The Nikkei is reporting (J; try here for the full article) that the first phone that Softbank Mobile will unlock is going to be the 008Z by ZTE. This is a "simple smartphone" that is designed to ease the transition for users of galapagos feature phones. Details are scarce other than the price for unlocking will be the same as Docomo (¥3,150), current phones won't be unlocked, and the iPhone will be excluded.
Nothing surprising there.
Docomo has still yet to announce a list of unlocked phones that it determines are incapable of tethering and therefore subject to the a reasonable data price. I am expecting that the first phone on that list will be the 008Z, but We'll just have to wait and see.
I would have guessed that they wouldn't included the iPhone .. it's only Softbanks real money maker
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's been mentioned on this site before, but docomo seems to be having problems with it's unlocking. stupidly after my galaxy s2 was unlocked I didn't bother to check until much later if it had worked, and it hadn't. I took it back to docomo and they insisted it was softbank's (the sim I tried) fault and that they needed to input the sim unlock code. Of course I knew that wasn't the case but I asked softbank and they understandably said it was nothing to do with them.
ReplyDeletedocomo eventually accepted it was their responsibility and sent it of to be fixed giving me a temporary unlocked replacement, but it took 2 days to get to that point and they still don't know why it won't unlock.
Anyway the point of this rambling complaint is just to say be careful if you get docomo to unlock, make sure it's worked otherwise you may pay 3000 yen for nothing. Anyone else have this problem?
Here it is!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.j-phone.ru/news/188-008zsbunlock.html
Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't heard about that. I'll keep a look out for reports.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletemy questions is very simple:
can I buy ONLY a softbank prepaid USIM card and used with my overseas phone. I'm trying that but the staff for several Softbank shops told me that is not possible?
Note:
- My phone is 3G
- a prepaid Softbank USIM card is working. I have already check that with my friend's card.
Thank you.
Bye,
V
I don't know.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the bmobile SIMs - you should have no problem getting one of those.