Hurricane_Chris
DDK
Every once and a while in GAF OT I see one of the "post your mobile phone" threads. I see alot of people post pictures of their phones (many of which are extremely good looking) and then breifly discuss what made them want to get it.
Most of the time people don't go into so much detail as to why they chose their phone/provider. Usually it's something like "phone A is a sexy piece of kit" or "yeah, it has a nice camera/music player" which are all valid and good reasons to upgrade to a new phone, however, recently I've been shopping around for a new phone and realized that there can be sooo much to choosing a new phone/provider that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. So I decided to start a thread up and get some general discussion regarding mobile phone looks/features/carries/selections going on.
Currently I'm living in Tokyo, Japan. I've been using KDDI's 'au' as a mobile phone service provider since I got there. I recently dropped my current phone and it's sort of on it's last legs so I've been looking around to upgrade recently. Because I'll be taking a few trips to the US and Europe from Japan with a bit of frequency I'd like to be minimaly able to take important phone calls and important e-mails while out of Japan to my Japanese phone.
Japan is sort of a weird country in that you can't bring phones into Japan and use them without making a contract ( giving up your info) and you can't easily take a phone made for Japan out of Japan and use it.
Other issues are, Japan doesn't have number portability yet so I will of course lose my current phone number (which is a total bummer) when changing providers. The providers in Japan also subsidize phones greatly so the cost to actual users is much cheaper than the phone's actual value. For that reason providers charge higher, and sometimes outrageous prices for phones if you are a current subscriber and want to upgrade to a new phone quickly while keeping your existing phone number. For example, I've had my current phone for 8.5 months, and the cost for me to move to a new phone with KDDI au is approximately 40% more than a user who gets a new phone with a new phone number.
Because of the steep subsidies the phone providers also tightly lock their phones to try and keep you from buying their phone on the cheap, cancelling the service and using it with another provider/in a foreign country.
Anyways, with all these things in mind, here is my current phone and provider info along with what I want in the future.
Current Phone Info:
Provider: au by KDDI(jp) au by KDDI (en)
Phone: Toshiba A5506T
Desitre Future Phone Features:
Provider:
1.3g Service Provider (in Japan the biggest 3g providers in order of number of 3g users is: KDDI au, NTTDocomo, Vodafone)
2. Reliable coverage (in Japan the 'Big 3' rank as following in coverage: NTTDocomo, KDDI au, Vodafone)
3. Reasonable voice prices/airtime
4. Flat rate or very high usage e-mail usage.
5. Reasonable data usage rates.
6. Reasonable mix of services/features readily available to gaijin with crappy kanji reading skills.
7. Reasonable prices when switching phones and keeping same phone number. (Cheapest to do so from most expensive: Vodafone, NTTDocomo, KDDI au
Phone:
1. 3g capable (wCDMA [UTMS], CDMA 2000-1x)
2. UNLOCKED GSM900/1800/1900 (I'll get into why unlocked is important later, and the phone doesn't have to be provided to me in an unlocked state, as long as I can unlock it later for a reasonable price and use it's GSM features on any network in the world). If phone is not GSM then at least able to roam on other networks (CDMA/etc) in a global way with good support sort of like au's Global Passport line of phones that join CDMA networks.
3. Bluetooth (with sync capability for phone's calendar, address book, and possibly memo pad)
4. 1 Megapixel or greater Camera
5. At least QVGA display (better would be nice)
6. Industry average battery life
7. Good looks.
Japanese providers I am now considering
au by KDDI(jp)
au by KDDI (en)
NTT Docomo (jp)
NTT Docomo (en)
Vodafone(jp)
Vodafone (en)
For those of you in Japan, what provider and phone do you use and do you have any of my issues?
For those of you in other places in the world, what provider and phone do you use and what are your issues when selecting a phone provider.
Most of the time people don't go into so much detail as to why they chose their phone/provider. Usually it's something like "phone A is a sexy piece of kit" or "yeah, it has a nice camera/music player" which are all valid and good reasons to upgrade to a new phone, however, recently I've been shopping around for a new phone and realized that there can be sooo much to choosing a new phone/provider that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. So I decided to start a thread up and get some general discussion regarding mobile phone looks/features/carries/selections going on.
Currently I'm living in Tokyo, Japan. I've been using KDDI's 'au' as a mobile phone service provider since I got there. I recently dropped my current phone and it's sort of on it's last legs so I've been looking around to upgrade recently. Because I'll be taking a few trips to the US and Europe from Japan with a bit of frequency I'd like to be minimaly able to take important phone calls and important e-mails while out of Japan to my Japanese phone.
Japan is sort of a weird country in that you can't bring phones into Japan and use them without making a contract ( giving up your info) and you can't easily take a phone made for Japan out of Japan and use it.
Other issues are, Japan doesn't have number portability yet so I will of course lose my current phone number (which is a total bummer) when changing providers. The providers in Japan also subsidize phones greatly so the cost to actual users is much cheaper than the phone's actual value. For that reason providers charge higher, and sometimes outrageous prices for phones if you are a current subscriber and want to upgrade to a new phone quickly while keeping your existing phone number. For example, I've had my current phone for 8.5 months, and the cost for me to move to a new phone with KDDI au is approximately 40% more than a user who gets a new phone with a new phone number.
Because of the steep subsidies the phone providers also tightly lock their phones to try and keep you from buying their phone on the cheap, cancelling the service and using it with another provider/in a foreign country.
Anyways, with all these things in mind, here is my current phone and provider info along with what I want in the future.
Current Phone Info:
Provider: au by KDDI(jp) au by KDDI (en)
Phone: Toshiba A5506T
Desitre Future Phone Features:
Provider:
1.3g Service Provider (in Japan the biggest 3g providers in order of number of 3g users is: KDDI au, NTTDocomo, Vodafone)
2. Reliable coverage (in Japan the 'Big 3' rank as following in coverage: NTTDocomo, KDDI au, Vodafone)
3. Reasonable voice prices/airtime
4. Flat rate or very high usage e-mail usage.
5. Reasonable data usage rates.
6. Reasonable mix of services/features readily available to gaijin with crappy kanji reading skills.
7. Reasonable prices when switching phones and keeping same phone number. (Cheapest to do so from most expensive: Vodafone, NTTDocomo, KDDI au
Phone:
1. 3g capable (wCDMA [UTMS], CDMA 2000-1x)
2. UNLOCKED GSM900/1800/1900 (I'll get into why unlocked is important later, and the phone doesn't have to be provided to me in an unlocked state, as long as I can unlock it later for a reasonable price and use it's GSM features on any network in the world). If phone is not GSM then at least able to roam on other networks (CDMA/etc) in a global way with good support sort of like au's Global Passport line of phones that join CDMA networks.
3. Bluetooth (with sync capability for phone's calendar, address book, and possibly memo pad)
4. 1 Megapixel or greater Camera
5. At least QVGA display (better would be nice)
6. Industry average battery life
7. Good looks.
Japanese providers I am now considering
au by KDDI(jp)
au by KDDI (en)
NTT Docomo (jp)
NTT Docomo (en)
Vodafone(jp)
Vodafone (en)
For those of you in Japan, what provider and phone do you use and do you have any of my issues?
For those of you in other places in the world, what provider and phone do you use and what are your issues when selecting a phone provider.
