Tokyoites never seem to be without their ketia denwa or mobile phone. On countless trains all over the city you will see many people reading blogs, checking email, playing games or even watching TV on their cell phones.
Having found my iPhone 3GS to be an indispensable tool when traveling I needed to figure out a way I could use my phone in Japan. If you have a 3G+ iPhone you might be able to access the local network through your roaming package from your home carrier, but roaming rates are usually ridiculously expensive and your bill can quickly climb into the thousands of dollars.
My Thai SIM card (True) didn’t connect in Japan so I rented a data SIM card from Global Advanced Communications as well as a iPhone 3GS for my traveling companion. Reserving the iPhone was very easy through their website and the phone was delivered to my hotel the day of my arrival. Both the iPhone and SIM card rental was 8000 Yen each for the week which included unlimited internet access and 1000 Yen airtime minutes. They even included a pre-bent paperclip for me to use to take out my old sim card!
Mobile internet in Japan is extremely fast and having access to my iPhone with all my apps certainly made my trip a lot easier, especially being able to use Google maps to figure out how to get out of the train stations. When my trip was over I put everything back into the included prepaid envelope and dropped it off at the front desk of my hotel.
Renting an iPhone from Global Advanced Communications couldn’t have been easier. Their service is outstanding and I would highly recommend it if you are planning on visiting Tokyo.
Photo: Yohei Yamashita
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13 Responses to “Renting an iPhone in Tokyo Japan”
Leave a Reply
Gerard
03. Jan, 2011
I’m thinking I might materialize in Bangkok before the end of the year. I have an iPhone 4 that is linked to a provider here in Canada (Virgin).
As far as I understand it, I should be able to crack it and when in Thailand buy SIM cards or even a monthly service for it?
Gerard´s recent blog post … Home
Tony Joh
15. Jan, 2011
Yes I’m sure you can find someone who would be willing to unlock it but if they brick it don’t expect a refund or any help.
Japan Australia
15. Jan, 2011
Thanks for that information as it was really useful. How are you finding the iPhone? Have you had any problems using it?
Japan Australia´s recent blog post … Cooking Japanese Food
Tony Joh
15. Jan, 2011
No problems at all. The only thing I noticed was that the maps feature had a hard time triangulating my position sometime. It wasn’t as accurate as here in Bangkok. My guess is because of all the radio wave interference.
Vig
09. Feb, 2011
Hey Mate,
Did Global Advanced Communications simcard with unlimated data allow you to use voice call skype?
Tony Joh
09. Feb, 2011
Good question and that’s something I didn’t test while I was there. I did email the company though and they said that you can make skype calls.
Vig
10. Feb, 2011
Thanks mate. I found GAC through some google searching, and thank god I managed to find your review, adds some legitimacy to their online site! I’m from New Zealand so it’s pretty damn hard working out what’s a good offer, especially over the internet.
Anyways thanks mate, great site btw!
Oh and last question, their site says they cover 99% of metropolitan Japan and accordingly did you manage to use their services elsewhere in Japan? Did you notice any quality loss? Or only localized to Tokyo?
Thanks in advance mate.
Tony Joh
10. Feb, 2011
When I used it I was only in Tokyo and so I don’t know about outer areas but it worked fine in Tokyo. Service was good but the internet wasn’t as super fast as I thought it would be. It was decent, especially compared to Thailand but some of my J-friends had much faster access.
Over all I’m super happy with the company, especially with the fact that they deliver the phones directly to my hotel. After I’m done I just leave it with the hotel front desk and it goes back to them, couldn’t be easier.
Meg
10. Feb, 2011
Hey Tony,
Thanks for the video its very helpful. Since it costs the same renting the iphone vs renting the sim card for the iphone. what are the benefits of bringing your own iphone and use the sim card only (assuming i do jailbreak my non japan iphone)? Is it because all my apps i bought with my non japan iphone will stay on the iphone and if i replace it with the sim card, i can still use those applications?
Thanks
Tony Joh
10. Feb, 2011
Hey Meg, yes the benefit for me was that I could use my own phone with all my apps as you can’t install any apps on the phone you rent from them.
I use the IM app WhatsApp a lot so it was great to be able to still use that and talk to friends back in Thailand while I was in Japan.
The rental phone is fine but it comes with just the standard apps from Apple.
Alyssa
16. Feb, 2011
Hey Tony!
Are you sure you can’t install apps on the phone you rent from them? I just emailed them and they said I could.. I don’t want to rent the phone if I can’t install skype on it…
Alyssa
Tony Joh
16. Feb, 2011
I could be wrong. My friend tried it on her PC and it didn’t work so it could be something wrong with her PC. If they say you can I would believe them.
Meg
11. Feb, 2011
great! thanks for the quick reply!