Job Discussion Forums

[allyismycopilot]

I need to get a good plan for my wife and myself. We don't give a hoot about fancy features. lol.

I was going to go with Vodafone but I now hear they are shutting down.

Any suggestions?

[canuck]

[macondo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4815732.stm

Looks like it's not going out of business in general, but is selling off its Japanese subsidiary.

[allyismycopilot]

Shouild have been more specific... i.e. shutting down operations in Japan. lol.

Does anyone use DoCoMo or Au?

[Hoser]

I use AU. My plan is relatively cheap although I cant remember exactly what it is. It barely has any talking time minutes which is fine because I basically text. It usually costs me about 3900 yen a month.

[kitano]

I use AU with my sweetie and we get a `family` deal that makes it overall very cheap but also super cheap when we phone each other, I`ve never had any problems in 5 years and my bills are always way lower than my friends.

[justuspost]

I am in Tokyo now and also am wondering not only about good cell phone plans but also about calling international. My g/f paid about 20,000yen last month calling me in USA and was using a calling card. I dont know all the details, but that is unacceptable for me to call usa to my family and such.

Any advice on cheap cells, good plans and cheap calls to usa?

Thanks

Justus

[canuck]

[JimDunlop2]

Alternatively, if you don't have regular access to a high-speed Internet connection (which is what you need for setups like Skype or YahooBB phone to work), consider using Brastel. I use them -- works great! The rates are fairly innexpensive too.

http://www.brastel.com/Pages/eng/Home/ is the link.

However if you choose to use Brastel, although you can use it from any phone (cell phone, payphone, land phone) it's by far the cheapest to call from a land-based line...

P.S. to the OP -- my wife and I use AU. AU has a family plan (as do the other companies) but before we signed up, I went to A LOT of trouble to write everything out for each company and compare all the prices side-by-side. We chose AU over DoCoMo and Vodafone because AU's family plan was the cheapest. The second place competitor for lowest price was Tu-Ka. They're kinda the underdog in the hyper-competitive Japanese keitai industry, but I've always had positive experiences with Tu-ka. I still have a pre-paid Tu-ka phone which I lend out to friends or to friends and family members of friends who come to Japan to visit only for a few weeks. I lend out my phone freely as long as they are willing to charge up the card with minutes themselves.

[allyismycopilot]

Thanks Jim. Does Au have an english website with the plan details that you know of? Perusing through Japanese sites is fine but when I need specific details my Japanese isn't up to par.

[JimDunlop2]

Not to my best knowledge... HOWEVER, much to their credit, AU DOES have both product AND service catalogues printed in English -- so if you take a trip to your local AU shop and request that, you can get all the goods in English.

Actually, on second thought, after I typed in the above statement, I just remembered that they also have SOME parts of their website in English, but I don't think its as comprehensive as the Japanese....

http://www.au.kddi.com/english/site_map/index.html


Third edit: I visited the site I linked to above.... They've really come a long ways since the last time I visited it. There is MUCH more English info than ever before. Wow! Ok.... Maybe you CAN get all the info you need online.