I'm sorry because I still don't understand how this works. I have an AT+T Razor V3 with a SIM card. What do I need to do to make calls to the states from Japan? Do I rent a phone, buy a SIM card or ???? I'm arriving at Narita on Sept 30th and would like to take care of this at the airport. I've read all the posts and I still don't get it. Thanks!!

That's a quad band phone so it will work anywhere in the world IF you have international calling activated on it. You will have to call AT&T and have them turn it on.

There is an optional international calling plan (AT&T World Traveler) that costs $5.99/month and reduces your per-minute international roaming rates. Roaming rates in Japan are $2.29/minute but with the calling plan you'd pay $1.69 a minute. The World Traveler plan requires a 1-year commitment, which they aren't good about telling you.

Buying a SIM card on arrival in Japan would almost certainly save you money. Pop out the AT&T card and put it in a safe place. Replace it with the local SIM and make calls. Simple as that. The new SIM card will give your phone a new number, however, so if you regularly receive calls you may want to leave a message on your AT&T voicemail directing people to call the Japanese number associated with the new SIM.

Oh, I forgot to mention, you can only swap out the SIM card if your phone is "unlocked." AT&T will usually unlock your phone if you are at least a year into your contract with them. Otherwise you're SOL unless you're willing to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it unlocked.

Japan has no GSM service. Your phone will not work (nor will any cell phone currently sold in America).

A 3G WCDMA phone (such as one from Europe) will allow you to roam in Japan. You can rent one of these at the airport and then put your AT&T SIM card into it, provided that you have international roaming enabled. Expect to pay insane fees of $2 a minute or more in addition to the handset rental fees.

Prepaid SIM cards are not sold anywhere in Japan. You either have a 3G phone with a SIM card that is on a contract, or a PDC (Japanese 2G) prepaid or postpaid phone. The PDC phones do not use SIM cards, so you will need to buy a new phone along with your prepaid service.

In addition, officially, prepaid phones are not sold to tourists, only to those with an Alien Registration Card (ie, someone not on a tourist/transit visa). However, many places don't bother to check, and you can get a phone using only your passport and a credit card as ID.

In any case, your AT&T phone will NOT work in Japan.

Okay, I understand. My Cingular phone won't work at all, and if I rent a phone and use my existing SIM card I'll be paying thru the nose. My goal is to make calls as cheaply as possible to my office in the States, can I do this with a PDC phone I rent at Narita? Thanks again for dealing with my newbie questions!!

I think we need a rule for these kinds of threads - everyone who answers the question should disclose his perspective. I think most people would fall into one of the following groups:

(a) I live in Japan and use a local phone, so I don't have recent, personal experience of the challenges of communicating while visiting Japan from abroad

(b) I live outside Japan and have never been to Japan, but I've used my cell phone in the US and Europe, so I guess I know all about roaming

(c) I live outside Japan and recently travelled to Japan and worked out a way to stay in touch while in Japan that was satisfactory to me

(d) I am a global telecommunications expert

(e) I don't know my arse from my elbow really, but I like to pontificate

If we all disclose this information, it should be easier for people reading the thread to decide which answers to trust.

======

Disclosure - I fall into category (a)

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My contribution is in three parts:

(1) If you need to use your US number while you are in Japan, then your best bet is to follow the advice on the AT&T web site:
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/en...outh-korea.jsp

You will see that your Motorola handset is not one of the 3G 2100MHz devices that AT&T touts as usable in Japan. Maybe free101girl knows better.

(2) If you don't necessarily need to keep your US number - you just want a local Japanese phone that can receive incoming and make outgoing calls - then you can find information in the other threads about several companies who will rent you a local phone in Japan. (Some of these companies have booths at Narita Airport. Some deliver the phone to your hotel. Some are more expensive than others. Some can tell you what your phone number will be before you arrive in Japan. All this is discussed in in other threads)

(3) If you're here for a week or so, you may find it cheapest to get a Japanese friend to buy you a prepaid phone to receive incoming calls - and then make your outgoing calls from public phones (with a calling card) or via an internet telephony solution such as Skype.

