Text 11474, 76 rader
Skriven 2005-08-07 10:25:05 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
  Kommentar till text 11407 av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
Ärende: Cell phones
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*** Quoting Ross Cassell from a message to Ward Dossche ***


 WD> So you have to pay extra in order to be able to roam? And if you don't
 WD> roam for a certain period that is lost money?

 WD> How primitive indeed...

RC> Its all in the price plan one chooses..

Exactly.  I can get a Japan plan with a set fee, but not for 8$USA a month per
phone.  It's been a bit since I checked on the set plans here but if you will
excuse a little 'estimating' this is what I recall:

Basic: 120 (180?) minutes free dial on Kyushu (Island i live on).  Can be used
to dial anyplace else in Japan at the rate of 3 minutes 'spent' per minute
dialed.  Comes with a child financial saftey set option to just stop working
outbound once the minutes run out.  Leave that option off, and every minute
past your set plan is 10yen.  This plan is about 2,000 yen a month or roughly
20$ at today's exchange rate.  Extremely popular plan for the average user who
doesnt travel much but uses the phone more than 60 minutes a month.

Premium: 250 minutes local Kyushu, 100 minutes of that can be Japan wide with
no offset in 'price' as it's a direct swap.  Additional minutes are 7yen for
Kyushu and 10yen for Japan wide?  Very popular plan for the small businessman
or chatty person and you can combine it with extra cards to add more minutes
at 5yen per local minute.  The extra minutes loaded by prepaid card, do not
expire for a year.  3,000yen a month?

Business Class: no limit on local Kyushu calls.  I think it was 3,000yen
allowance a month for international dials (how many minutes would depend on
where you dial).  I forget the amount of Japan calls outside Kyushu but it was
generous.  6,000yen?  Can load extra minutes by prepaid card for a cheaper
rate as in the premium, but if you go over on internsational dial there's
almost no difference in charges between the extra cards and the rate charged. 
I think the difference was only 1 yen per minute?  Obviously perfect for a
person who conducts a lot of business by phone.  Realtors etc.

Star class:  (Name varies).  This comes with all the above Business class and
includes the option of something like a 1-800 type call (caller billed only
lowest local rate no matter where in Japan they call you from) and something
close to a 1-900 type system where you can bill people who call you.  Have no
clue how much this one was.  Obviously nothing I needed <g>.

The largest market here though is the pre-paid phone, where you buy minutes and
dial 1400 and load them in. Once you run out of minutes, the phone stops being
able to be used (might be able to dial 911 equal but not sure).  Phone number
will also expire in a few months if you do not load in a card but you can take
the phone to a dealer and have a new one set in it if that happens.  Don's
cell is our primary listed one for that reason as i can be gone out of the
area long enough for this to happen (like that 8 month Gulf cruise).  The
rates per minute are fairly high at 10yen 'local' and 'local' this time is not
Kyushu wide but for low-volume users who like I, average 1 minute a day (Hi
Don, running late, I'll be home around 5pm, need anything?  Carol, running low
on milk, Love Ya! 'click') it's dirt cheap.  The only reason we average 25$ a
month for the 3 cells is my frequent calls from Okinawa or Don's to me when I
am in Okinawa.  (I am in Okinawa 8 times a year at least).

Grin, hope that explains some Japan versions.  The 'pre-paid' phone has no
monthly charges.  I recall the USA had those too just as i was leaving so
imagine they are still out there.  The rates per minute may be higher, but if
you think about how and when you use the cell, it's actually often the
cheapest way to go!  Has one other nice frill.  You cant get scammed by 1-900
type operations billing you back.  The worst that can happen is your pre-paid
minutes get sucked dry whereas all the other plans can (and it's bad in Japan)
result in huge bills unexpected if your dumb enough to dial back that 'missed
call' without knowing who it was from.  There's been scams like that out here
that bill to 1,000$ (not yen, $$$$).  Japan legal services have no answer as
it's dialer-beware and legal here to do that.  (Dont worry, pisses ff the
Japanese too that it's legal and they are trying to change the law so it is
illegal).

                                       xxcarol

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