Buying a Cell Phone

I was mistaken about the plan details lol, sorry... the unlimited texting comes with the basic plan I think but it only works between Softbank phones. For other providers, they have a chart listed on their website I think. The extra charge that I ended up talking about was the Double White plan, which basically halves the costs you need to pay when talking to AU/Docomo cell users. Hope that helps a bit!

Your situation might be a lot different from mine, but yes the White plan is a relatively new and popular thing here so it seems lol.

The site I was looking at: http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/price_plan/whiteplan/index.html

I was actually trying to cheat a bit when I registered the phone, to get the family plan advertisement to work between me and a couple other friends. Unfortunately that didn't work out for us; but I heard stories of some who were able to do it in the past.

Haha yeah that was what I was talking about... in terms of the mail, its just a difference in sizes. I don't kno what the last two are, because I haven't ever had to use them (the longer mail types). The smaller ones you will be able to tell from any phone you get, I think its just listed as what they call it. The one furthest left is a small text msg, 150 char max limit, and the 2nd one after that called S! Mail is bigger, maybe 1500 char limit? I forgot.

The double White plan seems much better. But.. if I'm not mistaken, doesn't it say that both calls to Softbank users AND others is 50%? Meaning they removed the free Softbank calls?

And don't worry about the texting; the prices aren't too bad. I'll probably end up not adding an extra for that. =]
Now to just find a simple phone...

Oh, and I was implying the 1am to 9pm incentive.

Haha, well I don't actually know how to answer that cuz i haven't lived in japan long enough to get my first phone bill... its coming in a week and a bit time. Guess I'll have to find out exactly how much its costing me then ;D I'm pretty sure they don't remove that free charge for Softbank though, no worries about that haha.

Anyone have any idea where I can find out the prices of these Softbank phones?
Perhaps a website by the carrier or another site that cells the phones at carrier prices? My mother would like to know the costs of the phone I am purchasing. And if it's an older model, I'd probably have to order it specially.

JP - Thanks. I'd really appreciate it though if you could give me some insight about the costs of your bill. Like if you recieved any hidden charges or anything of that sort.

Guess I should backtrack one more time, sorry... info was all scrambled in my mind. This is the payment i did for 300 yen:

A subscription to S! Basic Pack (¥300 [¥315 incl. tax]/month) is required to use the following services.
SoftBank 3G: sending/receiving S! Mail (MMS) with other carriers' handsets, Web, PC Site Direct, PC Site Browser
SoftBank 6–5 Series: sending/receiving Super Mail, Web, Station Charged Channels
SoftBank 4–2 Series: receiving Email/Long Mail/Long Email, Station Charged Channels

Double white costs 980 more. So the total should be around 2300 per month? I suppose its still somewhat reasonable.

I can look when I have more time, in my case I picked up the magazine they had at the front of their store to look through phones and whatnot. For the charges, sure I could email you or something if you're curious. For now, the product information tab on the site could work for browsing!

Again go to the store when you are there and browse around for the phone, you can get a cheap 1 yen model (less than a penny), that does everything you need it to do. Ex. No point in getting a phone with mobile suica if you're not going to use mobile suica.

On plans watch out on the fine print, if you talk for hours and hours a week, and the person you're talking to isn't a softbank subscriber, you're getting charged, and things do add up. Many Japanese people don't talk as much on their phones because its cheaper to message then actually talk.

Remember AU gives you 50% off their plans as a student if you qualify. So continue to browse AU and Softbank, compare contrast see which plans work.

My thoughts exactly John, couldn't have put it better lol. Hope you find what's best for you - and yeah I think my friend is already getting burned by his softbank plan because some of his co-workers call him about work stuff and they're AU. Just make sure you take care and sort things out first.

My e-mail address is kawaiikenta@msn.com for future reference.

Thanks for the info!

The 6-2 series phones look more practical; they also have an English interface. Some parts of the White Plan are only compatible with particular phones... the site does not list any information about 6-2 phones being compatible with the S! Basic Pack.
I will e-mail them asking if it is compatable (hopefully it is.)

The phones I am interested in:
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/2g/304t/index.html
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/2g/502t/index.html
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/2g/403sh/index.html



The best part about these is that all of those extra features are gone, these phones really are basic.


And I just noticed, the Double white plan is from 9PM to 1AM, not 1AM to 9PM. It would be pointless to get that, I would hardly use the phone between those times.

About buying a phone: My situation changed a bit, and it turns out I need to figure out exactly what I'm buying in advance.

