Are there prepaid SIM cards in Korea/Japan?
 

From what I understand, an unlocked 3G/GSM phone such as the Morola V3x will work fine just using my Cingular SIM card. However, the roaming rates are very high.

Basically everywhere else in the world I can easily purchase a prepaid SIM with a local phone number. Is this now also possible in Korea/Japan with 3G handsets? Is it difficult to find a store that is selling these SIM cards? I would probably buy a phone in HKG or Taiwan if I was sure that I could use it in this way.

I'm not very familiar with Korean phones, but I was under the impression that they did not usually contain SIM cards, just like Verizon/Sprint etc. in the USA.

I was in Korea about three months ago and my quadband GSM Cingular phone did not work the entire time. I believe they are using TCDMA technology. I have not had any problems at the airports in Japan.

Thank you Awal. However, it's not clear to me whether the phone you are referring to was a 3G phone. If I am not mistaken, not all quad-band phones are 3G phones, right?

I am aware that GSM phones don't work in Korea since I visit there about 3-4 times/year. What I was trying to find out was how difiicult it is to buy SIM cards there since I am under the impression that basically all Korean phones do not use them?

Your assumptions are correct.

Not sure how SK works but i'd look into a prepaid phone there. I'm going to assume they're sold there and rechargable, it's a decent alternative to buying a SIM since, well, they don't use'em.

The quadband phone I was using is not 3G. I was under the impression that if there is no GSM service it does not matter what hardware you are using. However according to this link http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_kr.shtml there is 3G coverage in S. Korea. I do not know how you would go about buying a Sim card.

Not exactly GSM with SIM cards, local companies do it, I believe

SIM is pretty much a GSM concept. It's technologically possible to have a SIM on CDMA, but it isn't done, mostly because CDMA phones generally can't move between carriers, so there's no need to change SIMs.

There are prepaid phones in Korea, but they don't use SIMs, and they will work only in Korea. Both the phone and the service are expensive. I can't remember specifics since I priced this out, but a basic phone was over $300, and service itself was also more expensive than elsewhere.

I don't believe you can even buy stand-alone WCDMA phones in Korea, let alone prepaid USIM cards.

As I understand it, WCDMA in Korea exists mainly for video telephony. Better roaming is a nice plus that's still rolling out (Asian operators being better covered than European, for example).

You can rent a CDMA phone in Korea that takes a GSM SIM. The service is however very expensive to use, SMS doesn't work and the handsets are pretty terrible.

No GSM service coverage is actually available in South Korea. This means no GSM phones (that is, none of your GSM, GPRS, EDGE phones) would work there.

The 3G network coverage mentioned above actually indicates the availability of the UMTS (WCDMA) network deployed by SK Telecom and KTF, and it is not compatible for any GSM phones to work with.

Even if you, say, have a UMTS (WCDMA) phone that works either in Europe or in the US, due to difference in network configurations between South Korea and other countries the UMTS phone would not get service there as well. This is because Korean UMTS network utilizes different bands for up/down streams and other factors.

So yeah, the only way for you to get cellular phone service in Korea would be to rent a phone and then having ur original carrier forward your call to the temporary number you receive in Korea. (This may cost you lots of $$$)

This is untrue - SK Telecom offers WCDMA roaming for international customers (see SK's WCDMA roaming page). The point of this discussion, as I understand it, is that there's no way to avoid paying the high roaming charges by buying a local SIM, as is commonly done elsewhere.

I think there are two main points here:

1. Avoid roaming fees by using a local number (ie pre-paid SIM)
2. Keep and be able to use your permenant number for contact

Korea has CDMA, and even 3G should be the CDMA version (CDMA2000?). Therefore they do not offer pre-paid SIM cards for sale. What they do offer is rental cell phones that work on the CDMA network, or rental phones that are dual-mode CDMA/GSM which will let you roam on the CDMA network using your GSM number.

When I was there a few months ago (pre-World Cup) I rented a dual-mode phone from a booth at the arrivals level of ICN. I don't remember the company, but the girls were in Red Devils gear hyping up team Korea for the World Cup. The phone was by LG and worked pretty well with my SIM, so well that I wanted to buy one but could not find any store that carries it. The total fees for the 1 week rental was about $3 USD, but the real cost was in the roaming fees with Cingular, which is corporate so I have no visibility. My colleague rented a pure CDMA phone from another booth nearby, and I think she ended up paying about $40 USD for the week (she made lots of calls home).

Whilst both of these are indeed offered, it is also possible to roam with your own phone and SIM via WCDMA. Korea has both CDMA and WCDMA 3G. See the link I posted above. You are, however, correct that you can't buy a stand-alone SIM.

You won't be able to - they are made specially for the networks.

As far as I can tell:

SK Telecom: Rental and CDMA, WCDMA and GSM roaming. The GSM/CDMA dual mode handsets are pretty horrible.
KTF: Rental and CDMA and GSM roaming. They seem to have a very nice new GSM/CDMA dual mode handset from LG.
LG Telecom: Rental only, I believe.

