droid in japan?
silverjoki
Newbie

so im going to japan for 2 weeks. i know theres the droid global but i dont want to just buy a new phone for 2 weeks. i know verizion has international roaming. for cdma 3g and the others. i'll be in tokyo the whole time. my question is this will the droid roam and if so what services will be available for use? i know theres a charge for everything im not that worried about the charges since its only 2 weeks. thanks for any help.

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Re: droid in japan?
willzzz99
Contributor - Level 3

The good thing is that Japan is a CDMA country.

 

You need to do 2 things:

1. Do a PRL update by dialing *228 then option 2 so the phone has the foriegn SIDs for KDDI (Japanese CDMA 1X/EvDO rA carrier).

2. Call Verizon CSR by dialing *611 and ask to get International Dialing enabled on your account. This way you can make international calls anywhere in the world (whether in Japan or the world).

3. Costs:

http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Roaming/Asia-Pacific/Japan.html

$1.99/minute to ANYWHERE.

If in CDMA mode (all VZW phones) your phone will have CDMA 1X voice service and 1X data service. Verizon does not have a roaming agreement for the higher speed 3G EvDO rA service (native KDDI phones and other phones in Asia do) yet due to network conflicts that now in 02/11 have been solved so this definetly opens roaming for VZW phones of EvDO rA in the future.

Due to network conflicts with the US and Japan if your US VZW phone number sequenece is ONE of the following:

http://b2b.vzw.com/international/pdf/japan_cdma.pdf

You CANNOT roam in Japan and need to get your US phone number changed to one that isn't on that list.

When in Japan roaming on the CDMA 1X voice/data network of KDDI you will be able to receieve text messages but NOT send them due to network conflicts.

When in GSM/WCDMA (3G GSM) mode (option available in the Droid2Global/DroidPro and any other VZW world phone) if you have a VZW world phone you will also have GSM 3G WCDMA UMTS/HSPA+ voice and data service. Verizon has a full roaming agreement with NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank for everything including 3G HSPA+ data.

You need to get the Verizon/Vodafone 2G/3G SIM card activataed through the VZW CSR for the GSM/WCDMA mode.

 

Note that the WCDMA/GSM (3G GSM) carriers in Japan have more coverage than the CDMA 1X/EvDO rA carriers in Japan. This does not matter as said you are staying in a metro/suburban area (Tokyo). If you are travfeling to a rural area in Japan then I recommend getting a world-phone (or anywhere else for that matter).

 

If you have a BB your BB BIS service will work seamlessly in Japan and everywhere too (except for certain countries in the Middle East but that is more political by the host countries mobile operator).

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Re: droid in japan?
willzzz99
Contributor - Level 3

All services are available when roaming on the CDMA 1X network of KDDI in Japan except it will be a little slower with the web browsing since VZW only have a 1X data roaming agreement with KDDI and not their faster EvDO rA network (CDMA2000 3G).

 

GlobalData in Japan:

http://b2b.vzw.com/international/GlobalData/Asia-Pacific/Japan.html

Pay Per Use Plan: $0.02/KB 
THIS CAN ADD UP FAST!!!

 

Your GPS will work in Japan too over the CDMA A-GPS (same tech as Verizon) and obviously native GPS from the satellites. When using A-GPS this will use data similar to VZW in the US (charges are above) so the costs ADD UP QUICK! When calculated they are $20.48/MB! Ask VZW Internatonal Support desk if they have a cheaper Japan data roaming package.

 

CDMA roaming coverage (Japan with KDDI is on the list):

http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Roaming/rates_coverage.html

 

$0.50 / address sent (this does not apply to Japan only due to network conflicts with KDDI's CDMA 1X SMS network that is being resolved shortly.
$0.05 / message received
Text messaging while outside of:
  • United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico
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Re: droid in japan?
willzzz99
Contributor - Level 3

Ok VZW recently updated their international roaming systems. To roam outside of North America and Mexico you also need the International Eligibility feature on your account added by VZW CSR

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