Mm the double white plan is as you said, but thats for the Softbank end of things. The main reason why i ended up getting that is so that my costs go down with other people (AU/Docomo). That double white plan applies for half charges around the clock (24 hours) for other phone providers. If you have lots of people who have non-softbank, and you're going to buy a softbank phone yourself, then maybe look into the Double White.

I must be the most persistent member here. I hope my posts haven't annoyed any of you.

Anyway after hours of research I took the three major companies side by side, comparing their M plans with SB's White Plan and came to the conclusion that SB would be the cheapest. Because of the Double White Plan, most of the calls would be halved, therefor I'd save about $10 a month from using Softbank.
Took a lot of calculator work..but thats what I got.

That discussion is closed! (Unless someone has something to say.)

Now I must find out how much Softbank charges 6-2 phones for texting. As far as I know, the S! Basic Pack isn't compatible with 6-2, so if thats the case how much would texting be without it? Softbank is very evasive. They can't even be reached by e-mail.

Again I wouldn't jump to any conclusions before I even stepped a foot into Japan and actually had a look at all the plans in person, and speaking to other people such as your host family to see what plans they may have as well.

Softbank's white plan might look good on paper on the onset but read the fine print. 50% off is 10yen 30/seconds (nothing major spectacular about that) between the hours of 9pm-1am (you might find that a lot of phone calls are made outside of this time frame and therefore subject to the normal costs to other carriers. Remember after the AU 50% student discount plan is applied you pretty much have a whole list of regular plans available at 2300yen or less.

Had a long talk with a Japanese friend of mine, who is an AU subscriber, and he explained to me how it all works. As a final decision I will get a CDMA WIN phone with Plan M. For texting, I will subscribe to the Packet Discount(perfect! Basically a total of $70 a month).

If I'm lucky I may qualify for the Student Discount. I doubt I will, but it doesn't hurt to try.


Sounds good?

Before you choose one of the 1yen cell phones from Softbank (or I think any cellphone company), make sure you are planning to use the entire term of your contract. If you break it, there's a 9,000yen (only 3,000yen if you were a softbank/vodaphone user before the white plan started) cancellation fee, plus you have to pay the price of the phone originally(1yen price is only if you complete the contract). As of 7/2007 the cheapest SB cell phone is 9,800 yen and it's a big ugly monster of a cellphone. Most of the 1yen cell phones they are selling start at 23,000yen and go up from there. They usually won't explain that unless you ask, and be sure they don't set you up with a two year contract either. Otherwise SB plan is really good. As for texting the standard is 300yen/month, it's free to other SB users and 0.3 yen per packet to Send/Recieve non-SB (usual email is about 30-60 packets so about 15 yen/email to non-Soft bank). They also have a text packet discount if you're texting and recieving from non-softbank people a lot for 980yen/month gives you 12,250 packets (so about 150 texts to send and 150 texts recieved from non- Softbank people.) If you go over that it goes up at a rate of 0.08yen per packet sent/recieved until you hit 4,200/month (you'd have be a texting maniac to get that high something like 1,000texts sent/recieved). and everything over is free.

So I am currently in Japan. I just came home from Akihabara and looked at the phones out there. I will go back when my gaijin card is ready. Anyway, I will be going with AU(KDDI) for a couple of reasons. I already dealt with them on the phone when I made a collect call home from a payphone. I liked the service they gave me then. Also the majority of my friends and people I work with are on the AU service. Since they give breaks to within company messages, I will go with them.

Since I was helping you earlier on the thread, I'll just quickly hop in and offer my thoughts.

In your case, I definitely think that AU is the way to go - SB works in my case because almost all the contacts I have are also on SB, and it looks like you found something that will work out for your situation best. Good luck here in Japan!

Thanks for the info!

Actually, I have dealt with KDDI before in the past. Most of the phonecards I bought were KDDI, and the service wasn't too bad.

Finding a decent phone will probably be my biggest hurdle.

TCM - I see how the 1yen phones work now. I really didn't realize that they had a catch like that... I figured they were cheap in order to get rid of them.

Hi nicole and others, really great thread here and I've definitely learnt a few things today.

In regards to the post earlier, why did you end up going with AU compared to SB's white/double white plan? What made you change your mind?

I'm currently on a student VISA (for a bit less than a year) and have looked at mainly AU and SB. Given that I will sign my mates up to SB as well I think the White Plan is too good to pass. I have heard they have a 6 month contract. Can anyone confirm this?

Whereas AU's cheapest plan is still around 20 including Student Discount and no free calls to other AU phones.