6,000 or 60USD.
http://www.j-com.co.jp/en/index.html (Unfortunately, they don't have English pages for their iPhone options as of April 2011)
(3) NTT Docomo with Data Only Plan
If you give up making a call with your iPhone, a maximum charge of ¥5,985 (approx. 60USD) will be appled, which is the difference between (1) and this.
(4) Softbank
They have the most affordable plan and poorest network coverage. If you have to use Facetime, this is the only japanese mobile carrier you can go with.
2. Verdict - the best plan?
(1) is the best. And if you are absolutely unnecessary with making a call from your iPhone, (3) is for you.
In my case, I started my sim free iPhone 4 with Japan Communications and now have changed to NTT Docomo since this month. This is because that Japan Communications was the only carrier offering a micro sim for iPhone 4 until March 2011.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask or tweet me a question.
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| NTT docomo micro sim card |
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| Personal hotspot is working! |
15 件のコメント:
Hello, thanks for your article. You wrote that FaceTime is not available on DoCoMo, but how about Skype or other similar Apps that permit video calls?
Hi Paolo,
Yes, you can make a skype video call on Docomo 3G network. (Though smoothness of the video call depends on the traffic on the network.)
Hi Yohsuke,
I am going to live in Japan from June 2011. I was thinking of buying an unlocked iphone from Hong Kong - can I use this in Japan with docomo?
I know that with Softbank, they do not accept mobile phones from overseas (even if they are unlocked).
I don't need facetime but I would need to have a data package to use Skype etc.
Thanks for your help!
Mari
Hi Mari,
Yes, you can use an unlocked iPhone with docomo. And Skype works fine on their 3G network.
Actually I have been playing my iPhone with docomo since this April and got no problem except Facetime.
Hope it would help.
Yohsuke
Thanks for your quick reply!
I just have one more question - I'm only staying in Japan for 6 months. So I can't sign a contract for a long time. Is this going to be a problem?
Docomo will charge you about 10,000 yen as penalty if you cancel within 24 month. That may be a problem.
In that case, you have another option "Japan Communications" that offers a micro-sim for iPhone which works on Docomo's 3G network. A contract with them have no restriction and give you no penalty if you cancel it in 6 months or so.
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/sim_tm/index.html
(Seems they don't offer English pages for their products. Is this problem for you?)
Hmm, I think I would be happy to pay 10,000 yen to cancel the contract as it's not crazy expensive.
However, you've mentioned that "Japan Communications" is only about 6000/month, which is quite different to the 10,000/month for Docomo.
I'm interested that you chose Docomo over J-Communicaitons. Is this because the personal hotspot was much better? And if so, does it really make a big difference?
Sorry, I meant to say you chose Docomo (with ¥10,395 maximum charge) over J-Communications which is only about ¥6000. What made you choose this?
Your guess is right. The better Personal Hotspot got me to choose Docomo.
I use the function for my laptop with "network consuming services" like youtube or downloading huge files and Personal Hotspot with docomo works well for that. That's why I chose Docomo over JC. (If I used only text based application like email or twitter, JC's Personal Hotspot with 300kbps speed would be enough.)
Thanks for your help Yohsuke.
An update on my progress:
I bought an unlocked iPhone and went to apply at J-comm but realised that you need a credit card to pay for the bills.
After going to many Japanese banks and having my credit card application declined (it is so hard to get a credit card in Japan!) I have decided to do to Docomo and use their services - as they don't require you to have a CC.
Actually, they give me the option 'pake hodai' for the internet which starts at about 5000 yen a month. But for phones that don't belong to the Docomo brand, they say there is a chance that this fee will increase to 10,000 per month (which is what you're using, I guess).
Do you ever find that you don't go up to that limit?
No, I think it's practically impossible not to reach the limit.
Hi Yohsuke, great thread! I am thinking of getting a sim free 4s from France and using it on Docomo. But I am worried about what Mari posted back in April about the 5000 yen pae hodai increasing to 10,000. Any new updates on this? Of course, I'd like to take advantage of free tethering, too.
Hello, Chuckkayser,
Yes, the limit of about 10,000 yen for pae hodai is not changed. But from this November, it will be reduced to about 8,000 yen.
Okay, thanks. I guess I'll get a docomo machine.
FYI, basically a good news for whom want to use a docomo sim for an unlocked iPhone.
According to an article from PC Watch, docomo will offer a data plan with unlimited tethering functionalities for about 6,000 JPY. The plan is intended for Xi, their LTE based smartphones, but the report said that they confirmed with docomo it would be available for non-LTE (FOMA) devices too.
Source (Japanese only):
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/column/config/20111021_485036.html
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