vB Easy Archive - do kddi mobile phones work in the US?

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do kddi mobile phones work in the US?
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Posted by: lifeintheeast

kddi phones...phones from japan in general...are awesome and i was wondering if any of them work in the US.

if so, where can i buy one??

Posted by: lamplighter

Hello- These phones will not work outside of Japan, under any circumstance.
You can purchase one but you will not be able to use it as a phone.

LL-

Posted by: yangj08

Actually, they can- if you can afford a KDDI contract. I know I have seen japanese tourists around Shanghai making phone calls with KDDI phones- I asked one and it seems that it has to be a "Global Passport" phone (like the A5505SA). Ebay China has them, along with data cables to program them with non-Japanese network data(but I can't comment on their effectiveness since I didn't buy one).

Posted by: AL9999

The problem is the Global Passport phones suck. They're very old now, only support 1xRTT and have little useful features that would make you want to own them.

But no, the WIN phones all don't work outside Japan, because KDDI changed the underlying CDMA technology from the int'l standard slightly (namely, they reversed the bands which the phones transmit and receive on).

Posted by: yangj08

Eh- it's still better than what a lot of China has- and at bargain prices too. I can find the A5505SA for about $60 on eBay China- it has a pretty good price tag for its feature set (I remember that it has GPS, FM Radio, and a megapixel camera). They're actually not that bad (well- China doesn't have EVDO, so I'm not sure what I'm missing out on) if the programming cables actually work. Of course, eBay China is a little tricky to navigate- the PHS section is filled with people selling PDC and Japanese CDMA phones that they claimed were physically modified to use PHS (not sure whether to believe them or not, but I'm leaning toward not) and people attempting to sell FOMA phones and claim that they are unlocked and good to use in China, which doesn't even have a 3G network. I have pretty much given up on eBay for this reason.