[butrfly216]

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

[Tyrrell117]

I know nothing of UTMS, but if the Tour supports it, you can buy a pay as you go SIM card or something like it from a carrier in Japan.

Though you should check ahead of time to make sure Japan carriers have such a thing.

[Grifter3000]

According to this link on RIM's website:
BlackBerry - Wifi PDA - Wi-Fi Enabled BlackBerry Smartphones - Wireless Networking

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...

[KelvinZ]

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.

KZ

[lnichols]

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.

[observer]

My Bold works in Japan, curious if the Tour works as well.

[FF22]

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 ....

[lastraid]

Japan has converted more in the major cities at this time to CDMA technology for voice. Still SIM cards for data.

[blue rocket]

it will work, i just changed my BB plan to international, VZW let me know it should work just fine.

i'm off to tokyo this friday...

[KelvinZ]

According to the Sprint website, it will work. Though I'm going to try and get a prepaid SIM to have a local number there.

KZ

[observer]

I was told by Telus (CDMA provider in Canada) that there will be only voice on the Tour, no data in Japan.

[rmandi01]

Sorry to re-hash this topic...

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?

Thanks in advance!