Japanesecellphones?

[ryan123]

Anyone here owns a docomo phone? How easy is it to use them in US and Canada?

[herpsky]

are you on drugs, son?

[ProfMonnitoff]

its not possible

[Scoobersti]

do you mean, bringing docomo phone on a trip to the US and Canada and using it while you are on the trip? or do you mean importing the phone and using it with a US or Canadian phone company?

[broken_dubz]

when i went to tokyo in 07 a normal dual band(?) ie nokia didnt work there, went to a shop and after a long long session with the assistent there who didnt speak english unfortunately we finally understood that in japan they use a unique bandwith for mobile phones...im not sure what it is, maybe 3G? hope that clarifies but a phone from japan is unlikely to work anywhere else unless im guessing you have a japanese service provider and you use their roaming service when you go to another country but that would just be absolutely retarded and expensive.

[herpsky]

Japanese carriers use proprietary GSM or CDMA (namely AU).

I'm 99% sure that you can't use Japanese phones outside of Japan. I'm not a tech expert but I can tell you that everyone would be carrying a Japanese phone by now if this were possible.

If you have a legit mobile account in Japan, then you can sign up for global roaming to call and text from anywhere in the world.

[mrip]

a few of my friends bought jap phones a while ago and used them here

i dunno if you can still do that

they switched out the sim cards

obv they didnt have any of the services like watching tv on your phone and shit

[Ichigo100%]

My friend has a docomo phone and it works fine here in Canada. As Mrip mentioned though, some of the phones features will not work overseas since they rely on the network in Japan..

You can text, talk, take photos, and upload music to the phone using a microsd card but that's about it from what I know.

Better to just cop a phone in your area and not spend 500+ dollars on a phone which won't provide you with much.

My friend has this one:

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/product/foma/906i/sh906i/

[todesengel]

you can still do it, gotta use a hypersim or something. you lose a lot of features, like MMS, internet, camera sometimes, etc. There are a few japanese phones that get exported to taiwan/hk, like the wx-t92 in taiwan. those are completely unlocked.

good links:

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/forumdisplay.php?f=168

http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=418

[po_boy_fuuma_hatesbargerz]

^^holy...

...the feature list on the site is ridiculous.

[projectalpha]

I have a p906i from Japan and I use it here in the U.S. under AT&T. What you have to buy is a hypersim that attaches to your sim card. I purchased the iNex hypersim, and it works really well, much better than the ismartphone brand. Does phone calls, txt messaging and the basic stuff. I heard it won't work w/ internet and 3g. Hope this helps.

[Nations]

Haven't been keeping up with cell phones for a few months but most of the insane Japanese phones (Bravia screen, 8mp camera, highres video recording, etc) don't have sim cards so you can't use them in the US.

[Pandemonium]

Japanese carriers use proprietary GSM or CDMA (namely AU).

I'm 99% sure that you can't use Japanese phones outside of Japan. I'm not a tech expert but I can tell you that everyone would be carrying a Japanese phone by now if this were possible.

If you have a legit mobile account in Japan, then you can sign up for global roaming to call and text from anywhere in the world.

you can, just get one of those hypersim attachments.

but most of the features that make you want to buy japanese phone are pretty much disabled. (mmm...)

[Guest umhaha84]

what's the point of using JapCell if you can't use half what if offers,,,,pointless

[Akira]

Haven't been keeping up with cell phones for a few months but most of the insane Japanese phones (Bravia screen, 8mp camera, highres video recording, etc) don't have sim cards so you can't use them in the US.

I have yet to hear of an 8mp phone that doesn't use SIM cards..... Most high-end phones are sold unlocked which requires the use of SIMs

On the Docomo site they have a thing about "World Wing" if the phone has 3G+GSM it should work on (nearly?) all US carriers, if it only has 3G it should work on most but not all (ATT for sure, don't remember which other US carriers run 3G networks)

PS: I really want that new Samsung 8mp... too bad it comes with a $800 price tag, ouch!

[lestat]

I have yet to hear of an 8mp phone that doesn't use SIM cards..... Most high-end phones are sold unlocked which requires the use of SIMs

On the Docomo site they have a thing about "World Wing" if the phone has 3G+GSM it should work on (nearly?) all US carriers, if it only has 3G it should work on most but not all (ATT for sure, don't remember which other US carriers run 3G networks)

PS: I really want that new Samsung 8mp... too bad it comes with a $800 price tag, ouch!

3G in the US is on different bandwidths... u'll only be able to use GSM