Prepaid In Japan

[Effendi]

Hello,
I received an e-mail asking for help about prepaid W-CDMA in Japan. I wrote back but a stupid antispam filter of comcast refuses to deliver the mail and put my ip on a black-list and it seems there's no way to solve it, unless spending too much time in something I really don't care.

Anyway, if the lady who wrote me the e-mail reads the forum she can find solutions here in this thread.

Here is her e-mail:

Hi... I'm confused and I'm wondering if you could offer a suggestion. I have an unlocked Motorola V3x with both GSM 900/1800/1900 and WCDMA 2100. I know that Japan uses 3G technology and not GSM, so I know that the GSM capabilities of my phone are of no use to me in Japan. What I'm confused about is what kind of SIM card WILL work for me there? I've looked at your site and read all I can find on the forum, but I'm still not totally clear. Is a SIM card the same no matter if it's GSM or WCDMA? Do SIM card brands work for just one or the other?

Is this statement from your site still accurate:

By now there is no prepaid offer on W-CDMA, so the best way to use a dual-mode GSM/UMTS phone in Japan is with a United Mobile prepaid card. The strange fact is that officially there should be no roaming in Japan, but our friends Donald and Stu used their Riiing (now UM) card there with no problems, so we can actually say that it works. Travelsim also states that it works in Japan, with free incoming calls, but no one of our friends have tried by now.

So, am I reading correctly, that your recommendation is to use a United Mobile prepaid GSM card? Or possibly a Travelsim card? And this is because Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo don't have 3G SIM cards?

I guess, all in all, I'm looking for a definitive recommendation on a SIM card to use in Japan with my Motorola V3x. I really appreciate any advice or suggestions you can offer.

and here is my answer which never arrived...

Hi,
the problem with Japan is that there are no prepaid offers on the 3G networks, so you cannot buy a Japanese prepaid card, simply because it doesn't exist. So if you want to use your V3x phone the only choices you have are:
- using your local sim card with high roaming prices (if your operator has roaming agreements in Japan)
- using United Mobile, with unknown rates, but still rather high
- using Travelsim, with free incoming calls (someone tested it recently, if I'm not wrong).

So the best option, by far, would be to buy a Travelsim sim-card which has an Estonian number but which should work well, and with free incoming calls, in Japan.
In order to be sure about it I suggest you to open a new discussion on our Forum asking about Travelsim and United Mobile in Japan. There are some American guys which often go there, so they can surely help you more than me.

If you have any question feel free to write me as well.
Bye!

If our Japanese experts have something to add and/or to correct me, feel free to help!
Thanks!