Japanese Cell Phones

[rameek]

I cant believe for a civilized country they are raping people with these gawd awful plans!:bang: :kitty: :japan: :mad:

[Cheapo]

i can...though it is getting better in my country. But anyone who uses a cell phone semi-often has to pay about $40-$50 (~US$35-40?) per month

[phenyl]

One would think that in a market that is about 20 times bigger than Switzerland and has three competing companies, the prices should be a weee bit lower...
But... I had a prepaid phone in CH and could talk for one hour (to landlines or mobiles of the same operator) for about 50 yen. Other operators were about that per minute.

Here, I just bought a softbank prepaid mobile and it seems that from September to October they just doubled the calling charges from 60 Yen per Minute to 120 Yen per minute, thanks a bundle.....

Also the contracts were a bit cheaper.

And why is it that if I would like to get internet, it will cost me at least 5000 Yen per month (total for the line, the provider and the data...)
I don't understand why different institutions would want money, at home it was one bill, that was also a wee bit cheaper.

Sorry I'm ranting, but I have already all but given up on calling family and friends at home from a public telephone with about 3000 Yen in coins and a 3000 Yen calling-card (comica?) for one hour total talkingtime (max)

If someone knows a cheaper way for calling from a public telephone, I would be very grateful for a hint!
(Skype at work isn't really an alternative, I doubt my officemate or my boss would appreciate...)


So, I finished ranting, sorry...

[Cheapo]

phenyl, it would be a little awkward but i suppose an alternative would be to see if phone cards from your country have international services. When i went to japan for my student exchange i had an australian phone card which i brought over to japan and used it to call back home. I'm not too sure if the prices will be cheaper, but it's certainly an alternative, since you don't actually need the card, you just need the passcode and the numbers to dial.

[Ironfrost]

Sorry I'm ranting, but I have already all but given up on calling family and friends at home from a public telephone with about 3000 Yen in coins and a 3000 Yen calling-card (comica?) for one hour total talkingtime (max)

If someone knows a cheaper way for calling from a public telephone, I would be very grateful for a hint!
(Skype at work isn't really an alternative, I doubt my officemate or my boss would appreciate...)


If the calling card you're talking about isn't a long-distance IP card, you should look into buying one. You dial a local (or sometimes freephone) number and enter your card's details, and it uses VoIP to send your call over to your home country for much cheaper than an international call.

If the amount you said IS for an IP card, that's insanely expensive. A cheaper way to do it would be to set up a Skype account and set up call forwarding and a SkypeIN number. SkypeIN forwards all calls to a given number to your Skype account, and they have Japanese numbers available for 10 EUR per quarter (1500 yen? Something like that). If you also set up call forwarding you can get your skype calls sent on to pretty much anywhere in the world for 2 eurocents (3 yen) per minute. So the 3000 yen you spend on a calling card will get you over 8 hours of international calls in a quarter.

It's a bit more hassle, but if IP cards are really so expensive in Japan I would say it's worth it.

[Digital Masta]

Being in Japan made me appreciate my plan in the states.

[Trump]

Corporate discount is good.... 25% off!

[Eddie Echoplex]

Do the japanese have the wonderful conveniece that is the "money cards? (I don't know how it's called in the US, here in Mexico is just a card with a serial number which you input and it gives you an amount of money on your cellphone to make calls/text messages, etc)".

[羽之助]

You mean you people actually use your phones to talk?

[Plekto]

VOIP is the best way of all, most definately. Use the internet to send a compressed 4-8K audio stream. Even the most congested systems will work just fine.

[Nannou]

You mean you people actually use your phones to talk?

uhh... all the time.

[rameek]

uhh... all the time.
not when you get 2 minutes a day and about 60 minutes a month.... ￥18 for 30 secs...:frypan:

[RoxFontaine]

You all need to switch to Willcom. It's OFF THE CHARTS good. My bill last month was like 5,000 yen. That's with all my calling and unlimited internet. Plus, my phone is a SERIOUS conversation piece.

http://www.willcom-inc.com/en/lineup/voice/ws003sh/color/images/img02.jpg

[mikem]

I don't understand why people complain about Japanese cell phone plans. I use my phone all of the time for data and voice and my bill is consitantly cheaper here than it was in the US. More services, more features, and way more usage. All for half of the price.

If you are looking at some webpage of rate plans you might want to realize that most people pay 50-60% less than that when they actually sign up for service. If you looked at the English AU website I should be paying about 12,000 plus extra fees per month for my plan, but in reality it comes in around 6,500 each month including all of the extras.

On the other hand if you are comparing it to Europe. It probably does seem expensive.

[Elly_no_Uta]

You all need to switch to Willcom. It's OFF THE CHARTS good. My bill last month was like 5,000 yen. That's with all my calling and unlimited internet. Plus, my phone is a SERIOUS conversation piece.

http://www.willcom-inc.com/en/lineup/voice/ws003sh/color/images/img02.jpg


...beautiful.
i just want to reach out and touch it...

[Nannou]

not when you get 2 minutes a day and about 60 minutes a month.... ￥18 for 30 secs...:frypan:

sucks to be you then :P

[japanat]

My Japanese cell is Au, on a family plan, which is really quite cheap. But I do most of my calling landline, not cell - I'm cheap! Why use your cell to make a call when sitting in your living room???? For land-line, I picked Yahoo's BBphone, 2.5yen/min to all Japan, Canada and the US same rate!

Sidenote: Man, things have changed! 15yrs ago, it cost about 110yen/min to the US, and 70,000yen to get a frigging line! My first year, I dropped off the edge of the earth, as far as my US friends were concerned, because there was NO WAY I was gonna pay that connection fee.

[Plekto]

For land-line, I picked Yahoo's BBphone, 2.5yen/min to all Japan, Canada and the US same rate!
***
And that's the beauty of VOIP. :) Way way WAY cheaper than any other option, plus internet charges - no per minute garbage - to most of the rest of the industrialized world.

[RoxFontaine]

Yeah, I had BB phone and I used to call the US all the time for peanuts.

That reminds me of another GREAT feature of Willcom's service. I can call the US from my cell phone for 30 yen/minute!

[kilreli]

wow, i think in one year i talked on my phone for about 30 minutes. those thousands upon thousands of emails did good though. :)
but now that im back in the states(depressing) i can appreciate how good japanese phone technology is compared to american phones. i had the G'zOne phone that is made for people who drop their phone alot, so it isnt as advanced as some of the other phones, but my friends in america were amazed by it.
"You can zoom into your pictures?!"
"It can take video?!"

[Pierrot le Fou]

When I took my phone back stateside, my friends had a similar reaction; "Let me see your phone! This is awesome! How did you get so many photos of naked Japanese women on it?" or something.

[mikem]

When I took my phone back stateside, my friends had a similar reaction; "Let me see your phone! This is awesome! How did you get so many photos of naked Japanese women on it?" or something.

That must have been a while ago. Surely you could fit many videos on it now. If I wasn't so lazy I think I'd actually transcode some TV shows to put on mine.