UMTS 'phones'
 

I believe you're about 95% correct. You need CDMA (i believe 2100) and no gsm stand-alone phone will work.

However the newer UMTS phones (not all) will work - for instance Blackberry just launched in mid June their 8707v model that is 3G - it is a quad band gsm unit that is also UMTS 2100 (which means will also work in korea/japan in 3G mode). A couple of other brands also have them; check mobileburn.com and/or howardchui.com for more information.

In HK this unit is available -- www.smartone-vodafone.com. I would assume also available for purchase in Europe. However both the voice and data plans are not cheap -- at least if you subscribe w/ them in HK.

You're best bet is to have a friend or business associate in Korea purchase a permanent Korean number for you. Phones are not cheap but you can then get a relatively inexpensive monthly plan - if you visit often enough, it will work out to be less expensive than rental, and you have a permanent number.

I have used SK Telcom for about 5 yrs - if I call sk telcom subscriber, it's a free call. And there are a few 'access' numbers to use to keep international calls fairly within reason. I visit maybe 4-5 times a year, stay 2-4 days each time and when i did the math last time, it was still worth it.

Can somebody please give an update on GSM in South Korea?

I have a 3yr old Nokia 5310 (900/1800/1900) and would ideally like to buy a prepaid SIM card.

What are my options? Thanks!

I was there in May, and was unable to find anywhere offering SIM cards. I ended up renting a local CDMA handset.

You won't, and will never, be able to use that handset in Korea. They simply don't have 2G GSM services.

Additionally, my understanding is that given the current law, you'd never be able to buy a SIM and just put it into a new (unlocked, 3G) handset in any case. You need to buy a service plan and register your phone with the authorities. Only whitelisted phones can be used in Korea with Korean plans.

So, your choices are:
- Buy a handset (can probably get a so-called "card phone" second hand from Itaewon)
- Rent a handset with its own service plan and pay the bill when you leave Korea
- Rent a handset that takes your own SIM, and roam
- Buy a 3G handset (from home) and roam

Basically what I suspected. Thanks for you explanations, highly appreciated!

Some of the roaming SIMs have free incoming calls in Korea. That might be possibility for some.

rental is the way to go.

you can usually find 50% off daily rental rate on random sites for s-roaming. you can even get the number assigned to you before you land in korea. incoming calls are free, and rates are reasonable since they do not bill by the minute.

South Korea and Japan have GSM 3G networks on 2100MHz BUT NOT GSM 2G networks.

As long as you have a STANDARD GSM-3G phone with the 2100MHz band used in Europe & Asia it will work fine whether roaming or if you can buy a SK Telecom or the other telecom carrier's GSM 3G SIM card.

In Japan this is NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone Japan (or the local name I forgot).

They ONLY have CDMA, 2 varients: CDMA2000 1X and EVDOrA and GSM-3G WCDMA/UMTS/HSPA+.

If you're from Europe your EU handset as long as it has 3G is good to go, just get it unlocked, it uses the same band.

If you're from the Americas make sure you have a GSM 3G phone with the 2100MHz band (same as Europe) and all the newer AT&T and T-Mobile phones HAVE THIS BAND.

If you have Verizon/Sprint there is also CDMA2000 1X/EVDO roaming there as long as you have a updated PRL (dial *228, option 2 on Verizon, Sprint is a different sequence) on the native network and you can roam there on the CDMA2000.

There is NO CDMA2000 CSIM card outside of those countries. If you're foreign you roam on the GSM 3G network (2100MHz UMTS/HSPA+, aka AT&T-TMobile technology).

AND why would you NOT want a GSM 3G phone, it allows access of 3 to 5x the amount of voice/data capacity.

Japan/South Korea are 1st world Asian countries, they were actually smart in getting rid of GSM 2G/EDGE very crappy spectral efficient technology.

As already noted, there is no direct way to do this, unfortunately!

They didn't "get rid" of them - they never had them. Korea was an IS-95 country while Japan used its own technology, PDC (which was also TDMA, like GSM...)

they may offer rentals on wi-bro (i.e. wimax) enabled phones - the carriers were thinking about doing it about a year a go so not sure whether they ended up following through.

Limited Korean SIM Card Offer Aug 12, 2011 ~ Sep 10, 2011
 

For the limited time you can purchase Korean SIM card between Aug 12, 2011 ~ Sep 10, 2011. I haven't read all of T&C but check it out at
http://www.sroaming.com/eng/Product/simcard.asp

SIM cards for Korea/Japan
 

You can get a hybrid phone (UMTS/GSM) that also has a slot for a SIM card. The European version of the Nokia 1280 is an example http://www.cellularabroad.com/japan-phone.php. Then, you can get an international roaming SIM card for that phone that works in Korea and Japan. As far as getting a country specific SIM card for Korea or Japan, no, they don't exist.