If price is the number one factor, then you might consider

(1) Rent (or get a friend to buy) a local phone
Then use a calling card for the international calls - prepaid from a convenience store in Japan. Or have your office call you back on that local number.
If you're using a calling card, you may find that the call quality is better from a fixed line phone than from a mobile. (And the card lasts longer).

(2) Use Skype
If you subscribe to a service like iPass, you can use wireless hotspots in many fast food joints and cafes around Tokyo (including Dotour, McDonalds etc. - but not Starbucks). Hook up your PC, dial up the office and annoy the hell out of your neighbours in the cafe. (And hope that your colleagues don't mind the background noise: "Do you want fries with that?")

(3) Two yoghurt cups and a long length of twine

I'm category a- (used to live in Japan, but moved back to the US a couple of months ago).

I think jib71 explained it very well, but one thing to keep in mind is that no matter which method you choose, it's going to be fairly expensive to call back to the US from your cell phone. If you want to call cheaply, you're really best off using Skype or a phone card from a fixed location phone, as jib71 said.

To give you an idea of costs, from my monthly contract phone, it was about Y80/minute to call the US at off peak times (when Japan is asleep and the US is awake). I also had a prepaid Japanese cellphone for when friends came to visit, and that was even more expensive to call back to the US with. Rates from cell phone rental shops are, I imagine, even higher.

Even the rates for calling domestically (which you would have to do if you're using a phone card) are relatively speaking, fairly expensive. For example, I think I was overpaying, but my monthly contract phone was about Y40/min to call inside Japan.

Of course, you get free incoming calls, so if you can get them to call you back on your Japanese mobile number, you'd be all set.

Can you hear me?

(FILLER)

I fall into the above but will gladly let Laplap use my pontificating allowance on this thread.........

(FILLER)


As I am now 1 year into using my cell I can honestly say that I have yet to figure out how to use 1/10 of the services/features provided by it! But I do know how to C mail Jib!

Well, it's clear jib71 thinks I fall into Category "e". Apparently Japan is a special case and I'm an idiot. But in my defense, I was only trying to be helpful.

I have traveled worldwide, including Japan. However, I didn't have my current AT&T quad band phone 3 years ago when I went to Japan. I rented a phone that time.

In attempting to answer the OP, I was going by my experiences with using an AT&T quad band phone in at least 10 other countries, as well as information provided on the AT&T web site. I was honestly under the impression that the whole point of paying the big bucks for a quad band phone was its usefulness in world travel. Sorry my info was incorrect.

It's actually good that I learned this, since I'll be visiting Japan again in a few months.

You need UMTS 2100MHz or a Japanese handset. Period.
I've got it on my Treo 750.
I maintain a Japanese prepaid for most of my calling.
AT&T Treo is mostly data.

Having helped people through this, my first question is: how long are you going to be in Japan? If you're there on a longer-term visa, you'll need to get an Alien Registration Card anyway, so you might as well get that first.

Barring that, why do you need a phone? Are you just trying to check in with your family from time to time? If so, you probably are better off just using Skype - http://www.skype.com . They offer calling plans, through your computer, with only a headset necessary. You can arrange to get a number anywhere in the world, and you can pay for voicemail as well. In fact, if you know you'll have a consistent internet connection or you find a net cafe that offers skype access, this would be, by far, the cheapest and best option.

When I was living there, I would just go get prepaid phones for people who were visiting me (several people took them home for the express purpose of not having to go through the whole process again). This is an implicit question of - are you visiting friends or something of the sort? If so, they may be able to arrange for the phone.

Redacted.

Please believe I made no such assumption. Category "e" was my general observation about discussions on Flyertalk in general and threads on this topic in particular.

I never doubted your good intentions.

Can we be in multiple categories? I consider myself in categories (c), (d), AND (e).

Curiosity question: If the Pope was a FTer, would everything he contributes be regarded as pontification?

Entering this from a Swedish train proceeding from Linkoping to Stockholm, currently providing free internet service -- cool!

And yes, it is correct that Japan offers no GSM service, but it does have 3G UMTS.