Japanese Mobile Phone

[newmiyamoto]

Just bought a japanese mobile phone, foma p2101v and i was wondeing if anyone knew how to use a standard uk sim in it, i know its not generally possible but i thought there was a possibility of a hack. i thought about asking tokuda but he's pretty busy nowadays and i thought i may be able to garner more knowledge by making this an open question.

if not does anyone know where i could ask? a different forum perhaps?

thanks

[Kirby]

Hmm that phone is actually made by Panasonic and 'Foma' is the name for NTT DoCoMo's 3G service.

Generally you cant use euro sims in Japanese phones because most of them dont support GSM 800, 1800 or 900.

I really dont know if you can use that phone over here. You'd have to check if it has any GSM support, if it doesn't i think the only other alternative would be to see if our new new Hutchinson 3G network will allow you to use one of their SIMs in it, although i think that is doubtful.

I dont know much more than that i'm afraid, so i could be wrong and there might be ways to use it over here, however my uncle has to have about 3 phones just so he can use a mobile in Asia/US/Europe

[newmiyamoto]

Hmm that phone is actually made by Panasonic and 'Foma' is the name for NTT DoCoMo's 3G service.

Generally you cant use euro sims in Japanese phones because most of them dont support GSM 800, 1800 or 900.

I really dont know if you can use that phone over here. You'd have to check if it has any GSM support, if it doesn't i think the only other alternative would be to see if our new new Hutchinson 3G network will allow you to use one of their SIMs in it, although i think that is doubtful.

I dont know much more than that i'm afraid, so i could be wrong and there might be ways to use it over here, however my uncle has to have about 3 phones just so he can use a mobile in Asia/US/Europe

thanks man. as usual i can count on kirby for an informative answer. i'm off to search out more info and email hutchinson.

[newmiyamoto]

In May 2001 the world's first 3G cellular network based on W-CDMA technology went live in Tokyo. NTT DoCoMo's FOMA network has since gone commercial, making Japan a test-bed for W-CDMA, which is at the heart of Europe's UMTS standard for 3G. Japan and its neighbour Korea also have commercial cdma2000 3G networks, so the region is an ideal place to compare the two technologies.

from http://www.wireless.iop.org/articles/feature/3/11/2/1

it seems there maybe hope.