I am on sprint and they will carry the tour - will this phone work in Japan? i know japan has their own network - UMTS and the specs say this for the Tour but I haven't known sprint to have agreements with many countries like AT&T. I'm trying to decide if I should switch carriers - I was before I saw the Tour coming out on Sprint
Japan is NOT listed as a country in which the Tour will work - which surprises me.
but the RIM website suggests that it's list of what countries the Tour will work in won't be as up to date as the service provider's website - although Vzw doesn't yet have such a site up yet, that i can find online anyhow.
does anyone have reason to believe that the RIM website could be incorrect? I hope that is indeed the case...
I'll be trying it in September. If it doesn't work, it's not a show-stopper for me but from reading the specs and digging around on the 'net for some time, I think it will.
Things have been changing recently in Japan as far as cel networks go.
Sadly very few phones purchased outside Japan work in Japan. I will be going there possibly at the end of August and will find out for sure then. If Japan uses the same UMTS 2100 freqs that are used in Europe and everywhere else then it should, if not then it won't work. I haven't been able to find anything that says they are different.
I don't have the Tour but when I was checking one out, the Store Rep said it would work in Japan as he spouted off the frequencies it supported. That does not mean he was correct but ....
I am leaving for Japan this Friday and have a Blackberry Tour.
I signed up for the temporary email/data plan for $2.17/day - the global rep told me that this would cover email/internet/bbm for unlimited use. I know that the data will work as long as the verizon sim card is in place and that Japan uses GSM for data. Is this all correct?
I also unlocked the phone and the rep told me that I would be able to use a Japan GSM card to make phone calls while over there. This is where I got confused. I thought that Japan uses the UMTS network and therefore they wouldn't have a sim card for phone use. The tour does supposrt this network for phone calls but I'd be charged at verizon rates is this correct? The rep told me that I could just swap sim cards for phone use.
Has anyone had any experience using the tour for both data (via vzw sim) and phone (via unlocked sim) or have any suggestions on how to not get charged a ton of money? Should I just rent a phone over there for the few calls I might make and use the tour for data, especially google maps?