Job Discussion Forums

zander7990 · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 65

Hello ppl. Does anyone know where I can buy a used phone line here in Japan or where I can look?? I know that to buy a new one is so expensive and I heard that ppl sell their lines before they leave japan to shops or something. I just moved to a new apt and it has a jack but I want to get adsl hooked up so I figured I need to get a phone line in order to get the internet and use yahoo BB.

Help pleaz.

Mike L. · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 519

Look for the job magazine "Hot Pepper" that's where I found and ad for the line I've got now.

I paid 26,000 yen for it. Maybe cheaper now.

carmenz · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 20

FYI.....Now you can rent a phone line through NTT. I pay about 1,000 Yen a month to rent one (not including other regular phone charges that bring my bill up to about 2,300 Yen a month). You need to already have the wiring in your house and they can install your new line for 2,000 to 10,000 Yen --depending on your current set-up.

As far as I can tell, there are no other hidden charges. I guess if you were planning on living in Japan for a while and needed to pay 10,000 Yen for the hook-up and then 1,000 per month for the line....and could find a cheap one to buy, it might be better in the long run to buy a used line...I guess that depends on your situation.

There are English operators for NTT in Tokyo that you can talk to.

carmenz · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 20

By the way, I also have Yahoo BB and it is great! I can call the US for about 2 Yen per minute. I can talk for hours and it has barely made a dent in my phone bill recently.

zander7990 · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 65

well, i plan on living here for at least 2 years if not more, so getting a phone line here is very important so that I can access the internet. Would anyone know if there is anyway you can get yahoo BB without buying the rights to a phoneline or renting a phoneline??

carmenz · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 20

As far as I know you need the phone line. You plug one phone cord into your phone jack, then you plug that into the modem (seperate from your computer). Next you take another phone cord and plug that into your phone. There is no actual dialing (as far as I know).
You can look on your modem and there is a display of lights that flash on when the BB phone is hooked on and other mechanisms (but the other mechanisms are in Kanji, so I am not really clear what happens when the lights switch on for them.)

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

Iwantmyrightsnow · Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 202

zander7990 · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 65

sorry for being a little vague there. wat i meant to say was is there any way i can hook up with a company like yahoo bb and not buy a phone line but have them include it in the cost or something. that way, i dont have to own it or rent a phone line from NTT and then go to yahoo bb and then rent their modem. just one bill.

Iwantmyrightsnow · Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 202

Yahoo BB can't do it but JCom does.

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

On the topic of NTT phone lines, if renting a line comes to about 1,000 yen a month and other incidentals to 2,300 yen a month then why is that about what I pay each month for my NTT line that I BOUGHT?

I have been puzzled for some time as I bought the line some years back when I moved to Japan. I bought it from the previous teacher at the first school I worked at. Yet when I use an international call provider I usually get a bill with the name of the guy I bought the phone from some years ago.

I am worried - does this mean that although I went to NTT with this guy and did what I thought was becoming the new owner (including coughing up over 60,000 yen) with him, the phone really has not been tranferred over to me all this time? I note that I still have to pay a rental charge each month - is that usual when you have bought the telephone line?

J. · Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 327

Yeah, the phone bills are confusing. I rent a line and have NTT as my long distance carrier and my Internet provider-- the Flets ADSL thing and my phone bill comes to about 6100 a month. (Without long-distance charges.) That's including the modem rental, the basic fee for monthly service and the other and sundry rental add-on fees. Then I have to pay an Internet Provider about 3000 for the connection. I think it all costs too much and I would like to get Yahoo BB or something cheaper but there's the language barrier. I basically got service with NTT because they provide it in English. I also have MyLine for long distance and I would say to cafebleu that maybe the carrier for his/ her long distance service remains in the name of the guy he bought the line from. In Japan, long distance service is almost a separate service and can be coming from another company than NTT. If you didn't switch it to your name, then you are using the other guy's account. The rental charge you are worried about might be not for the phone line but for basic service, an extra line, a modem, anything. If it's NTT, try phoning the English service number and get an English operator to translate your questions to NTT. Good luck!

The number is ( according to the website): 0120-364-463