Japanese SIM in my Experia Arc

Kaiserkel

Hello there,

I have a Sony experia Arc on contract with Meteor, about 9 months into 18 month contract.

I have to travel to Japan and want to use phone for voice/data but roaming costs are very expensive.
I can get a local Japanese SIM - does anyone know if this will work in my phone?
Do I have to do something with my phone (unlock?) to make it work?
Does anyone know how do you go about this?

Thanks in advance for any help

pigeon999

Kaiserkel wrote: »

Hello there,

I have a Sony experia Arc on contract with Meteor, about 9 months into 18 month contract.

I have to travel to Japan and want to use phone for voice/data but roaming costs are very expensive.
I can get a local Japanese SIM - does anyone know if this will work in my phone?
Do I have to do something with my phone (unlock?) to make it work?
Does anyone know how do you go about this?

Thanks in advance for any help

You'll have to unlock it. Although I bought a prepay phone from meteor and it was unlocked. You'll also have to see if Japanese networks use the same frequency as your phone. You will still have to pay meteor you're monthly bill.

Solair

Just unlock the phone (as stated above)

Networks you can use:

Softbank - Works with European 3G phones.
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/
http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/phones/sim3g.php

NTT DoCoMo - Works with European 3G phones
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/
.

and (unlikely, but remote possibility it might work):

Emobile (nothing to do with eircom's Emobile brand!) only if your handset supports 1700Mhz UMTS (very unusual in European spec handsets, but you'd never know.. read the manual!)

You cannot use KDDI as it uses CDMA technology and is totally incompatible with GSM.

Just bear in mind that Japan used a different 2G technology to GSM. So, your phone absolutely must be UMTS (3G) compatible and in 3G-ONLY mode or you will cause all sorts of dropped calls while it hunts for non-existent GSM networks.

UMTS was developed as a cooporation between European GSM-oriented technology and Japanese FOMA technology. So, you may see 3G branded as FOMA or W-CDMA rather than UMTS / 3G as it is here. It's the same technology though!



Bring a US-type pin adapter for your charger. You can probably pick these up in an airport.

Try and find a 2-pin only US adapter as many Japanese sockets don't have an earth hole.

Bare in mind that Japan uses 100V 50Hz (Northern Japan) and 100V 60Hz (Southern Japan).
The voltage is slightly lower than the US/Canada (120V 60Hz) even though the plugs and sockets are the same.

Be VERY careful if you bring any appliances back that you get the absolutely correct transformer. I know a few people who wrecked 100V Electronic equipment from Japan by plugging it into a Irish-US transformer that produced 120V.

If you're going to be there for a few weeks, I'd suggest buying a power cable for your laptop + buying a new mobile phone adapter. It'll only cost you a few quid, but it's a lot handier than trying to connect bulky adapters.

The vast majority of mobile phone and laptop power supplies are quite happy on any voltage from 100V Japan to 120V US/Canada to 230V Europe/Aus/NZ etc

So, all you need to change is the power cable itself, which is cheap.
(Apple iPad and Laptops will accept a standard 'figure of 8' cable (same as you'd find on the back of your old 1980s stereo)
Other laptops usually take fairly standard cables e.g. clover-leaf shape or kettle lead connectors and these are also widely available in any electrical/electronics shop in Japan.

Kaiserkel

Thanks very much for great information. I am happy to keep paying meteor as I will be back after a month, i just couldn't afford to use it roaming.

regarding unlocking the phone - i don't really know anything about it. I did a quick google and i wouldn't know which sources to trust. Is it legal? Is it safe? Any info appreciated or can i get it done (legally) in a bricks and mortar shop somewhere?

Solair

Locking the phone is just a way for the network to encourage you to stay with them. They generally mostly do it to prepay phones as there's no contract involved.

Since you're under contract with Meteor anyway, they will recoup the subsidy for the phone regardless of whether your phone is locked / unlocked.

There's nothing illegal about unlocking the phone, unless you were planning on doing a legger and not paying Meteor for the subsidised bit, but just do a bit of research and find out the best way.

If your phone is no longer subject to a minimum term contract, Meteor would probably unlock it if you ask them.

Unlocking an Android phone like the Experia isn't particularly challenging. You should try and do it without flashing the phone (replacing its software) though as it's likely to cause a lot less problems.

BoredNaMoaner

You could also probably use a bmobile sim card. These are available at Yodobashi Camera stores throughout Japan and available to visitors. A 30 day 1 GB plan is ¥3,500. The solution of using Softbank or Docomo would work out extremely expensive with an Irish SIM card roaming in Japan. Unless you were a resident there is no way you could get one of these domestic service SIM cards. You would have to use some sort of IP voice service with the bmobile data plan. You could also buy a prepaid phone from Softbank if you absolutely had to have a normal phone. These are expensive to buy and can only be use in Japan.
Here is some information on bmobile

http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2011/06/comparison-of-all-b-mobile-sims.html

Kaiserkel

Thanks again for the info - I am looking into the Japanese SIm card at the moment and the above links are great.
I got an unlock code from Meteor for my phone. To test it out I put a Vodafone PAYG SIM into my phone and used the unlock code meteor gave me.

I got error message ' Unable to unlock network'.
Does anyone know does this mean the unlock code is incorrect, or the vodafone SIM i used is incompatible or what I should do next?

Solair

A SIM card is a SIM card and you've a 3G mobile phone so there's absolutely no reason why the Vodafone card wouldn't work.

I'd suggest that you contact Meteor again as the unlock code could be incorrect or perhaps typed / transcribed incorrectly, or some phones have different levels of locks. They might have unlocked some aspects of it and not others by giving you the wrong code.

Enter it very carefully and check that you follow the instructions.

Try rebooting the phone with the Vodafone SIM inserted again and see what happens.

Failing that, I'd actually take it to one of the unlocking shops you see around. Those guys can unlock anything and you've got a legitimate phone and a legitimate reason and permission to unlock.

Kaiserkel

Thanks again,
I re-requested the code from Meteor and after 2 days they gave me the same code and told me to 'google' how to use the code to ensure I'm doing it correctly.
I did that (cellunlocker.net) and they show how a way to see how many attempts i have to input an unlock code. My phone says 0, so is 'hardlocked'.
Is an unlocking shop my only solution or should meteor help me - time running out i depart sunday.

Kaiserkel

Just to update what i did in case of interest to anyone.
Meteor codes wouldn't work so had to get it unlocked in a shop.

In japan, got a B-mobile 1GB data only SIM for Y3500 (approx e35). Couldn't receive calls but used skype to make calls and it worked so-so (call quality quite poor a lot of the time). Data worked well though and japanese mobiles don't really use SMS but mostly email, so this was how I stayed in contact most.
Lots of voice only sims available at airport, but call rates still expensive, but good for receiving calls if thats what you need.

Solair

Weird that you couldn't receive calls.

Japan and South Korea are a bit of a "Special Case".

We were actually quite shocked at how easy it was in China.
I was expecting to have to provide about 19 forms of ID when I attempted to buy a pre-pay SIM but it turned out to be absolutely no different from the process in Ireland i.e. buy SIM, put into phone, walk out of shop with working phone.

The 'great firewall of China' however blocks absolutely everything - no gmail, facebook, etc etc.