With regards to Japan:

Softbank sell prepaid handsets but they don't sell prepaid SIM cards on their own.
The phones run to about 7000 Yen (this includes 3000 yen calling credit) I wouldn't advise taking the SIM from the prepaid phone and putting it into your own phone, as although things like calling and SMS will work, MMS is slightly different (email address is assigned to your phone, can't use a phone number to MMS someone on another network etc.) Since July you can now SMS other networks using just their phone number, but most people don't know that this exists yet (they "mail" i.e. MMS rather than "text" being SMS, confusing I know.)

If you're only going to be in Japan for a short time, you might want to consider renting a SIM or a handset.

I've used Softbank before and they were pretty good. Link is http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/
I believe that DoCoMo also do rental services at the airport (and probably au do as well) but I can't comment on the quality of service.

1 world 1 number
 

Just visit http://travel-gsm.com ^

It's possible to get a prepaid GSM SIM card in South Korea as of the beginning of this year. Since South Korea never had a 2G GSM network, the SIM card will only work in phones with 3G WCDMA 2100MHz support (most 3G phones on a GSM network should have this). Of course the phone has to be unlocked as well.

Right now KT is the only carrier offering this option. I was in Seoul this summer for a few weeks and was able to buy a prepaid SIM from KT and use it in my T-Mobile US Nexus One phone. I had voice, text, and 3G data for reasonable rates. Full details are at the KT Expat Blog site: http://expatblog.kt.com/. Specifically the "Service Guide -> Prepaid Rate Plans" section. You can also get English-language answers to questions from @olleh_expats on Twitter.

As with most things in Korea, the process is not altogether straightforward and has some quirks:

- You can only get a prepaid SIM card at a KT Global Store (there's a list at the Expat Blog site). It's not available at the airport. Furthermore, you have to wait 2-3 days after arriving in South Korea before you can get the SIM card. This is because the KT store has to verify your passport information against the database of international arrivals, and it takes the Korean immigration agency a couple days to upload new arrivals to the database.

- Your phone has to be approved for use within South Korea. The easiest way to guarantee this is to use a phone that is available for sale in South Korea as well (e.g. Nexus One, Apple iPhone, in addition to *many* other phones). Since it's available for sale in South Korea it has already gotten the necessary approvals. You can check if your phone model is approved by following the instructions on the KT Expat Blog site. If your phone is not already approved, you will have to submit an online request to the appropriate government agency.

- You can add money to your prepaid account at any KT store (it might require some creative pantomime if you don't speak Korean). The stores are everywhere. However, even though the stores are open on weekends, KT's computer system will only allow money to be added to prepaid accounts Monday-Friday. None of the KT staff I spoke with had a good explanation for this.

prepaid SIM cards now available in South Korea
 

It's possible to get a prepaid GSM SIM card in South Korea as of the beginning of this year. Since South Korea never had a 2G GSM network, the SIM card will only work in phones with 3G WCDMA 2100MHz support (most 3G phones on a GSM network should have this). Of course the phone has to be unlocked as well.

Right now KT is the only carrier offering this option. I was in Seoul this summer for a few weeks and was able to buy a prepaid SIM from KT and use it in my T-Mobile US Nexus One phone. I had voice, text, and 3G data for reasonable rates. Full details are at the KT Expat Blog site. Specifically the "Service Guide -> Prepaid Rate Plans" section. You can also get English-language answers to questions from @olleh_expats on Twitter.

As with most things in Korea, the process is not altogether straightforward and has some quirks:

• You can only get a prepaid SIM card at a KT Global Store (there's a list at the Expat Blog site). It's not available at the airport. Furthermore, you have to wait 2-3 days after arriving in South Korea before you can get the SIM card. This is because the KT store has to verify your passport information against the database of international arrivals, and it takes the Korean immigration agency a couple days to upload new arrivals to the database.
• Your phone has to be approved for use within South Korea. The easiest way to guarantee this is to use a phone that is available for sale in South Korea as well (e.g. Nexus One, Apple iPhone, in addition to *many* other phones). Since it's available for sale in South Korea it has already gotten the necessary approvals. You can check if your phone model is approved by following the instructions on the KT Expat Blog site. If your phone is not already approved, you will have to submit an online request to the appropriate government agency.
• You can add money to your prepaid account at any KT store (it might require some creative pantomime if you don't speak Korean). The stores are everywhere. However, even though the stores are open on weekends, KT's computer system will only allow money to be added to prepaid accounts Monday-Friday. None of the KT staff I spoke with had a good explanation for this.

Instead of asking for updates, folks should really just be checking the maintained
GSM coverage map. Japan seems to be the only developed country that is not GSM capable, and S.korea does not have GSM either. That coverage map also shows what data technology is available.

Another good page to keep an eye on is the apn wiki, because it also shows prepaid data plans for many countries.

*edit* I just noticed tylix's post.. then noticed the GSM map apparently erroneously claims to be current as of July 2011.