How can I make sure whatever phone I buy in Japan will work with my Roger's SIM card?

December 21, 2007 5:36 PM

I am in Japan and want to buy a new cellphone to take back to Canada. I have an existing plan with Rogers in Canada, and I want to take the SIM card from my crappy Motorola and put it into a new phone brought back from Japan. How can I make sure whatever phone I buy will work with my Roger's SIM card?

Basically, I just want to buy a functional clamshell phone because I hate the Motorola phone I have - the ringer buttons are all on the outside of the phone body, so my ringer is frequently turned off. It would be nice to have my Japanese phone be able to do some text messaging, but it's not important. I just want to make phone calls.

posted by KokuRyu to technology (7 comments total)

Chances are that an unlocked Japanese GSM phone will work on the Rogers network with your SIM, but there's no way to guarantee that.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 5:39 PM on December 21, 2007

Errr... Japan really doesn't have GSM coverage. It's almost all CDMA.
posted by nathan_teske at 5:44 PM on December 21, 2007

Rogers is GSM 850/1900. Japan doesn't do GSM. So you're looking for sellers who cater to travellers: airport duty-free stores, and a few other places. Because no Japanese operator uses GSM, you shouldn't find legitimate sellers offering vendor-locked phones. But you'll still be paying Japanese prices for something that's not made for the Japanese market, and thus isn't subject to market pressure.
posted by holgate at 5:51 PM on December 21, 2007

(i.e. if you're prepared to play the customs lottery, either in Japan or Canada, you'd be better off going to an eBay seller in Hong Kong or Singapore -- where they use GSM, albeit of the 900/1800 variety.)
posted by holgate at 5:56 PM on December 21, 2007

holgate is somewhat mistaken; Japan is mostly WCDMA, but some SoftBank phones have built-in GSM roaming capabilities for use on the 1900 MHz band. In theory, you should be able to use another SIM card in an unlocked handset.

However, the probability of being able to get an unlocked phone in Japan is slim to nil, even if you pay the full price of the phone up front. I have never tried to do such a thing, so it may not be possible. A friend of mine was able to bring back his unlocked Vodafone Japan 3G handset with an American SIM card when he returned to the US, however -- I witnessed it with my own eyes.

(Disclaimer: I work in the Japanese mobile phone industry.)
posted by armage at 11:29 PM on December 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

Note this important bit from holgate's link:

SoftBank 3G phones (except 802N, 703N and 905SH) and DoCoMo "FOMA" roaming-ready phones:
They work with your local GSM networks. But you cannot use them with your local operator's subscription because they do not accept other operators' SIM cards.

So yes, you will need to get it unlocked somehow with a third-party. SoftBank will almost certainly not do this for you, nor will the manufacturer.
posted by armage at 11:35 PM on December 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

I stand corrected and newly-informed, armage. (And armage deserves the best answer for this, really.)
posted by holgate at 8:31 AM on December 22, 2007